Internet Related Technologies in the auditing profession: A WOS bibliometric review of the past three decades and conceptual structure mapping

Abstract

Research on Internet-Related Technologies in the auditing profession has grown substantially over the past three decades; however, it is very fragmented. This study seeks to synthesize and provide a comprehensive overview of the literature. Using bibliometric techniques and content analysis, this study provides an exhaustive overview of the research on Internet-Related Technologies in the auditing profession. The study utilized bibliography from the Web of Science database spanning for three decades from 1990 to 2019. A total of 236 academic documents, written by 478 authors from 102 sources was retrieved and used for the analysis. HistCite and Biblioshiny in R were used to run the citation and network analysis. Influential journals, institutions, trending articles and important network collaborations were identified. Bibliographical coupling in a data visualization software (VOSviewer) and content analysis in Excel were used to identify the following six major research streams: (1) the use of big data analytics in the auditing profession, (2) impact of Internet Related Technologies on continuous auditing, (3) impacts of Internet Related Technologies on audit quality and efficiency (4) impact of Internet Related Technologies on fraud detection and risk assessment (5) blockchain and the auditing profession (6) cloud auditing and audit support systems. Potential important research avenues and practical implications of the research were also provided.