Recent Trends in Accounting and Information System Research: A Literature Review Using Textual Analysis Tools

Abstract

Accounting has been evolving to follow the latest economic, political, social, and technological developments. Therefore, there is a need for researchers to also include in their research agenda the emerging topics in the accounting area. This exploratory paper selects technological matters in accounting as its research object, proposing a literature review that uses archival research as a method and content analysis as a technique. Using different tools for the assessment of qualitative data, this content analysis provides a summary of those papers, such as their main topics, most frequent words, and cluster analysis. A top journal was used as the source of information, namely The International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, given its scope, which links accounting and technological matters. Data from 2000 to 2022 was selected to provide an evolutive analysis since the beginning of this century, with a particular focus on the latest period. The findings indicate that the recent discussions and trending topics in accounting, including matters such as international regulation, the sustainable perspective in accounting, as well as new methods, channels, and processes for improving the entities’ auditing and reporting, have increased their relevance and influence, enriching the debate and future perspectives in combination with the use of new technologies. Therefore, this seems to be a path to follow as an avenue for future research. Notwithstanding, emerging technologies as a research topic seem to be slower or less evident than their apparent development in the accounting area. The findings from this paper are limited to a single journal and, therefore, this limitation must be considered in the context of those conclusions. Notwithstanding, its proposed analysis may contribute to the profession, academia, and the scientific community overall, enabling the identification of the state of the art of literature in the technological area of accounting.