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Abstract: This study investigates whether aspiring and professional accountants understand the benefits and security challenges brought by emerging technologies such as: Big Data, data analytics, cloud computing and mobile technologies. 115 participants took part in a survey during January and February 2017, all having at least one year of practical experience in accounting or audit and 80% of them being affiliated with national or international accounting professional bodies. The research has three key findings: (1) Professional accountants and auditors are having in average a theoretical knowledge of the emerging technologies in the accounting field, but they still need to enhance their skills to exploit them efficiently, (2) Mobile technologies started to be adopted by the Romanian practitioners and (3) The profession has become aware of the security risks brought by emerging technologies in the digital accounting. The accounting profession is on the verge of change and the practitioners do not yet possess sufficient skills regarding the analyzed emerging technologies. As per this, the professional bodies and academic environment should reassess their curricula to enforce the necessary changes for preparing practitioners to successfully face the future challenges and avoid their replacement by other professions more qualified.
Keywords: cloud computing, mobile technologies, Big Data, data analytics, security threats
JEL codes: L86, M41, O33
1.Introduction
Nowadays the business environment has become extremely dynamic due to the rapid changes in the information technology field, driven by competition and performance. New technologies are designed to cover the broad range of economic demands, such as Big Data, data analytics, mobile technologies and cloud computing platforms, all of these meant to offer flexibility, economies of scale, mobility and more accuracy.
The accounting field is subject to this new era of change. The IoE (Internet of Everything) era is reshaping the accounting profession following the current needs of the organizations. Artificial intelligence and process automation are taking over the redundant and repetitive tasks performed by the professionals, creating room for more complex activities, such as analysis and business advisory.
Researchers are emphasizing that some processes from the accounting field might be taken over by robotics (Frey and Osborne, 2013) and part of the accounting profession will disappear. Even so, along the time we have observed that technology is not meant to replace...