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1 – 10 of over 1000Sawsan Saadi Halbouni, Nada Obeid and Abeer Garbou
This paper aims to investigate the role of corporate governance and information technology in fraud prevention and detection within the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the role of corporate governance and information technology in fraud prevention and detection within the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a survey of financial accountants and internal and external auditors to assess their perceptions of the effectiveness of IT and corporate governance as measured in terms of the audit committee’s effectiveness, internal audit functions, external audit functions, culture of honesty and employee training programmes in preventing and detecting fraud in the UAE.
Findings
The results indicate that corporate governance has a moderate role in preventing and detecting fraud in the UAE and that IT has the same role as traditional fraud prevention and detection techniques. The results also show no significant difference between internal and external auditors in their use of technological and traditional techniques during the course of audits.
Research limitations/implications
The findings suggest that the senior management and boards of directors must better understand the importance of their oversight function. The finding that a culture of honesty has a low positive impact on fraud prevention and detection in the UAE indicates that chief executive officers and boards of directors must make more efforts to set the “tone at the top” to improve the corporate environment in terms of integrity and ethics, among other factors. Furthermore, as IT and traditional techniques provide the same function, senior management and boards of directors must be alerted to the importance of developing systematic approaches to fraud investigation that involve greater reliance on technological approaches.
Practical implications
The moderate role of corporate governance suggests that senior management and boards of directors must better understand the importance of their oversight function to meet their obligations and fiduciary responsibilities to stakeholders. Furthermore, greater adoption of IT to detect and prevent fraud contributes to developing a systematic approach to fraud investigation, capable of identifying unusual activity using effective software.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on the role of corporate governance and IT in preventing and detecting fraud, particularly for Middle Eastern countries and other emerging nations. The study may provide insights to academics and practitioners in the UAE and their international counterparts.
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Baljinder Kaur, Kiran Sood and Simon Grima
This paper aims to determine how forensic accounting contributes to fraud detection and prevention and answer the following research questions: What are the standard techniques…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to determine how forensic accounting contributes to fraud detection and prevention and answer the following research questions: What are the standard techniques for fraud detection and prevention; and What are the significant challenges that hinder the application of forensic accounting in fraud prevention and detection?
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method to carry out a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify and assess the existing literature on forensic accounting.
Findings
There exists a positive correlation between forensic accounting and fraud detection and prevention. Moreover, in both the empirical and non-empirical findings, the authors note that fraud is complex, and in carrying out fraud investigations, one must be aware of its complexity.
Practical implications
Although drug counterfeiting is a sector where forensic accountants have paid less attention, it is a rapidly expanding fraud area. This paper finds that to detect fraud at an early stage, one must increase consumer understanding of basic forensic accounting techniques by implementing accurate supply chain monitoring systems and inventory management controls and conducting adequate and effective regulatory, honest and legitimate customs inspections.
Social implications
The major factors that restrict forensic accounting are a lack of awareness and education. Hence, it is essential to incorporate forensic accounting in undergraduate and post-graduate courses.
Originality/value
From the existing literature, it has been observed that very few studies have been conducted in this field using the PRISMA and SLR techniques. Also, the authors carried out a holistic study that focuses on three different areas – fraud detection, fraud prevention and the challenges in forensic accounting.
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Vipin Khattri, Sandeep Kumar Nayak and Deepak Kumar Singh
Currency usage either in the physical or electronic marketplace through chip-based or magnetic strip-based plastic card becoming the vulnerable point for the handlers. Proper…
Abstract
Purpose
Currency usage either in the physical or electronic marketplace through chip-based or magnetic strip-based plastic card becoming the vulnerable point for the handlers. Proper education and awareness can only thrive when concrete fraud detection techniques are being suggested together with potential mitigation possibilities. The purpose of this research study is tendering in the same direction with a suitable plan of action in developing the authentication strength metric to give weightage marks for authentication techniques.
