Information technology internal control material weaknesses (ITICMW)s can lead to misrepresentations of companies’ financial information and inefficiencies in financial decision-making because of the significant role of IT in financial reporting processes. Previous studies of ITICMWs are mostly based on ITICMWs in general. Despite a few studies addressing specific categories of ITICMWs, they used pre-2010 data and were unable to represent the state of ITICMWs given the fast evolvement of IT in recent years. Additionally, the trends, associations, and industry effects on ITICMWs remain to be explored. We collected SOX 404 Auditor Internal Control Opinion Reports from a recent five-year period (2014 ∼ 2018) and analyzed them using a combination of thematic analysis, association rule mining, and statistical analysis methods. The data analyses generate a categorization schema of ITICMWs, uncover an increasing trend in average ITICMW incident counts per report from 2016 to 2018, and indicate recent shifts in some specific categories of ITICMWs in comparison with the findings of previous studies. Our results also reveal cross-industry differences in ITICMW categories and identify their association patterns for the first time. This research not only contributes to the accounting information system and auditing literature in multiple aspects but also offers practical implications for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of internal control compliance, IT auditing and consulting practices, and financial decision-making.

中文翻译：

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财务报告中的信息技术内部控制重大缺陷：类别、趋势、关联和行业影响


由于 IT 在财务报告流程中发挥着重要作用，信息技术内部控制重大缺陷 (ITICMW) 可能会导致公司财务信息的误报和财务决策效率低下。以往对 ITICMWs 的研究大多是基于 ITICMWs 的总体研究。尽管有一些针对 ITICMW 特定类别的研究，但考虑到近年来 IT 的快速发展，他们使用 2010 年之前的数据，无法代表 ITICMW 的状态。此外，趋势、关联和行业对 ITICMW 的影响仍有待探索。我们收集了最近五年（2014∼2018年）的SOX 404审计师内部控制意见报告，并结合主题分析、关联规则挖掘和统计分析方法对其进行了分析。数据分析生成了 ITICMW 的分类模式，揭示了 2016 年至 2018 年每份报告的平均 ITICMW 事件计数的增加趋势，并表明与之前的研究结果相比，ITICMW 的某些特定类别的近期变化。我们的结果还揭示了 ITICMW 类别的跨行业差异，并首次确定了它们的关联模式。这项研究不仅对会计信息系统和审计文献做出了多方面的贡献，而且对提高内部控制合规性、IT审计和咨询实践以及财务决策的效率和有效性具有现实意义。