Adoption of Computer Assisted Audit Tools and Techniques (CAATTs) by Internal Auditors: Current issues in the UK

Adoption of Computer Assisted Audit Techniques and Tools (CAATTs) has not only become a beneficial choice for some businesses, but has become a fundamental part of many audit methodologies. (CICA, 1994; Progrob, Isenberg, 1999; Paukowits, 2000; Hudson, 1998). However, little is known about the adoption process for these tools. This research posits that further knowledge about the motivations for successful adoption of CAATTs may be contained in general literature on IT adoption activity. It also argues this could be usefully supplemented to address wider implementation and operational issues by better understanding of existing practices of internal audit departments who use CAATTs extensively to illustrate best practice in this field that others could benefit from. This paper therefore reviews, then makes use of, current theories that are seeking to better understand IT adoption processes (in particular, the most recent unified theory called the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology - UTAUT) and explores the application of this theory to the specialized domain of CAATTs adoption for internal audit. This is undertaken initially using a survey instrument to collect quantitative data on the potential applicability of this theory. Building on the results of this survey, a series of ten mini-case studies is then used to add qualitative depth to the survey results. Using a combination of these two approaches, a model of successful CAATTs adoption by internal auditors is then proposed. This resulting model is comprised of four dimensions covering the issues of; factors influencing motivation, best practices of implementation, performance measurement criteria and challenges that can become barriers to successful implementation. This paper details the theoretical foundations used for the development of this model, details the empirics used to explore the motivational theory for adoption, presents the resulting model and illustrates the validation performed on the model.

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