Arno Nuijten

Erasmus University Rotterdam | EUR · Erasmus School of Accounting and Assurance

Although internal auditors are expected to play an important role in corporate governance, they are not always effective in bringing their message to management’s attention when they observe that a risky course of action is being taken that could harm the organization. When information systems projects go awry, for example, internal auditors often...

This study explores how project names may influence the tendency to escalate commitment through two experiments. Our findings from Experiment 1 show that a positive project name evokes positive affective reactions to the project. These, in turn, are associated with a greater willingness to continue a failing project. Results from Experiment 2 show...

With the growing role of Information Technology (IT), many organizations have incorporated IT governance practices that include keeping executives apprised of IT risks. To perform this function, organizations rely upon their internal audit staff to obtain an independent evaluation of IT risks. While both general auditors and IT auditors are involve...

Increasingly, the development of today’s “smart” products requires the integration of both software and hardware in embedded systems. To develop these, hardware firms typically enlist the expertise of software development firms to offer integrated solutions. While hardware firms often work according to a plan-driven approach, software development f...

Many information systems (IS) projects encounter significant problems. The literature suggests that decision-makers can be misled by overoptimistic estimates. We argue that such overoptimism may also be present in the choice of language in business cases. In this study, we analyzed the usage of such framing in 20 business cases for large IS project...

Escalation of commitment causes people to continue a failing course of action. We study the role of construal level in such escalation of commitment. Consistent with the widely held view of construal level as a primed effect, we employed a commonly used prime for manipulating this construct in a laboratory experiment. Our findings revealed that the...

Decisions by small and medium enterprise (SME) entrepreneurs are plagued by a variety of cognitive biases. Extant literature has mainly focused on a limited number of important biases (e.g., overconfidence) in a handful of important entrepreneurial decisions (e.g., start-up, market entry or exit). However, putting the spotlight on a few important b...

Internal auditors worden geacht aan de bel te trekken als zij constateren dat de organisatie onaanvaardbare risico’s loopt, bijvoorbeeld bij een falend IT-project. Managers luisteren lang niet altijd naar dergelijke risicowaarschuwingen die ze krijgen van hun interne auditafdeling. Soms negeren ze die gewoon volkomen. Dat wordt in de literatuur het...

Many Information Systems (IS) projects fail to be completed within budget and on schedule. A contributing factor is the so-called planning fallacy in which people tend to underestimate the resources required to complete a project. In this paper, we propose that signals of the planning fallacy can be detected in a project’s business case. We investi...

Purpose Information system projects often go awry and when they do internal auditors are often in a position to bring the problems to management’s attention. However, managers are not always receptive to risk warnings, even when internal auditors who are role prescribed to carry out this function deliver such warnings. This phenomenon is known as t...

Information systems projects often go awry and when they do internal auditors are often in a position to bring the problems to management’s attention. However, managers are not always receptive to risk warnings, even when internal auditors who are role prescribed to carry out this function deliver such warnings. This phenomenon is known as the deaf...

With the growing role of information technology (IT), many organizations struggle with IT-related risks. Both IT managers and IT auditors are involved in assessing, monitoring, and reporting IT risks, but this does not necessarily mean that they share the same views. In this study, we draw upon the actor–observer asymmetry perspective to understand...

Prior research suggests that information technology (IT) project escalation can result from the deaf effect, a phenomenon in which decision makers fail to heed risk warnings communicated by others. Drawing inspiration from stewardship theory, we posited that when messengers carrying risk warnings about a project are seen as collaborative partners,...

This paper contributes to the debate on the future of internal auditing in the context of emerging and intensifying societal, technological and organizational complexity. We apply a critical essay approach to combine the theoretical insights from the field of complexity science and the field of internal auditing. We explore how the condition of int...

De internal auditfunctie heeft in de voorbije periode een eigenstandige positie verworven in het go- vernance-model van veel organisaties. Hiermee zijn ook de verwachtingen ten aanzien van de auditor toegenomen, wat onder meer zichtbaar is in de vraag naar advies van de internal auditor. Opdrachtge- vers willen niet alleen weten wat het oordeel is,...

Prior research suggests that information technology (IT) project escalation can result from the deaf effect, a phenomenon in which decision makers fail to heed risk warnings communicated by others. Drawing inspiration from stewardship theory, we posited that when messengers carrying risk warnings about a project are seen as collaborative partners,...

Het inschatten van risico’s vormt een centraal element in de meeste benaderingen van ‘corporate governance’ en de daarmee samenhangende ‘IT-governance’. In dit artikel doen we verslag van een onderzoek naar de wijze waarop ITauditors risico’s inschatten. Het blijkt dat de schatting van het risico veel sterker wordt beïnvloed door de verwachte omvan...

Dit artikel beschrijft een experiment rond het gedrag van IT-auditors. Daarbij wordt nagegaan in hoeverredezein hun oordeelsvorming over deelaspecten van een hen voorgelegde casus rekening houden met zachtere aspecten. IT-auditors blijken onderling sterk te verschillen. Een mogelijke verklarende variabele voor dergelijke verschillen is het aantal j...

Bij de inrichting van beheersprocessen in organisaties wordt steeds meer gebruikgemaakt van beheersmodellen. Auditors op hun beurt gebruiken deze modellen als norm bij hun audits. Aan de hand van organisatiekundige literatuur wordt duidelijk gemaakt dat dergelijke modellen met wijsheid en voorzichtigheid moeten worden gehanteerd. Enkele praktijkvoo...

In their efforts to implement an effective IT-governance framework, many companies have acquired IS-Audit staff to provide executive management with information on IS-risks. For the purpose of effective communication, it would be helpful to understand how IS-Auditors, IS- management and executive management shape their perception of IS-risks, since...

Despite significant research in the area, many IT projects fail to realize their targets with regards to time, budget or functionality. Resources continue to be committed to projects even though information is available which indicates that they are no longer viable. Prospect theory explains that these decisions can result from the risk preferences...