Factors Affecting the Adoption of Computer Assisted Audit Techniques in Audit Process: Findings from Jordan

Abstract

Despite the efforts of auditing professional bodies to help stimulating the application of contemporary audit technologies among audit firms to cope with the rapid growth in information technology usage among business organization, the extent to which Jordanian external auditors and alongside the world's trend have accepted Computer Assisted Auditing Techniques (CAATs) remains fairly low. This study use the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to explore this lack of CAATs' usage in Jordan and try to find answer to what factors may affect their adoption and acceptance. The study has drawn upon qualified questionnaire sent to 200 statutory external auditors to obtain the data. With a response rate over 80%, the results of the statistical analysis revealed that Jordanian external auditor's intention to adopt CAATs may be driven by both auditor's performance expectancy and firm's facilitating conditions issues. However, effort expectancy and social influence at the other spectrum may not play such a major role. These results have several practical implications. Jordanian audit firms can create a positive attitude amongst its auditors towards CAATs' usage by promoting CAATs benefits and usefulness, by decreasing efforts expectancy needed to use CAATs, and by further investing in management and technical infrastructure supporting CAATs.