Purpose: This paper reviews the recent accounting literature focusing on emerging technologies’ impacts on accountants’ role and skills. Specifically, it determines what emerging technologies are most studied concerning their impacts on accountants’ role and skills, which research strategies are used in the studies that focus on this theme, and the impacts of the identified emerging technologies on accountants’ skills. It also investigates whether open innovation is an influencing factor in this connection. Methodology: Through a systematic literature review following the five-step approach described by Denyer and Tranfield, the Web of Science and Scopus databases are used as a source of article collection. Thus, our analysis starts with a total of 157 articles. Findings: The main analytical results of the study identify the skills that today’s accountants must have and what role is assigned to them. Practical implications: Professional bodies and regulators may take the results into account in informing the revision of standards, rules, and laws for the new environment. Educational institutions can use the results to adjust their programs to prepare students with the skills employers expect them to have. Contribution: This study provides an integrated understanding of the implications of recent technological developments on the accountant’s role and skills that have been hitherto discussed in the existing literature in a fragmented way. Future research suggestions are also provided, based on identified gaps in the literature, assisting other researchers in finding a way to augment knowledge in this area.

PurposeHigher education internships have been studied in different aspects, mainly from the student or university perspective. To contribute to the understanding of the third actor in this type of university-industry cooperation, the paper examines employers' perspectives on higher education internships.Design/methodology/approachThrough a literature review and based on Narayanan et al. (2010) conceptual model, an a priori model was developed, which was then validated by a multiple-case study in a Portuguese undergraduate course.FindingsThe findings reveal rich and meaningful insights into an under-researched area, including validation of seven antecedents, two processes and six outcomes of internships from the employer's perspective. This research showed that employers give great importance to outcomes of internships, either in terms of productivity, possible future recruitment, inflow of ideas, behaviours and competences or the intern's satisfaction.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest the need for universities to undertake more collaboration with industry, as the employers made weak references to the creation and maintenance of ties with the educational institution, denoting low motivation. On the other hand, most of the outcomes for employers found in the literature are confirmed, except for the continued inflow of ideas construct. This may evidence some lack of strategic thinking related to the internship programs on part of the employers.Originality/valueThis paper validates and extends the dispersed findings of existing research by providing a useful, unifying conceptual model of the employer's perspective on higher education internships, which can be tested at other levels of education or in other countries.

This paper reviews accounting education literature with a focus on the supply of and demand for an accounting professional’s competencies. Its main objective is to determine which actors are involved in the relationship, ascertain both sides’ perspectives, and evidence of competency supply and demand over the last 15 years. After a solid selection, the analysis includes 122 empirical articles from 2006 to 2021. The actors and competencies addressed in the relevant literature were identified and strategies used in their assessment were discovered. The identified competencies were then categorized and framed in the five constructs presented by Kroon and Alves. This approach evidenced that mismatches remain between competency expectations and competency supply in the accounting profession. Investigators may consider the results to improve the consistency of research in this field of study, contributing to a theory that is still lacking. Using the identified concepts and the constructs’ components, empirical studies can bring substantial practical implications to reduce or eliminate existing competency gaps. This study provides an integrated understanding of the literature on the fit between higher education institutions and the labor market of the accounting professional’s competencies. The framing of actors, strategies, and competencies will assist other researchers in augmenting knowledge in this area.