IT fit on auditors’ performance in Yemen

The alignment between the importance and utilisation of IT (IT fit), and the impact of IT fit on organisational performance has been an issue of concern for many researchers. Therefore, this study examined the effect of organisational, social, individual, and environmental factors on IT fit and on auditors' performance as well as the influence of IT fit on auditors' performance. It also examined the mediating effect of IT fit on the relationship between these independent variables and auditors' performance. Data from 274 auditors were analyzed using the PLS-SEM. The results indicate that auditors perceived their utilisation of IT utilisation to be less than the importance of IT, hence providing important insights into the importance and the utilisation of technologies in the context of audit work in Yemen. The findings suggest that information systems audit in Yemen is still at the minimum level. Further analyses on the effect of the independent variables, namely IT knowledge, facilitating resources, IT trust, competitive pressure, management support, client's complexity of the IT system, internalisation and cognitive style, on IT fit show them to be positive and significant. Interestingly, IT fit is found to be a mediator between these eight variables and auditors' performance. This study also finds that management support, IT knowledge, IT trust, internalisation, IT training, client's complexity of the IT System, cognitive style and IT fit have positive and significant effects on auditors' performance. The three most important variables are IT knowledge, facilitating resources, and management support. The findings suggest the important role of IT fit in increasing the effect of these variables on auditors' performance. Therefore, audit firms and professional bodies need to focus on the issue of IT fit to increase the performance of their auditors.

Keywords: information technology, external auditors' performance, IT fit, IT importance, IT utilisation