Examining motivations to adopt Computer Assisted Audit Tools and Techniques (CAATTs): cases of UK internal auditors

Adoption of Computer Assisted Audit Techniques and Tools (CAATTs) has not only become a beneficial choice for some businesses, but has become a fundamental part of many audit methodologies. (CICA, 1994; Progrob, Isenberg, 1999; Paukowits, 2000; Hudson, 1998). However, little is known about the adoption process for these tools which is crucial to ensure effective implementation and usage. This research suggests that further knowledge about the motivations for successful adoption of CAATTs may be contained in general literature on IT adoption activity. It also argues this could be usefully supplemented to address wider implementation and operational issues by better understanding of existing practices of internal audit departments who use CAATTs extensively to illustrate best practice in this field that others could benefit from. This paper therefore reviews, then makes use of, current theories that are seeking to better understand IT adoption processes (in particular, the most recent unified theory called the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology - UTAUT) and explores the application of this theory to the specialized domain of CAATTs adoption for internal audit. This is undertaken using a series of ten mini-case studies. Our findings revealed that within our cases two constructs from UTAUT are significant factors influencing CAATTs adoption by internal auditors. However, the social influence and effort expectancy are not found to be significant.