The Current State and Future Directions of Continuous Auditing Research: An Analysis of the Existing Literature

Abstract

Advances in information technology, especially the rise of the real-time economy and massive fraud scandals of corporations such as Enron, WorldCom, and Xerox, have led to significant changes in the business and risk environment of companies. As a consequence, requirements for the auditing profession changed, and call for the use of new auditing technologies such as continuous auditing. Previous empirical literature has identified a high acceptance of continuous auditing by practitioners within internal audit departments and external audit firms. We conduct a content analysis of 100 continuous auditing papers from 38 different journals published between 1983 and 2015. Our literature review summarizes and classifies the existing literature on continuous auditing, examines the current state of knowledge of continuous auditing in AIS research, and suggests future research opportunities.

Keywords: Continuous Auditing, Continuous Monitoring, Real-Time-Auditing, Internal Auditing, Internal Audit Function, External Audit

JEL Classification: M40, M42, G34, G32, M4, G3