Title: Spreadsheets: risk from the shadow

Authors: Lazar Raković; Marton Sakal; Stojanka Dakić; Jovica Đurković

Addresses: Department of Business Informatics and Quantitative Methods, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, University of Novi Sad, Segedinski Put 9-11, 24000, Subotica, Serbia ' Department of Business Informatics and Quantitative Methods, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, University of Novi Sad, Segedinski Put 9-11, 24000, Subotica, Serbia ' Department of Business Informatics and Quantitative Methods, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, University of Novi Sad, Segedinski Put 9-11, 24000, Subotica, Serbia ' Department of Business Informatics and Quantitative Methods, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, University of Novi Sad, Segedinski Put 9-11, 24000, Subotica, Serbia

Abstract: The aim of the paper was to look into the degree of awareness among end users of the existence of spreadsheet risks. A systematic overview of literature resulted in identifying research questions, to which answers were given by analysing data gathered by means of a field survey. The research included 161 respondents. Despite the opinion that spreadsheets are very important for performing their tasks to a significant extent, the respondents think that their use is not combined to a significant extent with risks such as errors, credibility, security, data abuse, and poor analysis that may result in making wrong decisions, lack of version control, inadequate qualifications of users, lack of spreadsheet development guidelines, loss of data, breach of legal regulations, and unauthorised access to data. The majority of organisations where the respondents are employed do not possess defined spreadsheet risk management strategies, nor have adopted standards and rules for spreadsheet use.

Keywords: spreadsheet; risk; shadow IT.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIS.2022.126027

International Journal of Business Information Systems, 2022 Vol.41 No.1, pp.1 - 19

Received: 02 Sep 2019
Accepted: 30 Dec 2019
Published online: 10 Oct 2022 *

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