The Impacts of Emerging Technologies on Accountants’ Role and Skills: Connecting to Open Innovation—A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Purpose: This paper reviews the recent accounting literature focusing on emerging technologies’ impacts on accountants’ role and skills. Specifically, it determines what emerging technologies are most studied concerning their impacts on accountants’ role and skills, which research strategies are used in the studies that focus on this theme, and the impacts of the identified emerging technologies on accountants’ skills. It also investigates whether open innovation is an influencing factor in this connection. Methodology: Through a systematic literature review following the five-step approach described by Denyer and Tranfield, the Web of Science and Scopus databases are used as a source of article collection. Thus, our analysis starts with a total of 157 articles. Findings: The main analytical results of the study identify the skills that today’s accountants must have and what role is assigned to them. Practical implications: Professional bodies and regulators may take the results into account in informing the revision of standards, rules, and laws for the new environment. Educational institutions can use the results to adjust their programs to prepare students with the skills employers expect them to have. Contribution: This study provides an integrated understanding of the implications of recent technological developments on the accountant’s role and skills that have been hitherto discussed in the existing literature in a fragmented way. Future research suggestions are also provided, based on identified gaps in the literature, assisting other researchers in finding a way to augment knowledge in this area.

Keywords

• accountant
• accounting
• artificial intelligence
• big data
• blockchain
• emerging technologies