THE IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION ON THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION IN ROMANIA – A QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

The intensification of business globalisation, the large-scale extension of digitalisation in the business sphere, and the acceleration of technological progress as a result of research-development-innovation, are strongly influencing and impacting on the strategic and competitive objectives of companies, and implicitly on business models, leading to a redesign of management strategy towards the market, and towards traditional business models that are progressively replaced by other business models, in a new optic based on maximising competitive advantages. The aim of this research is to provide a comprehensive perspective on the impact that the digitisation process is having on business and implicitly on the accounting profession from the perspective of accounting professionals. The methodology of the study was based on the use of a quantitative research using a questionnaire as a research tool, in order to collect the data necessary to achieve the purpose and which was addressed to accounting professionals in Romania, namely in the north-east of the country. The results of the research highlighted the primary role of accounting professionals in the context of paradigm shifts from traditional to digitized accounting, to ensure a high level of service to management, with notable effects on business sustainability. The study is highly useful for the state and regulatory bodies that can adapt their future policies and strategies in the field of accounting and taxation, the academic world that must urgently adapt its university curriculum to the new realities imposed by the expansion of the phenomenon of digitization in accounting practices, as well as the management of entities that must identify the real opportunities of the use of digitization in the entity with medium and long-term effects on the creation of added value for it.