Bulletin of
Vitebsk State
Technological
University

Abstract

The current stage of economic development is aimed at actively introducing innovations into all spheres of society, including financial control and auditing. This has led to the emergence of two closely related concepts: audit of innovation activity and innovation audit, which many researchers consider synonymous. The audit of an organization's innovation activity, as a tool for monitoring the creation and implementation of innovations, is designed to assess the compliance of management decisions with the adopted strategy of innovative development and, ultimately, to enhance business competitiveness.

The purpose of this study is to determine the subject of innovation audit based on the systematization of theoretical studies of the areas of audit of innovative activities within organizations and the analysis of opinions from business community representatives to identify the factors determining the subject of innovation audit in real business contexts.

The study’s objectives were achieved using methods of comparative analysis, quantitative and statistical analysis, deduction and induction. The research materials included data from an expert survey of managers and specialists in economic services of organizations in the Vitebsk region.

As a result of a theoretical examination of the essence of audit innovation activities and innovation audit, a differentiation of these concepts is proposed. Innovation audit is associated with innovations in technologies for collecting, processing and analyzing information about various aspects of business activity, including innovation. In contrast, audit of innovation activities has its own distinct subject and is specified by a number of special control and consulting procedures. The research highlights the versatility of the subject of innovation audit, encompassing an assessment of the organization’s innovative potential, the level of novelty of developments, the commercialization possibilities, accurate accounting for innovation costs, the effectiveness of innovation activities by comparing the costs of innovation and organization’s benefits; identification and elimination of violations in the use of targeted financing; prevention of adverse regulatory decisions, including the use of tax benefits; recommendations for optimizing the organization's innovation policy. The study concluded that business’ size, ownership form, and sources of financing for innovations were determined as factors influencing the selected areas of audit services.

Innovation audit: theoretical and practical aspects