High Acceptance, Low Adoption? Professional Identity, Accountability, and the Boundaries of Digital Adoption in Internal Auditing

This study investigates the persistent gap between technology acceptance and actual technology adoption among internal auditors in Thai public universities. While digital technologies are widely promoted as essential to contemporary audit practice, favorable perceptions do not consistently translate into meaningful integration. Drawing on qualitative data from ten in-depth interviews, this study explores how auditors interpret and negotiate digital technology within high-accountability professional environments. The findings reveal that adoption is shaped not only by perceived usefulness but also by professional identity preservation, perceived redistribution of authority, accountability-driven anxiety, cognitive demands, and constrained self-efficacy. Digital tools are not encountered as neutral instruments; rather, they are evaluated in relation to professional legitimacy, risk exposure, and confidence under scrutiny. The study argues that prevailing technology acceptance models overemphasize cognitive determinants while underestimating identity-mediated and emotion-mediated mechanisms. By analytically distinguishing acceptance from adoption, this research advances a more critical and context-sensitive understanding of digital transformation in expert professions. Sustainable adoption requires not only technical readiness but alignment with professional identity, authority structures, and psychological safety.