Big Data Analytics Challenges & Internal Audit Function (IAF)’s Reliance on Big Data Analytics

Though big data analytics have a lot of potential to create value for accountants/auditors, data analytics are underutilized. The study examines the adoption of big data analytics by Internal Audit Function (IAF) given the challenges to the adoption. The results of the study suggest that data specific IT knowledge rather than general IT knowledge is significant to the adoption of big data analytics. Additionally, critical thinking skills and business knowledge also contribute to the adoption of big data analytics. Furthermore, if IAFs face challenges (management challenges) such as fraud risk detection, they are more likely to adopt big data analytics, thus highlighting the scenarios of the underutilization of the big data analytics by accountants in many cases. Moreover, the results from the interaction effect suggest that Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) with CPA certification are more likely to adopt big data analytics than the CAEs without CPA certification when the size of the organization is small, or when the size of the IAF is small, or when there is a lack of data specific IT knowledge or business skills. Another important finding is that, when two groups of IAFs have similar size and data specific IT knowledge, IAFs with fraud detection responsibility (management challenges) are more likely to adopt big data analytics. Finally, IAFs in Anglo culture countries are more likely to adopt big data analytics than IAFs in non-Anglo culture countries given that both IAFs have the same size and data specific IT knowledge. The study has both theoretical and practical implications, which are elaborated in the discussion of contribution