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Determinants of Information Technology Audit Quality

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Strengthening Information and Control Systems

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation ((LNISO,volume 14))

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Abstract

The research aims to measure the Information Technology Controls (ITC) quality and its determinants within the Internal Controls over Financial Reporting. Data are collected from questionnaires and financial reporting of Italian listed companies. The main objective of the research has been investigated using innovative method of evaluation of ITC quality: we used the characteristics of two of the main relevant phases of the audit cycle: ITC scoping and ITC risk assessment. Taking the determinants from previous audit literature and adding the specific variable “Information Technology Auditors”, results show that industry, internationalization and diversification, outsourcing strategy, market capitalization, firm age and corporate governance play a relevant role in determining the efficiency and the efficacy of ITC.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    IVASS: National Control Authority for the insurance industry.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Dr. Henning Zülch for helpful comments and suggestions at the 74th Annual Conference of the German Academic Association for Business Research (VHB) held in Bozen, 2012, May 30–June 2, and the partecipants to the annual meeting of Italian Society of Accounting and Business Administration (SIDREA) in Modena—Italy, 2012, November 27–28. We are grateful to Professors Gerrit Sarens, Giuseppe D’Onza, Marika Arena, Arno Nuijten, Andrew D. Chambers for useful suggestions received at the XIIth Academic Conference on Internal Auditing and Corporate Governance held in Como, 2014, 9–11 April. Finally we thank professors John Hudson and Gareth Myles for helpful comments and suggestions at The International Conference Current Economic Trends in Emerging and Developing Countries, Timisoara (Romania), 2014, 12–14 June.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università Degli Studi Di Parma, Via Kennedy 6, 43100, Parma, Italy

    Tatiana Mazza & Stefano Azzali

  2. Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164-4750, USA

    Lily Brooks

  3. Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bozen, Italy

    Tatiana Mazza

Authors
  1. Tatiana Mazza
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  2. Stefano Azzali
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  3. Lily Brooks
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tatiana Mazza .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Naples "Parthenope", Naples, Italy

    Daniela Mancini

  2. University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

    Renata Paola Dameri

  3. University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

    Elisa Bonollo

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Mazza, T., Azzali, S., Brooks, L. (2016). Determinants of Information Technology Audit Quality. In: Mancini, D., Dameri, R., Bonollo, E. (eds) Strengthening Information and Control Systems. Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26488-2_17

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