The Adoption of Data Mining Technology within Accounting Information Systems in Publicly Listed Companies in Jordan By Asal Mustfa Taleb Al-Odat B.Acc. Mu'tah University, Jordan, 1998 MBus(Acc). University of Technology Sydney, Australia, 2007 Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Accounting and Corporate Governance Faculty of Business University of Tasmania November, 2013 Declaration This work contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other institution, and to the best of my knowledge, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of this thesis. 20th November 2013 _____________________ _________________ Signature of Candidate Date Asal Al-Odat ENDORSEMENT 20th November 2013 _____________________ _________________ Signature of Supervisor Date Assoc/Prof Trevor Wilmshurst ii Statement of authority of access This thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying in accordance with the copyright Act 1968. 20th November 2013 ________________________ ______________ Asal Al-Odat Date iii Dedication I dedicate this thesis to my family, my wife Sofia, my beloved child Awsam and for my coming baby -By God well- for their constant support and unconditional love. I love you all dearly. iv Acknowledgements In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. All praise be to Allah, the Creator and Master of the Universe. Though only my name appears on the cover of this dissertation, a great many people have contributed to its production. I owe my gratitude to all those people who have made this dissertation possible and because of whom my graduate experience has been one that I will cherish forever. Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my principal supervisor Associate Professor Trevor Wilmshurst for the continuous support of my PhD study and research, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my PhD study. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank the rest of my thesis committee: Dr. William Maguire and Professor Robert Charles Clift, for their encouragement, insightful comments, and valuable notes. I would like to show my greatest appreciation to my former principal supervisor Associate Professor Victoria Wise. I can’t say thank you enough for her tremendous support and help. Without her encouragement and guidance this PhD thesis would not have materialised. I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to each respondent and interviewee who has participated in this research. Although their names shall remain anonymous, a special mention and deep debt of gratitude has to be given to each of you, since without your contribution none of the outcomes of this study would have been possible. I would like to acknowledge the financial support of Al-Houssin Bin Talal University in Jordan for the award of a Postgraduate Research Studentship that provided the necessary v financial support for this research. In addition, I gratefully acknowledge the substantial financial support of University of Tasmania in their kind support and helping hand through my PhD study. Many friends in Australia and Jordan have helped me stay sane through my PhD study (too many to list here but you know who you are!). Their support and care helped me overcome setbacks and stay focused on my PhD study. I greatly value their friendship and I deeply appreciate their belief in me. My parents had to grudgingly learn to accept my separation from them and still gave me nothing but support, day after day, my love and gratitude for them can hardly be expressed in words. I would like to thank my loved ones, my sister Enas and my two brothers Anas and Eyas, who have supported me throughout the entire process, both by keeping me harmonious and helping me to put pieces of this puzzle together. I will be grateful forever for your love. Next on the list, a massive thank you to my child Awsam, for his love and support and for putting up with my moods and grumpiness at times. Last, but by no means least, I am fortunate that I have married the best person out there for me, my best friend, soul-mate, and wife Sofia. There are no words to convey how much I love her. Sofia has been a true and great supporter and has unconditionally loved me during my good and bad times. She has been non-judgmental of me and instrumental in instilling confidence. She has faith in me and my intellect even when I felt like digging a hole and crawling into one because I didn’t have faith in myself. These past several years have not been an easy ride, both academically and personally. I truly thank Sofia for sticking by my side, even when I was irritable and depressed. I feel that we both learned a lot about life and strengthened our commitment and determination to each other and to live life to the fullest. vi Table of Contents Declaration ........................................................................................................ ii Statement of authority of access .................................................................... iii Dedication......................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements .......................................................................................... v List of Figures ................................................................................................ xiv List of Tables ................................................................................................... xv List of Acronyms and Abbreviations ......................................................... xviii Abstract .......................................................................................................... xix 1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background .......................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research problem and objectives ......................................................................... 2 1.3 Justification and motivation for this research ...................................................... 5 1.4 The thesis context ................................................................................................ 7 1.5 Research approach and methodology .................................................................. 7 1.5.1 Data analysis ................................................................................................ 8 1.6 Outline of the thesis ............................................................................................. 8 2 Literature review ........................................................................................ 9 2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Accounting information system and data mining background ............................ 9 2.2.1 Accounting information system ................................................................... 