Abstract
The bid for an internal auditor to remain relevant in a technologically driven business and add value in a modern and complex global business environment remains a challenge in the accounting profession in Nigeria. This study evaluated the effect of electronic-auditing by internal auditors for the improved economic value of listed companies in Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research design. The sample size of the study consisted of 24 companies selected from the eleven industrial sub-sectors (Agriculture, Conglomerates, Construction, Consumer goods, financial services, Services, Health Care, ICT, Industrial goods, Natural Resources and Oil and Gas sectors) among the 161 listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as at 30 November 2019. The sample frame of this study is 5,012 respondent units, and the sample size is 501, comprising 401 internal auditors and 100 top management staff. A validated structured questionnaire with a five-point Likert-type scale was administered, and 78.443% response rate was achieved. Random sampling technique was adopted in the selection of the 24 companies with about two companies representing each sector. The research instrument was subjected to content validity and reliability test, which yielded Cronbach’s alpha coefficient value of 0.80. The findings revealed that electronic-auditing had a positive and significant effect on the economic value of listed companies in Nigeria (? = 0.061, t(393) = 4.396, p<0.05). The study concluded that possession and utilisation of electronic-auditing skills are essential for internal auditors who must have the requisite expertise to analyse the risks that advance technology requires to be able to add economic value in an organisation.
Highlights
The growth and expansion of businesses where an increased number of persons carry out the operation of an organisation necessitated the need for an independent group of persons to verify processes in order to reduce record-keeping error and fraud within an organisation, and this led to the usual demand for both internal and external auditing services
ACFE (2010) affirmed that, in the minds of the investing public, accounting and auditing profession is connected with fraud deterrence, fraud detection and fraud investigation. In this era of technological advancement and the peak that fraud has grown to, the accounting and auditing profession cannot single-handedly deal with the challenges. To contribute to these on-going debates, this study proposed the hypotheses that: H01: Electronic-auditing by internal auditors has no significant effect on the economic value of listed companies in Nigeria
This study investigated electronic auditing by an internal auditor for the improved economic value of listed companies in Nigeria
Summary
The growth and expansion of businesses where an increased number of persons carry out the operation of an organisation necessitated the need for an independent group of persons to verify processes in order to reduce record-keeping error and fraud within an organisation, and this led to the usual demand for both internal and external auditing services. The emergence and increasing rate of electronic and mobile business transactions without facial contact across the globe has transformed ecommerce and brought about changes in the roles and processes of internal auditors within an organisation. Haislip, Peters and Richardson (2016) revealed that firms that switched to auditors with more excellent IT expertise have a greater chance of material weakness remediation within one year of reporting control weaknesses. This implies that IT expertise attracts clients and underscores the great importance of IT competence to auditors. Internal auditing is expected to add value and enhance corporate performance (Abu-Musa, 2018). The reports of corporate scandals and the corresponding audit failures across the globe made the public and the audit market lose confidence in the audit profession
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