【正文】 st that certain types of control system will be suited to particular strategies。 Otley 1980). However, the selection of the characteristics may not be the only set of variables that might have an effect on internal control structure but the characteristics are considered relevant and are widely examined in control literature (Chenhall 2020). Next, this paper reviews the related literature for each contingency characteristic and develops its first four research questions. 4 Strategy Otley (1980) and Dermer (1977) state that the business strategy should be one of the main features in accounting control system design. Depending on the firm’s strategy, as noted by Miller et al. (1986), Miles and Snow (1978) and Porter (1980), control systems are used in different ways. For example, Simons (1990) found evidence that firms employ accounting control systems in dissimilar ways if they use different strategies. While these earlier studies suggest that different types of firm strategies tend to cause different control system configurations, strategies may also cause some differences in internal control. However, empirical studies conducted to date have not yielded any firm conclusions about the nature of the most appropriate connections between strategies and control (., 1999) The Miles and Snow (1978) typology was adopted in this study。Hoque and James 2020。 Mills 1997). Stringer and Carey (2020) examines all five ponents but use a qualitative approach and examine the ponents separately. In this study internal control ponents and observed effectiveness are used as latent variables in the analysis. It should be noted that the level of analysis is theoretical and specific individual controls or judgments are not the main focus of the study (see for example Felix and Niles 1988。 Simons 1987。 Chenhall 2020) and in this paper, the literature is reviewed along with an analysis of the research based on these studies. The aim is to use contingency theory to understand characteristics affecting internal control structures and its observed effectiveness rather than to elaborate on contingency theory as such. Figure 1 illustrates the research framework based on contingency theory and internal control frameworks. The relationships between three sets of variables—the contingency characteristics, the internal control structure and the observed effectiveness—are the focus of this research. The first four research questions (RQ1–RQ4) aim to test if contingency characteristics (strategy, size, organizational structure and environmental uncertainty) affect the internal control structure. There is evidence in earlier management control studies (for example Chenhall 2020。 Selto and Widener 2020). With a few exceptions (.,Stringer and Carey 2020) earlier studies have usually concentrated on particular control elements, such as the control environment (Aquila 1998), munication (Hooks et al. 1994) or risk assessment (Mills 1997). In this study the internal control concept is examined as a whole in different contexts. Second, the action of contingency theory on internal control has not been examined sufficiently within the prior literature even though that relationship plays a critical role in better understanding internal control within organizations. Third, there is a lack of knowledge about internal control from the point of view of management. The literature has so far concentrated on the external parties’view (Felix 1998), although organizing internal control in the organization is in fact the responsibility of management. Therefore, in this study the perceptions of the management of the surveyed firms are the focus. Fourth, this study examines important contingency characteristics that should be taken into account when focusing on the internal control in an organization. The aim is to determine which characteristics are helpful in explaining variations in an internal control system and its observed effectiveness. However, the model examined, yields different results w hen examined in a bivariate or in a multivariate setting. Therefore, this paper demonstrates how a contingency approach and SEM technique may be applied to internal control research. Understanding monalities and differences in internal control structures and observed effectiveness in alternative contexts makes a significant contribution to the internal control discussion. Thus, the study provides a means to identify the special needs of different organizations. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. The next section presents a research framework and the following section presents definitions of constructs and the literature related to the research questions. The fourth section explains the survey design and measurement of variables. Following that, the paper elaborates on the empirical