Management Accountants' Skills and Competencies

Abstract

Information technology has profoundly disrupted the world as we know it. Advances in technology have enabled management accountants to gain access to an unprecedented amount of information, through the use of business analytics and machine learning tools. This research delves deeper into the above described context, in an attempt to collect empirical data on how business analytics tools have reshaped the modern day accounting profession and how they will continue to shape the future, according to management accountants themselves. In an effort to investigate the topic, several semi-structured interviews were conducted with management accounting professionals. Through the qualitative analysis of their contributions, the authors draw conclusions on how business analytics tools have affected their professional career, how they expect their future to be shaped, and to what extent they believe technology has allowed them to become more efficient.