Accounting and accountability in the digitalisation and technology transformation era: opportunities and challenges for the global emerging markets

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Introduction

Digitalisation and technology transformation have become emerging issues, with opportunities and challenges for businesses and organisations to embrace changes in their strategies and operations. Accounting, corporate governance, and accountability are essential aspects of organisations, which indeed need to respond to those changes. According to Shehadeh & Hussainey (2025) the rise of cashless payment systems and digital financial literacy has fostered greater financial inclusion, particularly in emerging markets. In addition, Abdelwahed et al., 2025 argue that “Big Data and analytics have become critical for enhancing audit quality and financial reporting, providing data-driven insights that enhance accuracy and reliability”. Especially, artificial intelligence (AI) has led to significant changes in organisational structure and its function. Agnese et al. (2025) support the idea of a synergic action between human agents and artificial intelligence technologies to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the board of directors, while De Villiers et al. (2024) highlight the implications of generative AI for sustainability accounting, reporting, assurance and report usage.

However, accounting, corporate governance, and accountability face numerous challenges caused by the rapid development of technology and digitalisation. First, regarding the regulations and guidance from policymakers and professional bodies, according to Leitner-Hanetseder et al. (2022), from analysing the current International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) regulations and their applicability, the authors argue that current regulations are insufficient to provide useful information on the value of data. Second, from the organisational level, Gregory (2023) advises that as a transformative technology, AI has the capacity to disrupt entire industries, creating new business opportunities and presenting new risks for companies that require the attention of the board of directors. Also, AI adoption raises considerable concerns about the potential for misuse and unintended consequences (Alaskar et al., 2025). Therefore, the boards and management teams need to consider their accountability in the usage of AI, and the potential impact on employees, customers, other key stakeholders, and the environment (Gregory, 2023). Third, from a broader society perspective, digitalisation and technology transformation will result in significant changes in various aspects of accounting and finance sector, for example, tasks and skills for existing professional occupations in the broader accounting context will be subject to major changes in the next 10 years due to AI based digital technologies (Leitner-Hanetseder et al., 2021). In addition, ethical consideration is also a serious issue in the technology transformation process due to the privacy and confidentiality of information, as well as the misuse of information (ICAEW, 2024), particularly, data security, accountability, and accessibility and the trust of technologies are major concerns in accounting practice (Alaskar et al., 2025; Zhang et al., 2023). 
       
In addition, in the context of emerging markets, several hurdles such as data scarcity, human resource constraints, and regulatory obstacles amid institutional voids have been recognised as challenges in the technology transformation in emerging economies (Moharrak et al., 2024).

This special issue explores how accounting, corporate governance and accountability have changed in response to digitalisation and technology transformation. The special issue also examines the impact of digitalisation and technology transformation on organisations' performance (from financial and non-financial aspects) in consideration of corporate governance, accountability and under sustainability pressure in the context of emerging economies.

List of Topic Areas

• Reshaping accounting, accountability and corporate governance in response to digitalisation and technology transformation.
• The impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Blockchain Technology, and Financial Technology on firm operation and performance (financial and non-financial), including sustainability reporting.
• Board of directors (including the structure and composition of the board, sub-committee of the board) and AI.
• Social, health, and environmental accounting, including Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in emerging economies in the digitalisation era.
• Developing theoretical frameworks to explore the impact of digitalisation and technology transformation on accounting and corporate governance practice.
• Ethical issues and considerations in accounting and corporate governance practice and education.

Guest Editors 

Professor Tam Nguyen, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, UK, tam.nguyen02@ntu.ac.uk 

Associate Prof. Subhan Ullah, Nottingham University Business School, University of Nottingham, UK, Subhan.ullah@nottingham.ac.uk

Associate Prof. Hanh Le, Ton Duc Thang University, Vietnam, lethimyhanh@tdtu.edu.vn

Associate Prof. Ngoc Anh Mai, Academy of Finance, Vietnam, maingocanh@hvtc.edu.vn

Submissions Information

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Author Guidelines

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”. 

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

Key Deadlines

Opening date for manuscripts submissions: 1st December 2025

Closing date for manuscripts submission: 31st March 2026