DescriptionThis dissertation focuses on applying different business analytics techniques in accounting and audit. The dissertation intends to provide insights for academia and practitioners, especially those supporting the public sector. The first essay adopts the idea of continuous audit and monitoring and creates a use case on government medication procurement. The proposed methodology aims to help internal auditors identify questionable procurement records for further investigation. By introducing exogenous data resources, the methodology also presents savings opportunities.
The second essay is to measure the COVID-19 pandemic from the accounting perspective. This study applies the system dynamics theory and proposes a dynamic model to understand the ongoing pandemic using business measurements and analytical technologies. This study also estimates the feedback effects of pandemic-related policy measures. The deliverables of this study establish a dynamic view to understand the current pandemic and provide the government with a simulation tool to visually evaluate the impacts of government interventions at different levels.
The third essay is motivated by the call for the evolving responsibilities of the audit profession. This study creates a dynamic model to explore the costs and benefits of continuous audit technology adoption in a public sector procurement process. The proposed model is based on the balanced scorecard and the theory of system dynamics to illustrate why the government should consider adopting technology in operations to help with performance measurement.