The IT audits in the Spanish business sector: longitudinal analysis (2001-2011) in MIST, Economic and Policy Perspectives

Abstract

In a society where Information Systems and Information are considered to be important assets for most companies, the performance of IT audits to measure their efficiency and prevent IT support breakdowns is required. To this aim, this study analyzes the evolution of the IT audit practice in Spanish companies, reporting the performance percentages and the amount of professionals that execute it, and how it correlates with the importance that these companies give to the Internet and the use of e‐commerce. Our longitudinal study, encompassing the period of 2001-2011, has shown substantial increase in the awareness of Spanish companies towards the performance of these audits, with the percentage of companies that performed them in this decade having almost doubled. We have also found that the performance of IT audits usually involves various types of professionals of the same company and finally we were able to analyze the association between the adoption of the Internet and the use of e-commerce in surveyed companies, and the performance of these audits.