The role of new technologies in improving financial audit quality following the financial scandals of the 2000s

Abstract

The financial scandals that erupted in the early 2000s prompted a profound re-evaluation of the quality of audits of listed companies' financial statements. The involvement of large audit firms in these cases demonstrated that an approach based on the size of the auditor is an insufficient measure of audit quality. This measurement approach considers that the competence and independence of the auditor are reliable substitutes for audit quality. However, it disregards the methods and tools used by the audit firm in its engagements. It is more appropriate to adopt an approach based on the audit process as an indicator of quality. This process has become increasingly complex as the volume of data processed has grown. It therefore requires the integration of high-performance technologies to carry out audit work in an effective and efficient manner.

This article aims to analyze the impact of three major financial scandals (Enron, Vivendi and Parmalat) on audit quality. Through a thorough review of the literature, it highlights the foundations of the audit quality approach based on the audit process, comparing it with the traditional approach. It then presents the revolutionary technologies used in this process, namely CAAT, BDA and AI, while clarifying the theories that frame their implementation. It also outlines the advantages of these technologies, their risks and the challenges of their adoption. It examines the success of these tools in addressing the deterioration in audit quality following financial scandals, and proposes a research model linking their use to improvements in audit quality. These technologies, widely adopted by auditors in their work, have demonstrated high performance in terms of anomaly detection, accuracy and speed of execution of audit tasks.

Classification JEL: M42

Paper type: Theoretical Research