（2008）Continuous Online Auditing as a Response to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.pdfVIP

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at /0268-6902.htm Continuous online auditing Continuous online auditing as a response to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 779 El-Hussein E. El-Masry Department of Accounting, College of Business and Economics, California State University, Los Angeles, California, USA, and Jacqueline L. Reck James E. Rooks Distinguished Professor in Accounting, School of Accountancy, College of Business Administration, University of South Florida, Tampa, California, USA Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine investors’ perceptions of the usefulness of continuous online auditing (COA) prior to and after the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act and assesses the current value relevance of continuous auditing. The paper examines two research questions: first, whether continuous online audits significantly impact investors’ perceptions of firm risk and, consequently, the value of a firm and second, whether continuous online audits have a greater impact on investor assessment of a firm’s risk subsequent to SOX. Design/methodology/approach – A 2 £ 2 £ 2 £ 2 between participants laboratory experiment was conducted. Technology risk was manipulated at (e-commerce risks versus no e-commerce risks), traditional financial risk was manipulate