Accounting Education in the Era of Digitalization: A systematic Review

Abstract

Accounting and auditing have long been regarded as conventional professions, operating as per a core set of rules and principles that are seldom challenged. Nevertheless, the current global wave of digital technologies has been increasingly challenging the industry itself, which many argue would become unrecognizable in the next couple of years.

To address the challenge of such an ever-lasting fast-paced digital transformation, accounting professionals need to become change of agents through developing their transformative capabilities. One way to realize this is through rejuvenating the accounting education and curriculums. Herlo (2018) argues that transformative capabilities essentially boil down to acquiring the capacity to learn and innovate, and that they are tightly linked to the “learning outcomes” defined by higher education institutions. Therefore, it is highly important to research and map the educational teaching methods and learning processes that have been found effective in developing the transformative capabilities of accounting professionals in the conditions of digitalization.

The 48 captured articles in SCOPUS from 2000 onwards will serve to better understand the changes that occurred at the level of accounting education as a result of the digitalization of accounting. Furthermore, this review will contribute to clearly understanding the mechanics, teaching methods, and learning processes through which accounting education can facilitate attaining the needed transformative capabilities to match the pace of digitalization. Finally, this paper can serve as a guide for the practitioners seeking to better understand the impact of digitalization on accounting education systematically, namely with regards to the responsive measures which have been taken so far.