Hackathon for Skills Development: An Unorthodox Approach for Audit Analytics Implementation

Technical data processing and analysis skills are critical audit analytics (AA) implementation challenges. Nevertheless, there is limited guidance on how to overcome it other than the ‘traditional’ training approach. This paper explores an unorthodox approach to dealing with issues in AA-related skills through a data analytics competition (hackathon). This study observes two hackathons that contribute to addressing AA-related skills issues. The hackathon incorporates the elements of real-world use-case and interactive engagement from the gamification concept and internal and external motivations from the competition notion. Building upon these insights, this paper proposes an emerging framework of a hackathon for skills development in AA implementation efforts. The framework’s purpose is twofold. Scientifically, it assists in understanding the role of gamification and hackathon for skills development based on knowledge creation concepts. Practically, it exemplifies how to utilize hackathons to address skill issues. Furthermore, this research also suggests promising avenues for future studies, including further evaluation to affirm or expand the proposed framework or examination of the impact of detailed elements of the proposed framework.