The Role of Internal Audit, Whistleblowing Systems, and Ethical Culture in Fraud Prevention: Evidence fromIndonesian Shipping Companies

Fraud remains a persistent challenge in the shipping industry due to complex operations, ‎geographically dispersed activities, and high-value transactions. While internal audit, ‎whistleblowing systems, and ethical culture are widely recognised as key fraud prevention ‎mechanisms, empirical evidence examining their combined effectiveness within the shipping ‎industry, particularly in emerging economies, remains limited. This study investigates the ‎influence of internal audit quality, whistleblowing systems, and organizational ethical culture ‎on fraud prevention in Indonesian shipping companies. Using a survey-based research design, ‎data were collected from 306 employees across multiple shipping companies and analysed ‎using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate ‎that internal audit quality has a significant but relatively weak effect on fraud prevention, ‎whereas whistleblowing systems and ethical culture exert significant and moderate effects. ‎Notably, ethical culture emerges as the strongest predictor of fraud prevention, suggesting that ‎informal control mechanisms may play a more decisive role than formal controls in complex ‎operational environments. This study contributes to the fraud and governance literature by ‎integrating internal audit, whistleblowing systems, and ethical culture into a single empirical ‎model within the under-researched context of the shipping industry. The findings offer ‎practical insights for shipping companies by highlighting the need to align formal assurance ‎mechanisms with a strong ethical culture to enhance fraud prevention effectiveness‎.