Design/methodology/approach
In this research study, a qualitative in-depth exploration approach is being adapted for a better description, interpretation, conceptualization for attaining exhaustive insights into specific notions. A concrete method of observation is being adopted to study various time boxed reports on plastic card fraud and its possible impacts. Content and narrative analysis are being followed to interpret more qualitative and less quantitative story about existing fraud detection techniques. Moreover, an authentication strength metric is being developed on the basis of time, cost and human interactions.
Findings
The archived data narrated in various published research articles represent the local and global environment and the need for plastic card money. It gives the breathing sense and capabilities in the marketplace. The authentication strength metric gives a supporting hand for more solidification of the authentication technique with respect to the time, cost and human ease.
Practical implications
The research study is well controlled and sufficient interpretive. The empirical representation of authentication technique and fraud detection technique identification and suggestive mitigation gives this research study an implication view for the imbibing research youths. An application and metric based pathway of this research study provides a smoother way to tackle futuristic issues and challenges.
Originality/value
This research study represents comprehensive knowledge about the causes of the notion of plastic card fraud. The authentication strength metric represents the novelty of a research study which produced on the basis of rigorous documentary and classified research analysis. The creativity of the research study is rendering the profound and thoughtful reflection of the novel dimension in the same domain.
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Milad Soltani, Alexios Kythreotis and Arash Roshanpoor
The emergence of machine learning has opened a new way for researchers. It allows them to supplement the traditional manual methods for conducting a literature review and turning…
Abstract
Purpose
The emergence of machine learning has opened a new way for researchers. It allows them to supplement the traditional manual methods for conducting a literature review and turning it into smart literature. This study aims to present a framework for incorporating machine learning into financial statement fraud (FSF) literature analysis. This framework facilitates the analysis of a large amount of literature to show the trend of the field and identify the most productive authors, journals and potential areas for future research.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, a framework was introduced that merges bibliometric analysis techniques such as word frequency, co-word analysis and coauthorship analysis with the Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling approach. This framework was used to uncover subtopics from 20 years of financial fraud research articles. Furthermore, the hierarchical clustering method was used on selected subtopics to demonstrate the primary contexts in the literature on FSF.
Findings
This study has contributed to the literature in two ways. First, this study has determined the top journals, articles, countries and keywords based on various bibliometric metrics. Second, using topic modeling and then hierarchy clustering, this study demonstrates the four primary contexts in FSF detection.
Research limitations/implications
In this study, the authors tried to comprehensively view the studies related to financial fraud conducted over two decades. However, this research has limitations that can be an opportunity for future researchers. The first limitation is due to language bias. This study has focused on English language articles, so it is suggested that other researchers consider other languages as well. The second limitation is caused by citation bias. In this study, the authors tried to show the top articles based on the citation criteria. However, judging based on citation alone can be misleading. Therefore, this study suggests that the researchers consider other measures to check the citation quality and assess the studies’ precision by applying meta-analysis.
Originality/value
Despite the popularity of bibliometric analysis and topic modeling, there have been limited efforts to use machine learning for literature review. This novel approach of using hierarchical clustering on topic modeling results enable us to uncover four primary contexts. Furthermore, this method allowed us to show the keywords of each context and highlight significant articles within each context.
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Sarah Garven and Audrey Scarlata
The purpose of this study is to explore whether various organizational, internal audit function and audit committee factors are associated with internal audit investment in audit…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore whether various organizational, internal audit function and audit committee factors are associated with internal audit investment in audit technology.
Design/methodology/approach
The responses from 213 public and private company chief audit executives (CAEs) from seven Anglo-culture countries are analyzed from the Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK) 2015 Global Internal Auditor Practitioner Survey on specific questions addressing internal audit use of audit technology.
Findings
The results indicate that several of the studied factors are associated with investment in internal auditing technology, and taken together, suggest that CAE power may be the key driver in the technology investment decision. Furthermore, the data show that internal audit functions are not fully embracing the use of information technology (IT) tools and techniques, with average usage of ten of the eleven tools and techniques examined below moderate levels.
