IT audit quality and digital business performance: The moderating role of digital leadership

This research examines the effects of the audit of information technology audit on the performance of digital business in EU companies. It explores whether such associations will mitigate or whether digital leadership competence alleviates. During 2010–2024, we use an unbalanced panel of 620 fixed annual observations and use fixed effects (FE), high-dimensional fixed effects (HDFE), two-stage least squares (2SL), and system models GMM to take into account solid heterogeneity, endogeneity, and digital performance. The results show that the better quality of IT audit significantly increases DBPERF, indicating higher-level management, compliance, and control efficiency compared to digital projections. Administration variables, such as the Board Size, the intensity of research and development, and the type of industry, provide further support for digital performance, while the effect of digital management moderation is positive, but is not evenly significant, suggesting that powerful sponsorship itself may not be sufficient to fully utilize the benefit of IT audit. Research reveals the criticality of IT audit and integrated management in a successful sustainable digital transformation.