International Journal of Accounting Information Systems最新文献

In this paper, we present a novel approach for reimagining the scope and impact of design science and behavioral science accounting information systems (AIS) research. We do so by first explicitly considering the broad impact of accounting on business functions. The proliferation of information technology throughout the organization coupled with the blurring of the lines between “accounting” and “business” activities has spawned a world where (technology-enabled) accounting has truly become the language of (technology-driven) business. Leveraging the International Standards Organization model of the phases of business activity, we highlight how utilization of information systems artifacts in each business activity phase yields a broad array of AIS research questions. Second, we encourage design science and behavioral science AIS research to work synergistically, such that the outputs of each paradigm inform the research conducted in the other paradigm. We suggest that a more purposeful integration of design science and behavioral science AIS research over time can improve the rigor and relevance of AIS research to advance knowledge in the field, amplify the impact of AIS research for our colleagues in both accounting and information systems, and improve the practical applicability of the research findings.

By facilitating the derivation of knowledge and qualitative measures from textual data, text mining techniques have come into vogue in various domains and industries. Namely in accounting, text mining outputs can elucidate, complement, and validate the customary quantitative data. This study creates an up-to-date view of text mining applications in accounting practice. Through a critical review of text mining literature, insight is given into the stages of a typical text mining process, contemporary text mining techniques that have been named valuable in an accounting context, and the information that can be obtained by applying these techniques.

As Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) information has become an essential resource for investors, regulators have attempted to assure its quality. While more companies offer ESG disclosure, it is usually not fully substantiated with supporting information. Assurance is needed to verify that ESG reports are free of substantive errors. However, traditional financial audit approaches are less effective in providing ESG assurance due to the difference in the nature of evidence, difficulty in measuring and verifying ESG measures, and ever-changing ESG performance. To increase the effectiveness of ESG audit approaches, this study proposes Audit 4.0-based ESG assurance, which uses Big Data and emerging technologies of Audit 4.0 to capture evidence from the physical world and provide accurate assurance on ESG reports in a timely manner. We further perform a case study as a proof of concept of the proposed approach, which explores the integration of satellite-based methane estimation as ESG audit evidence. The use of satellite images provides opportunities for regulators and companies to monitor and assure ESG reports in a continuous manner.

Recent calls in the information systems research community argue that we know intelligent systems deskill users, and future research should focus on how to design systems that do not deskill, rather than continue to examine whether the phenomenon occurs. This should be a wakeup call for public accounting firms focused on implementing restrictive audit support systems, which leads to de-skilling of novice accounting professionals. Our research focuses on redesigning knowledge-based systems to facilitate expertise development and counteract the de-skilling effects that result from use of such systems. Specifically, we manipulate the design of the system interface by providing information cues in a screen format consistent with expert knowledge representations and manipulate automatic provision versus voluntary use of explanations for users during task completion. Results show that after using the knowledge-based system to complete a series of reenacted client engagements over a three-day period, both the interface design manipulation and automatic provision of explanations had a positive effect on novice accounting professionals’ development of expert-like knowledge structures. The results of the study have important implications for the development of knowledge-based systems intended to support accounting professionals’ (and other knowledge workers’) expertise development processes.

This study investigates whether audit risks that accompany data breaches of major customer firms can spillover into the supply chain and affect audit fees of their suppliers. Based on the economic bond that exists between supplier firms and their major customers, we predict that data breach incidents of customer firms will lead to higher audit fees for their respective suppliers. Consistent with customer breaches increasing the audit risk to the supplier, we observe a positive association between breach disclosures made by major customers and audit fees of the supplier firm. This association exists for both internal and external data breaches. We further find that audit fees are increasing with the number of major customers disclosing a breach in a given year. Our results are robust to both a matched sample design and a difference-in-difference approach. Interestingly, we find that while supplier auditors appear to price the risks associated with customer breaches, the breaches do not appear to affect audit quality. The findings of this study are timely and relevant to academics, practitioners, and regulators as supply chains continue to become larger and more complex.

This study explores how an organization’s controllers (management accountants) give sense to the information provided by its business intelligence (BI) system, and thus shape the construction of information trust. A qualitative case study was conducted within a Finnish food manufacturing company, building on the notion of trust related to management accounting information and sensemaking theory. The study was informed through open-ended interviews and an examination of internal accounting and management reports. The authors found that the company used an integrated BI system that enabled the production of information in a timely and perceivably standardized manner. Controllers managed this accounting information and gave sense to it, helping deliver a shared understanding of the daily business situation. The findings show that controllers play a pivotal role in building information trust by giving sense to the information provided by the BI system.

