Individual- and Firm-level Determinants of Management Accountants´' Digital Competence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17524/repec.v19.e3570Keywords:
Controllership, Profession, Digital Competency, Digitalization, Scale DevelopmentAbstract
Objective: Propose an instrument to capture digital competence in Mas and identify the most relevant individual- and firm-level factors associated with the digital competence of MAs.
Method: We survey 109 MAs to develop and validate a 10-item digital competence scale, following the methodological steps of scale development (items generation, scale construction, dimensionality assessment, reliability, and validity) and data analysis (exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis). We also examine individual (position, experience, generation, gender, education) and firm-level (data analytics department, tech affinity, size, digital transformation) variables.
Results: Our results show that individual factors are significantly associated with MAs’ digital competence. Specifically, digital competence declines with age but is higher among MAs who hold a controller position and those with greater interest in technology. Also, we find that MAs’ digital competence is negatively associated with the presence of an independent data analytics department within the organization.
Contributions: This article offers several contributions. First, it advances management accounting literature on digitalization by showing that individual characteristics play a key role in enhancing digital competence within the accounting and finance function. Second, it provides a methodological contribution by introducing a novel scale to measure management accountants’ digital competence. Finally, it offers practical insights, suggesting that independent data analytics departments may actually hinder MAs’ development of digital competence.
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