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Organisational Intention to Use Forensic Accounting Services in Detecting and Preventing Fraud:The Case of English Local Authorities

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Organisational Intention to Use Forensic Accounting Services in Detecting and Preventing Fraud:The Case of English Local Authorities University of Huddersfield Repository Sahdan, Mohd Organisational Intention to Use Forensic Accounting Services in Detecting and Preventing Fraud:The Case of English Local Authorities Original Citation Sahdan, Mohd (2018) Organisational Intention to Use Forensic Accounting Services in Detecting and Preventing Fraud:The Case of English Local Authorities. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. This version is available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/34814/ The University Repository is a digital collection of the research output of the University, available on Open Access. Copyright and Moral Rights for the items on this site are retained by the individual author and/or other copyright owners. 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For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/ Organisational Intention to Use Forensic Accounting Services in Detecting and Preventing Fraud: The Case of English Local Authorities Mohd Hadafi Sahdan A Thesis Submitted to the University of Huddersfield in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Huddersfield University of Huddersfield Business School December 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................... 2 LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................................................... 7 LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. 10 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT .................................................................................................. 11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ....................................................................................................... 12 ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................................. 13 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. 16 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 17 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 17 1.2 Background to the Study ........................................................................................... 17 1.2.1 Local Authorities in the National Context ................................................. 20 1.2.2 Relationships between Forensic Accounting and Fraud Detection and Prevention in Local Authorities ................................................................. 21 1.2.3 The development of Counter Fraud in Local Authorities .......................... 24 1.2.4 The Role of Forensic Accounting Services to Detect and Prevent Fraud.. 27 1.3 Research Motivation ................................................................................................. 29 1.4 Research Aims........................................................................................................... 31 1.4.1 Research Objectives and Research Questions ........................................... 31 1.5 Research Contributions ............................................................................................. 33 1.5.1 Theoretical perspective .............................................................................. 33 1.5.2 Practical perspective .................................................................................. 33 1.6 Thesis Outline ........................................................................................................... 34 1.7 Summary ................................................................................................................... 35 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................ 36 2.1 Forensic Accounting ................................................................................................. 36 2.1.1 A Brief History .......................................................................................... 37 2.1.2 Forensic Accounting in the UK Landscape ............................................... 39 2.1.3 Defining Forensic Accounting ................................................................... 40 2.1.4 Size, Growth and Development of the Market .......................................... 51 2 2.1.5 The Literature: Main Themes are Forensic Accounting Education, Specialised Skills and Technical Abilities of Forensic Accountants and the Role of Forensic Accountants .................................................................... 59 2.1.6 Forensic Accounting in the Private Sector................................................. 69 2.1.7 Forensic Accounting in the Public Sector .................................................. 71 2.2 Fraud and Local Authorities ...................................................................................... 72 2.2.1 Defining Fraud and the Fraud Triangle ..................................................... 73 2.2.2 The Concept of Fraud Triangle .................................................................. 74 2.2.3 Fraud: The Case of Local Authorities ........................................................ 79 2.2.4 The Impact of Fraud on Local Authorities ................................................ 82 2.2.5 Counter Fraud in Local Authorities ........................................................... 84 2.3 Organisational Intention ............................................................................................ 90 2.3.1 Organisational Intention to Use Forensic Accounting Services ................ 90 2.3.2 Institutional Theory .................................................................................... 95 2.4 Operationalisation of Institutional Theory .............................................................. 104 2.4.1 Research on Organisation Intention Using Institutional Theory ............. 110 2.5 Summary ................................................................................................................. 115 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH MODEL AND HYPHOTHESES ....................................... 126 3.1 Research Model ....................................................................................................... 126 3.2 Variables in the Research Model ............................................................................ 130 3.2.1 Coercive Pressures ................................................................................... 131 3.2.2 Mimetic Pressures .................................................................................... 136 3.2.3 Normative Pressures ................................................................................ 136 3.2.4 Forensic Accounting Perception Factors ................................................. 140 3.2.5 Fraud Perception Factors ......................................................................... 145 3.2.6 Internal Control Factors ........................................................................... 146 3.2.7 Control Variables ..................................................................................... 148 3.3 Summary ................................................................................................................. 150 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .............................................................. 151 4.1 Research Methodology and Research Method ........................................................ 151 4.2 Research Strategy and Design ................................................................................. 152 4.3 Modelling the current research design .................................................................... 157 4.3.1 Participants in the Present Research ........................................................ 158 4.3.2 Purpose and Justification ......................................................................... 167 3 4.3.3 Questionnaire Design ............................................................................... 168 4.4 Construct Reliability, and Validity of the Instrument ............................................. 179 4.4.1 Pre-testing ................................................................................................ 180 4.4.2 Empirical Pilot Study ............................................................................... 181 4.5 Rules Ethic and Confidentiality .............................................................................. 185 4.6 Data Collection ........................................................................................................ 186 4.6.1 Final Survey ............................................................................................. 187 4.6.2 Response rate ..........................................................................................
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