Digital Transformation in Business and Accounting:Emerging Trends, Challenges, and Future ResearchDirections
Keywords:
Digital transformation, Accounting digitalisation, Artificial intelligence, Auditing and governanceAbstract
This article reviews digital transformation in business and accounting byexamining how digital technologies are reshaping organisationalpractices, accounting systems, auditing, financial reporting, andgovernance. It aims to clarify digital transformation as a strategic,technological, organisational, and professional phenomenon rather than anarrow process of technology adoption. The article adopts a structuredreview approach by synthesising recent literature on digitaltransformation, digital businessmodels, accounting information systems,emerging technologies, auditing, cybersecurity, ethics, and governance.The review integrates insights from business, accounting, informationsystems, and management research. The review shows that digitaltransformation is changing how firms create value, make decisions,manage operations, engage customers, organise supply chains, and pursueinnovation. In accounting, technologies such as artificial intelligence, bigdata analytics, cloud computing, blockchain, robotic process automation,and generative AI are transforming bookkeeping, reporting, assurance, taxcompliance, internal control, and financial analysis. However, thesedevelopments also create risks related to digital skills gaps, data quality,legacy systems, cybersecurity, privacy, algorithmic bias, ethicalaccountability, regulatory uncertainty, and uneven adoption. The articleprovides an integrated perspective on business and accountingtransformation by linking digital technologies with organisational change,professional roles, governance issues, and future research needs.
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