Issues around firm level classification of IT investment

This paper describes two stages of research-in-progress studying the classification of IT investment from the accounting perspective. It addresses the overlooked input side of IT business value research and explores how firms report and classify IT asset and expenses. In the part of the study, we found only 8% of firms report their IT expenditure separately from other forms of expenditure, a finding inconsistent with the increased reliance on IT in modern business practice. In the second part, we further explore the accounting and financial reporting standards that lead to the first finding. The research highlights issues related to inconsistency in reporting of IT at the firm level.