Practical implications
The results have implications for CAEs, boards and management when making resource allocation decisions. For example, the findings can be used in benchmarking an appropriate investment in internal audit technology, as well as identifying specific internal audit technology areas where further investment may be warranted. Additionally, insights provided by this study can facilitate a discussion about the value internal audit can add by increasing its investment in audit technology.
Originality/value
This study contributes to prior literature on internal auditing by filling a gap related to internal audit investment in audit technology, examining countries that are similar in culture rather than limiting the study to one country, and using several factors that have not been previously examined in prior internal audit investment-related literature. Additionally, the findings pointing to the important role CAE power appears to play in the internal audit technology investment decision provide several interesting new research avenues.
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Zahrotush Sholikhah, Wiwiek Rabiatul Adawiyah, Bambang Agus Pramuka and Eka Pariyanti
Although the academic literature provides extensive insight into the motivations for the unethical use of information technology in online classes, little is known about how…
Abstract
Purpose
Although the academic literature provides extensive insight into the motivations for the unethical use of information technology in online classes, little is known about how perceived justice, the opportunity to cheat and spiritual legitimacy mitigate unethical behavior among young academics. The purposes of this study are two folds: first, to determine how perceived lecturers’ justice and opportunity to cheat may mitigate academic misconduct in online classes, and second, to evaluate the moderating effect of spiritual power on the relationship between perceived lecturers’ justice and opportunity to cheat and academic misconduct.
Design/methodology/approach
This research was conducted at universities in three Southeast Asia countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, with a total of 339 respondents. The research questionnaire was distributed using Google Forms. The analytical method used to test the research hypothesis is moderated regression analysis (MRA).
Findings
The findings of this study reveal that spirituality moderates the relationship between lecturer justice and the opportunity to cheat online. Even though the justice level of the lecturer is low, individuals with relatively high spirituality will show much less cheating behavior than when there is a low level of lecturer justice and a low level of student spirituality, and vice versa.
Research limitations/implications
Cheating occurs when students develop an intention to cheat, which leads to actual involvement in cheating, meaning that theoretically, the findings extend the fraud triangle theory. In addition, the practical implications of this research are that lecturers need to conduct fair teaching, such as transparency of exam conditions, assessment, the right to an opinion and supervision during exams, consequently, the students cannot cheat. Spirituality is also an essential factor that can reduce online cheating, so instilling spirituality in specific courses is a fruitful solution.
Originality/value
The contributions of this study are twofold. First, this study gives testable theories on how spiritual help works. Second, this study offers tailored and more humanistic assistance, such as a mechanism that adjusts to the academic world’s usage of more positive technologies. This study contributes to the literature on online cheating in higher education across three Southeast Asian nations (Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand).
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Nilaya Murthy and Santosh Gopalkrishnan
The purpose of this study is to find out if there is a sequence or pattern to digital frauds and whether the openness quotient of any individual has a meaningful role to play in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to find out if there is a sequence or pattern to digital frauds and whether the openness quotient of any individual has a meaningful role to play in them becoming victims of digital frauds. The legal and regulatory angle of digital frauds and relief measures for social media openness and frauds are discussed to examine the connection between openness, identity data, visibility, vulnerability, digital frauds and social media sharing of information.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is empirical and investigative research. Primary data was collected via questionnaires circulated among participants from various age groups to understand the implications of different demographic factors such as age, websites used, profiles created and data shared on the internet, social media and e-commerce websites.
Findings
The results exhibit that the openness factor does affect vulnerability and has an influence on the risk and legal component of inclination towards digital frauds.
Practical implications
This research study results in bridging the gap by increasing the level of understanding and awareness in users toward achieving proactive and regulated behaviour and comprehending the violation of various acts of digital frauds and its implications, especially in the Indian banking sector.
Originality/value
This study will be beneficial to all individuals alike in understanding the implications of excessive openness toward digital platforms and evaluating generic and legal solutions to avoid becoming victims of digital fraud.
