Abstract

This study emphases on the top management empowerments to internal auditors, namely, general qualification, electronic qualification and independence, affecting quality of electronic internal audits in the Jordanian Listed Service Companies. This paper used 144 usable questionnaires from internal auditors in the Jordanian listed service companies. The gathered data were analysed utilizing “Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)”. The results reveal that general qualification, electronic qualification and independence have a significant effect on the quality of electronic internal audits, as supported by the resource-based view. Due to the importance of the service companies’ sector in the context of Jordan, the results are helpful for the internal audit profession and decision makers in offering new legislation for the internal audit profession. Future research may consider other factors that may hinder the quality of electronic internal audits, such as audit task complexity or organizational culture.

The introduction

Technological development has led to the introduction of information technology in all fields (Alshira’h et al., 2020a, Jadil et al., 2022; Kar & Dwivedi, 2020). The use of technology has become a competitive advantage for some companies that distinguish them from their counterparts (Al-Okaily et al., 2022; AlQudah, Osman & Al Qudah, 2014; Kumar, Kar & Ilavarasan, 2021; Lutfi et al., 2022; Norwahida & Shukeri, 2014). However, the operations of data, whether manual or electronic, and also, the scope of audit does not change in light of the electronic operation of data (Almaiah et al., 2022g, Almaiah et al., 2022f, Al-Sukker et al., 2018, Lutfi & Alqudah, 2023), but the method of auditing and collecting evidence may completely differ, and this difference may be due to the different procedures for collecting, classifying and storing accounting information (Alshirah et al., 2021a, b; Al-Thneibat, 2017; Alqudah et al., 2022).

Moreover, using the computer in audit operations makes it easy for the auditor to verify the validity of operations with less cost than the manual system (Alshirah et al., 2021a, Amponsah et al., 2022; Al-Damni, Al-Halabi & Arabi, 2021). Meanwhile, the auditors must understand the risks associated with computer technology and systems, also auditors need to evaluate the availability of electronic evidence and the efficiency of this evidence, besides the risks of these computerized systems to customers (Almaiah et al., 2022j, Almaiah et al., 2022i, Almaiah et al., 2022h; Alshira’h et al., 2020b; Usang & Salim, 2016; Alrawad et al., 2023a, Alrawad et al., 2023b, Alrawad et al., 2022 Alqudah, Amran & Hassan, 2019). Among the tools that are used by the auditor to audit computerized systems and electronic commerce are the “General Audit Software”, this program is designed to examine the efficiency of remote communication systems, data and the individuals who manage them (Alzoubi, 2019; Al-Okaily, Alqudah, Al-Qudah & Alkhwaldi, 2022). Only authorized persons enter the system for agreed purposes.

Results

The “Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)” 25.0 were employed for analysis the study data. Normality, Data cleaning, multi-collinearity, Descriptive Statistics and Simple Linear Regression tests were run using SPSS.

Table 1 shows that majority of the respondents were within the age group of 41–۶۰ years old approximately (88%), the bulk of the participants had a Bachelor’s degree (71%) whereas 28% of them had a Master’s degree. The majority of the participants had at least 8 years of working experience (91%). Consequently, the demographic data of the participants showed that they had acceptable experience and knowledge to participate in the survey and deliver trustworthy data for this study.