9 2.2.2 Accounting information systems data quality ............................................ 11 vii 2.2.3 Data Mining ............................................................................................... 13 2.2.4 Defining data mining.................................................................................. 13 2.2.5 How does data mining work? ..................................................................... 15 2.2.6 Data mining tasks and functionalities ........................................................ 16 2.3 The growing importance IT and DM adoption decisions .................................. 20 2.4 Internal factors affecting data mining adoption decisions ................................. 21 2.4.1 Organisational components ........................................................................ 21 2.4.2 Information technology and management .................................................. 23 2.4.3 Awareness about and intention to adopt data mining ................................ 25 2.5 Information technology and data mining adoption process ............................... 26 2.6 Approaches to model development .................................................................... 27 2.6.1 Structural model ......................................................................................... 29 2.6.2 Socio-technical model ................................................................................ 32 2.7 Information technology adoption in developing countries ................................ 35 2.8 Observations and directions ............................................................................... 39 2.9 Research hypotheses .......................................................................................... 42 2.10 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 43 3 Management Styles ................................................................................. 45 3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 45 3.2 Traditional management styles .......................................................................... 45 3.3 The new management style ................................................................................ 51 3.4 Management styles in developing countries ...................................................... 56 viii 3.4.1 Management styles in Arab countries ........................................................ 58 3.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 63 4 Attitude towards IT and DM (Management point of view) .................... 65 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 65 4.2 The importance of attitudes ............................................................................... 65 4.3 Individual’s attitude towards information technology and data mining ............ 68 4.4 Managers’ attitudes toward information technology and data mining .............. 70 4.5 Demographic characteristics .............................................................................. 71 4.6 Conceptual Framework ...................................................................................... 74 4.7 Summary ............................................................................................................ 75 5 Research Methodology ........................................................................... 76 5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 76 5.2 Research design ................................................................................................. 76 5.3 Research philosophy .......................................................................................... 78 5.4 The paradigms adopted in this study ................................................................. 79 5.4.1 Post-positivism paradigm ........................................................................... 79 5.4.2 The interpretive paradigm .......................................................................... 81 5.4.3 Selection and justification of the research paradigms for this study .......... 82 5.5 Classifications of information technology and data mining research studies .... 83 5.5.1 Explanatory (Analytical) research.............................................................. 83 5.5.2 Exploratory research .................................................................................. 83 5.5.3 Justification for the research classification of this study ........................... 84 ix 5.6 Quantitative and qualitative research methods .................................................. 85 5.7 This research strategy ........................................................................................ 87 5.8 Data collection preparation and methods ........................................................... 87 5.8.1 The questionnaire ....................................................................................... 93 5.8.2 The interviews ............................................................................................ 95 5.9 Sample selection ................................................................................................ 95 5.10 Data analysis ...................................................................................................... 97 5.11 Ethical considerations ...................................................................................... 101 5.12 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 102 6 Discussion of the Results of Data Collection ...................................... 104 6.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 104 6.2 The descriptive analysis of the survey population ........................................... 104 6.3 The descriptive analysis of the interviewees ................................................... 107 6.4 The reliability of the questionnaire instruments .............................................. 108 6.5 Satisfaction with the current accounting information system .......................... 108 6.6 Using packages to assist in analysing an accounting data within accounting information systems ................................................................................................... 110 6.7 Awareness and knowledge of data mining ...................................................... 111 6.8 Data mining technologies implementation ...................................................... 113 6.9 Research questions discussion ......................................................................... 114 6.9.1 Jordanian publicly listed companies' management styles ........................ 114 6.9.2 Relationship between managers' attitudes towards IT and DM and their styles of management ............................................................................................. 120 x