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Oluwatoyin Esther Akinbowale, Heinz Eckart Klingelhöfer and Mulatu Fekadu Zerihun
The purpose of this study is to use a decision support model based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Pareto analysis (PA) for ranking the impact of different kinds of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to use a decision support model based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Pareto analysis (PA) for ranking the impact of different kinds of cybercrime in organisations in the financial sector to support decisions on cybercrime mitigation.
Design/methodology/approach
From a structured questionnaire to the staff of 17 licensed banks in South Africa in charge of management, administration and operations, the perceived effect of cybercrime on the organisation’s goals, namely, organisation’s profitability, goodwill, customers’ satisfaction and risk management was derived. The pairwise comparison of the organisation’s goals and identified forms of cybercrime was done using the AHP.
Findings
The results obtained indicate that there was a consensus (100% of the answers) that the effect of cybercrime has negatively impacted the organisation’s objectives profitability and goodwill. Also, still 95.23% of the respondents agreed that the effect of cybercrime has negatively impacted the level of customers’ satisfaction, while only 7.15% saw an impact on the organisation’s risk management processes. Using these results in the AHP, analysis delivers a hierarchical order about the relevance of prevalent forms of cybercrime for the organisation´s cybercrime mitigation. The PA further shows the magnitude of the forms of cybercrime relative to each other.
Practical implications
Hence, this study provides a decision support framework for organisational management in the quest to explore the impact of cyber fraud. It can serve as a practical guided approach for the application of AHP analysis for the existing and emerging forms of cybercrime.
Originality/value
The novelty of this study lies in the fact that the combination of the AHP and PA to support solving a multi-criteria decision problem relating to the prevalence of cybercrime has not been sufficiently highlighted by the existing literature.
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This paper aims to reveal the empirical facts of pressure, rationalization, effect on opportunity and fraud prevention and accountability to fraud prevention in Rumah Sakit Umum…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to reveal the empirical facts of pressure, rationalization, effect on opportunity and fraud prevention and accountability to fraud prevention in Rumah Sakit Umum Daerah (RSUD; local public hospitals in English) in West Sulawesi Province.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is explanatory in nature, with a time horizon from January to July 2016. The research objects were selected from local public hospitals (RSUD) in West Sulawesi Province. The population in this study is employees working at regional general hospitals in West Sulawesi Province. While sample is determined based on cluster sampling technique, the analysis tool used is structural equation modeling.
Findings
The variables of pressure and rationalization are found to have a positive and significant effect on opportunity, so improvements in the variables pressure and rationalization will create improvements in the variable opportunity. Pressure, rationalization and opportunity variables have a positive and significant effect on fraud prevention, so improvements in pressure, rationalization and opportunity variables will create improvements in variable fraud prevention. Accountability variables have a negative and significant effect on fraud prevention, so a high value of accountability will decrease the value of fraud prevention.
Originality/value
Originality of this paper shows built developing fraud prevention model in regional public hospital in West Sulawesi Province with five variables, namely, pressure, rationalization, opportunity, accountability and fraud prevention.
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James L. Bierstaker, Richard G. Brody and Carl Pacini
The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which accountants, internal auditors, and certified fraud examiners use fraud prevention and detection methods, and their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which accountants, internal auditors, and certified fraud examiners use fraud prevention and detection methods, and their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of these methods.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was administered to 86 accountants, internal auditors and certified fraud examiners.
Findings
The results indicate that firewalls, virus and password protection, and internal control review and improvement are quite commonly used to combat fraud. However, discovery sampling, data mining, forensic accountants, and digital analysis software are not often used, despite receiving high ratings of effectiveness. In particular, organizational use of forensic accountants and digital analysis were the least often used of any anti‐fraud method but had the highest mean effectiveness ratings. The lack of use of these highly effective methods may be driven by lack of firm resources.
Practical implications
Organizations should consider the cost/benefit tradeoff in investing in highly effective but potentially underutilized methods to prevent or detect fraud. While the costs may seem prohibitive for small organizations, substantial cost savings from reduced fraud losses may also be significant.
Originality/value
By identifying methods that work well for fraud detection and prevention, prescriptive information can be provided to accounting practitioners, internal auditors, and fraud examiners.
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