The Impact of Internal Control on Accounting Information Systems Bying Path-analysis method

경로분석에 의한 내부통제가 회계정보시스템에 미친 효과분석

Internal Control(IC) comprises the plan of organization and all of the coordinating methods and measures adopted in a business to safeguard its assets, check the accuracy and reliability of its accounting data, promote operational efficiency and encourage adherence to the prescribed managerial policies. If an organization's IC is not adequate, Accounting Information System (AIS) will be vulnerable to accomplish the organizations successes. Therefore, an effective and efficient IC is essential to its successes. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of EDP IC on the perceived usefulness of AIS. Do the general controls indirectively affect to the usefulness of AIS through th application controls? To solve these problems, a research model and a set of hypotheses were established and empirically tested. 60 financial institutions (banks, insurance companies, security companies) agreed to participate in the study. Data were gathered through structured interviews with 60 information systems managers and 537 users of accounting information of each company. Survey forms were designed and collected from financial institutions in Seoul. Information systems' managers of financial institutions responded to questionnaire(1) which consists of a series of 70 questions related to practice and perceived importance. Questionnaire (2) was received from 537 users, who responded to series of 17 questions related to the perceived usefulness. The results of analysis are summarized below. Effects of general controls are more direct on AIS's usefulness than those of application controls. Whereas, indirect effects of application controls are geater than those of general controls. Therefore, the greater the effects of application controls on general controls, the higher the perceived usefulness of AIS. In conclusion, this study supports that the perceived usefulness of AIS is affected by IC which are composed of general controls and application controls. The results of this study has significant implication to financial institution as computer fraud potential increases. Because of global competitions, financial institutions should restructure to IC and AIS in order to take advantage of the technological progress in Information System.