I respond to Vosselman and De Loo’s (2023) critique of my earlier paper on agential realism, representation theory, and accounting information systems (Weber, 2020). In that paper, I argued that little is learned by using an agential realism lens to study accounting-related phenomena. I claimed that insights revealed using agential realism also could have been revealed through using existing lenses such as actor-network theory and general systems theory. In particular, I defended representation theory as a way of studying accounting information systems and representationalism as a way of studying the world. Contrariwise, Vosselman and De Loo argue that representation theory and representationalism are useful only in some respects when studying accounting-related phenomena. They contend that agential realism and sociomateriality lenses are needed if the entangled nature of phenomena in accounting domains is to be understood. They point to some assumptions that they claim underpin representationalism and representation theory—assumptions that inhibit their usefulness as a way of studying entangled phenomena. In this response, I present counter-arguments to their claims and defend representationalism and representation theory as ways of understanding the world.

In an in-depth field study, we investigate cyber security governance configurations vis-à-vis the five lines of accountability (5 LoA) – that is, the Three Lines Model extended by the accountability of executive management and the board of directors (IIA, 2020). The aim is to explore the configurations adopted by organizations in governing cybersecurity, and why it would matter for cyber security whether the five lines of accountability are adopted. We define the type of the 5 LoA adoption by: (i) the segregation of the lines that spans from blended to segregated and (ii) the level of engagement of those in line roles that ranges from low to high. In this way, we identify four types of adoption of the 5 LoA: ‘no adoption, ‘ostensible’, ‘implicit’, and ‘explicit’ adoption. We theorize how the type of adoption of the 5 LoA is affected by the interplay of institutional forces and organizations’ need for efficiency and effectiveness, and develop a pathway model for organizations’ adoption of the 5 LoA. We find that organizations that adopt the 5 LoA with clear segregation between these lines (‘ostensible’ and ‘explicit’ adoption) are those subject to prudential regulation (coercive forces), whereas efficiency motives and mimetic forces drive organizations to seek fluidity and flexibility by ‘blending’ the segregated lines (‘implicit’ adoption) to ensure fast reactions to changing environment. Regardless of the segregation between lines and whether they are blended or not, we found that all organizations see scope to improve the level of engagement in the 5 LoA to improve the effectiveness of cyber security governance.

Despite the advancements in technology, auditors still spend a significant amount of time performing repetitive and rule-based tasks. Our paper examines various audit scenarios within four accounting firms and discusses the potential for robotic process automation (RPA) to improve the efficiency and accuracy of these tasks. We propose and implement RPA-enabled solutions to make various procedures more efficient and effective. These anecdotes were based on our consultancy experiences with auditors from a group of Big 4 and mid-sized accounting firms. We present four practical business process scenarios and the prototyped RPA solutions. In each scenario, we explain our automation strategies and the duration of development. We also describe the implementation benefits and challenges, as well as analyze how we have helped the accounting firms automate their real-world audit tasks by providing the as-is and to-be Business Process Model and Notation that one can extend for future RPA development. Finally, we discuss the future challenges and opportunities regarding the broader implementation of RPA in accounting and audit tasks.

The increasing prevalence of big data, large stores of data that enable businesses to generate previously inaccessible insights, has resulted in performance gains for the firms that harness its capabilities. However, the impact that big data has on a firm’s profitability and financial position is rarely captured in its financial statements due to big data’s status as an internally generated intangible asset. As per the current IFRS regulations, big data is not eligible for recognition.

We argue that the true impact of big data on a firm is not appropriately reflected in a firm’s financial statements. The IFRS as currently written does not allow firms to capitalize data assets, thus compromising the goal of financial statements: to provide relevant and reliable information.

Analysis of the current standards reveal gaps in measuring the future economic benefit and costs of big data, primarily attributable to the lack of clarity surrounding the unit of account used to measure big data. Furthermore, IAS 38′s dichotomization of research and development does not accurately represent the applicability of big data assets.

Therefore, we propose a conceptual framework for understanding the economic value of big data. These include the use of a database as a unit of account, costing methods derived from user-based metrics, and a renewed focus on the intention to apply data assets.