Implications to the Audit Process of Auditing that uses Data Analytics Tools and New Business Models

Tatenda Mugwira fra Handelshøyskolen ved UiA disputerer for ph.d.-graden med avhandlingen «Implications to the Audit Process of Auditing that uses Data Analytics Tools and New Business Models» torsdag 27. april 2023.

Han har fulgt doktorgradsprogrammet ved Handelshøyskolen ved Universitetet i Agder.

Slik oppsummerer Tatenda Mugwira selv avhandlingen:

New advances in information technology have created a wave of technological innovations which affect the audit firms. Audit firms are now investing large sums of money to acquire and adopt data analytics tools. Using three studies in this dissertation, I investigated questions relating to the impact of digital tools in the audit process. These studies are briefly summarized below.

The first study investigates whether the audit evidence from a process mining tool provides information that adds to the appropriateness (relevance) of the audit evidence collected by traditional analytical procedures. The results shows that auditors do perceive evidence from a process mining tool to express information that is relevant for both the planning and substantive stages of the audit even though the auditor’s risk assessment was higher in the substantive stage as compared to the planning stage. In addition, the results also shows that there was no difference in the auditor’s assessment of the relevance of the information presented in graph format and in written text format as both are considered equally relevant in the planning and substantive stages.

The second study investigates the unintended consequences in auditor’s decision making of using digital tools with powerful visualization abilities in the audit process. Specifically, the study investigates whether auditors make their decisions based on the relevance of the information to the decision to be made when using both visual audit evidence and text evidence or their decision will be based on a bias. The results shows that when auditors are presented with different information presented in different formats (visual or text), they are most likely to use the piece of information presented in visual rather than using the piece of audit evidence which is relevant to the decision.

The third paper analyses the fraud case of a financial technology company Wirecard using the fraud triangle as the theoretical framework. The results shows that of the three factors identified in the fraud triangle, opportunity was the most prevalent factor and rationalization was least observable.

Implications of the study

The overall implications of the dissertation is that digital tools can provide information which is useful in the audit process as they provide relevant information which adds to the appropriateness (relevance) of information already contained in the traditional analytical procedures. However, the dissertation informs the reader that in as much as the digital tools (especially those with strong visual abilities) bring these benefits to the auditor’s decision-making process, these tools are still prone to judgment bias which might unintentionally jeopardize the benefits associated with visual audit evidence.

Slik gjør du som online publikum:

Disputasen er åpen for alle, men for å følge prøveforelesning og disputas digitalt må du melde deg som publikummer på denne lenken:

https://uiano.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5ckdOigrDojHtLkaNAbkdT3-LxGGTzLH7E3

Du får en Zoom-lenke i retur. (Her er framgangsmåten for å bruke Zoom: support.zoom.us om du ikke kommer inn ved å klikke på lenken.)

Vi ber online publikum om å ankomme digitalt tidligst ti minutter før oppgitt tid - det vil si til prøveforelesningen 10:05 og disputasen tidligst 11:50. Etter disse klokkeslettene kan du når som helst forlate og komme inn igjen i disputasen. Videre ber vi om at online publikum slår av mikrofon og kamera, og har dette avslått under hele arrangementet. Det gjør du nederst til venstre i bildet når du er i Zoom. Vi anbefaler å velge «Speaker view». Dette velger du oppe til høyre i bildet når du er i Zoom.

Opponent ex auditorio:

Disputasleder inviterer til spørsmål ex auditorio i innledningen i disputasen. Tidsfrist for å stille spørsmål er senest i løpet av pausen mellom opponentene. Den som stiller spørsmål bør ha lest avhandlingen. Kontaktpersonens e-post er tilgjengelig i chat-funksjonen under disputasen, og spørsmål ex auditorio fra online publikum kan sendes til Gunvor Guttormsen på e-post  gunvor.guttormsen@uia.no  Ved spørsmål ex auditorio fra salen henvender spørsmålsstiller seg til disputasleder senest i pausen mellom opponentene.