Exploring External Auditors’ Intention to Adopt Big DataAnalytics: The Moderating Role of Perceived Risk

External auditing is a profession dependent on data-driven technologies to satisfy the ‎increasing expectations of regulators and stakeholders, and it is knowledge-intensive. The ‎use of Big Data Analytics (BDA) can significantly improve the quality, efficiency, and risk ‎assessment of audits. This study examines the factors that influence the behavioural ‎intentions of external auditors in Jordan using big data analytics (BDA). This study ‎implemented a quantitative and exploratory methodology by collecting and analysing data ‎from 177 external auditors. The research results indicate that perceived usefulness and ease ‎of use emerged as significant predictors. Perceived risk significantly moderated the ‎relationship between perceived usefulness and behavioural intention, but had no significant ‎effect on the relationship between perceived ease of use and intention. This study makes a ‎substantial contribution to theory by extending the TAM by incorporating perceived risk as ‎a moderating variable in the context of BDA adoption. It provides novel insights from an ‎emerging economy, highlighting the role of risk perception in shaping auditors’ ‎behaviour. This study provides essential knowledge for audit firms and BDA providers by ‎identifying the factors that influence auditors’ intentions to adopt data analytics tools‎.