Enterprise Resource Planning Systems Introduction and Internal Auditing Legitimacy: An Institutional Analysis

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors examine how the internal audit function maintains its legitimacy when enterprise resource planning systems are introduced. This work centers on an in-depth case study of a multinational bank and finds that enterprise resource planning systems impose an institutional logic of control based on interlinked assumptions. These assumptions motivate changes in the practice and structure of the internal audit function to become an integrated and comprehensive function to maintain its legitimacy.

KEYWORDS:

• Case study
• content analysis
• corporate governance
• enterprise resource planning
• institutional theory
• internal auditing

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hany Elbardan

Hany Elbardan is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at American University of the Middle East, Kuwait. He was awarded the PhD from Business School, Brunel University (UK). He taught in various institutions in the UK, Kuwait, and Egypt since 1998. He has published his papers in refereed international journals and has presented papers at international and regional conferences. His research interests are accounting and IS, internal auditing, managerial accounting, and corporate governance. Moreover, he is a consultant and the coordinator for the Middle East at GHEM consultants, UK.

Maged Ali

Maged Ali is a Lecturer of Business and IT at Business School, Brunel University (UK). He has achieved a multi-disciplinary research background in IS, Cross-Cultural Studies, and Business Management. He has been a Visiting Lecturer at several universities in the United Kingdom and abroad. He is a business consultant for several companies in the United Kingdom and abroad. He is a member of the editorial committees of several journals, as well as co-and-mini-track chair to international conferences. He has edited special issue journals and publishes his scholarly work in well-established journals and conferences.

Ahmad Ghoneim

Ahmad Ghoneim is a Lecturer of business and IT at Business School, Brunel University, UK. Ghoneim is the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Brunel Business School and the former head of the school’s research ethics committee.