A critical review of auditing at the time of blockchain technology – a bibliometric analysis

PurposeThis study aims to examine the present condition of blockchain technology (BT) applications in auditing by analyzing journal publications on the topic to acquire a better understanding of the field.Design/methodology/approachThis study makes use of the Bibliometric Analysis method and gathered 725 papers from the Web of Science and Scopus databases in the management and accounting, business, financial, economic and social science, as well as decision sciences fields from 2017 to 2021 using the R-Package Bibliometrix Analysis “biblioshiny”.FindingsThe findings revealed that blockchain research in terms of auditing has already increased and started to spark a quick rise in popularity, but is still in its initial phases with important quality though less in quantity. Moreover, the Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting is the most prolific journal with 2019 as the highest publication year, with the United States and China as the most cited countries in this field. Furthermore, in this field, there are much research topics involving blockchain, audit and smart contracts; and there is less involving data analytics, governance, hyperledger, distributed ledger and financial reporting. Additionally, Sheldon (2019) and Smith and Castonguay (2020) are the most productive authors in the field in terms of the H-index.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has certain limitations such as the fact that it only looked at 105 papers in the domains of finance, business, economics, accounting, management as well as multidisciplinary science. Moreover, the research’s data and dates have an impact on the results dependability. As this is an original topic, fresh studies are anticipated to remain to shine a spotlight on and suggest answers to blockchain’s implications on auditing. Additionally, the period of time was limited to only the last five years, from 2017 to 2021. As a result, extensive study into the topic is required since there is currently a research deficit in the blockchain field in the setting of auditing. So, new research is required to offer new frameworks and understandings for describing the blockchain function in auditing, including processes, techniques, security, as well as timeliness. Investigations in unique circumstances and research employing innovative research methodologies for discovering the new issue would be valuable in acquiring a higher grasp of the complexities faced.Originality/valueThis research contributed to the field by assessing the present state of the art of research on the usage and use of BT in finding research gaps, the audit profession and, most importantly, recommending a future direction for researchers in the subject.