The antecedents of the use of continuous auditing in the internal auditing context

George C. Gonzalez, Pratyush N. Sharma and Dennis F. Galletta

International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 2012, vol. 13, issue 3, 248-262

Abstract: The concept of continuous auditing originated over two decades ago. Yet despite its much touted benefits, its acceptance and use in practice has been slow. To gain insight into the state of affairs, we surveyed 210 internal auditors worldwide on the status of their use of continuous auditing. Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) we explore the antecedents of internal auditors' intentions to use continuous auditing technology. Employing the Partial Least Squares method, we find strong support for the model with an R2 of 44.3%. Specifically, we find that internal auditors' perceptions of effort expectancy and social influence are significant predictors of their intentions to use continuous auditing. We also find that annual sales volume of the company and voluntariness of use significantly moderate the relationship between performance expectancy and social influence respectively. Additionally, we find regional differences in the significance of key UTAUT antecedents. Specifically, we find that the North American internal auditors are more likely to use continuous auditing due to soft social coercion pressures of Social Influence through peers and higher authorities. On the other hand, Middle Eastern auditors are more likely to use the technology if it is mandated by the higher authorities.

Keywords: Continuous auditing; Continuous assurance; Internal auditing; UTAUT; Technology use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1467089512000401
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ijoais:v:13:y:2012:i:3:p:248-262

DOI: 10.1016/j.accinf.2012.06.009

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Accounting Information Systems is currently edited by S.V. Grabski

More articles in International Journal of Accounting Information Systems from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().