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This study examined the behavioural intention to use forensic audit service for the enhancement of financial reporting quality of North-central Universities in Nigeria. The study adopts survey research design. Primary data were sourced to elicit responses from sampled audit firms (practitioners) using a four point scale Likert structured questionnaires that were distributed to a sample size of Two Hundred and thirty-eight respondents. Partial Least Square based Structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed in the investigation’s data analyses. Seven hypotheses were tested in the study. The path analysis results revealed that five out of the six hypothesized paths (perceived severity of financial fraud, perceived vulnerability to fraud, perceived collapse avoidance, perceived benefits of forensic accounting, and perceived financing preference have significant positive effects on the behavioral intention to use forensic audit services) were statistically significant (p < 0.05). However, the path from perceived risks of forensic audit to behavioral intention to use forensic audit services was not statistically significant. From the study outcomes, it was concluded that university management in Nigeria would accept use of forensic accounting for enhancing financial reporting quality if they understand the benefits, collapse avoidance, fraud susceptibility and fraud severity in their institutions. it was recommended among other options that management of Nigerian universities should ensure regular forensic audit to improve the quality of their financial reports while continuous training and retraining of both the audit and staff of in forensic accounting procedures and processes be provided to enable them meet up with the global best practices in financial reports.
Ibrahim et al. (2024) studied this question.