The growing dissemination of digital technologies has had an incomparable impact on many dimensions of today’s civilisation. Digital transformation (DT) redefined the industrial structures and reinvented business models. Hence, in the face of Industry 4.0, financial and accounting services face new threats, challenges, and opportunities. How do the business players in the accounting sector perceive this phenomenon? This paper aims to answer this question by following a qualitative and exploratory approach, applied to three case studies, using semi-structured interviews. The study shows that although digital transformation in Portuguese small and medium-sized accounting service enterprises is just starting, Industry 4.0 technologies, optical character recognition (OCR), artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and enterprise resource planning (ERP) in the cloud were the technologies singled out by respondents. Resistance to change, organisational culture and price seem to be the main barriers to DT in accounting. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the role of accounting and accountants in organisations and society in the context of the digital era. Moreover, it provides practical insights into the potential relationship between technological (specifically digital) development and labour market dynamics for accounting professionals.

This study develops an empirical model for accounting information systems’ quality. The paper identifies the manufacturing industry, intensity of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and internal control system quality as critical factors for the accounting information system quality. It empirically tests their relative importance, as well as the interrelationships between each variable. We use technology domain theory as a theoretical lens because it encompasses key interrelationships between technology, organization science and cognitive processes necessary to explain the complex relationship between different organizational artifacts. A survey was conducted using managers of 381 firms from different economic sectors. The findings demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between the intensity of AI adoption and the manufacturing industry and the internal control system quality, which in turn contributes to the accounting information system quality.

This paper assesses the relationship between open innovation and competitive advantage and the mediating effect of organizational strategy. Using a quantitative methodological approach with survey data from 251 Portuguese hotel executive directors’ small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this research adopted a quantitative methodological approach, thereby conducting an exploratory and transversal study. Findings show that (1) open innovation influences organizational strategy and (2) organizational strategy enhances competitive advantage. Moreover, the results also highlight that (3) organizational strategy has a mediating effect between open innovation and competitive advantage. The paper provides relevant insights that will lead the firms’ top managers to design and implement strategies and define effective government policies, programs, and incentives to support the development of the firms’ open innovation model in the hospitality sector considering the new smart society and smart cities growing environment.

Sustainability has become one of the main drivers of organizational performance. This study investigates the integration of sustainability with the balanced scorecard (BSC) as a framework for translating environmental management strategy into organizational performance. This review also seeks to map sustainability balanced scorecard (SBSC) research, clarifying its current role and identifying gaps and opportunities for future research. To achieve this, we sourced and reviewed 247 publications from the Web of Science index, corresponding to 129 scientific journals and 57 conference proceedings. Our analysis included content analysis and bibliometric analysis performed using the R packages Bibliometrix (version: 4.3.5), Biblioshiny, and CiteSpace (6.3.R1 Basic). The findings revealed that the SBSC enhances organizational capacity to align sustainability with strategic objectives, although significant implementation barriers remain, such as the selection of appropriate sustainability indicators and organizational resistance. This study contributes to advancing the theoretical and practical understanding of the SBSC while offering pathways for future research and application across sectors.

Gender diversity and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance reporting are critical to corporate sustainability. This study aims to analyze the impact of gender diversity on ESG performance reporting and the mediating effect of the workforce and sustainability reports, considering that these variables are crucial for ESG performance reporting. To achieve the objective, an empirical analysis was conducted with 207 European-listed companies belonging to the healthcare sector for the economic years 2017–2021. Our results prove that board gender diversity influences ESG performance reporting. In addition, this research shows that the workforce and sustainability reports have a positive impact on ESG performance reporting. This study does not show that the workforce and sustainability reports act as mediating variables in the relationship between gender diversity and ESG information transparency, but its inclusiveness has a significant impact on ESG performance reporting. Our results are useful for companies, investors, governments, and organizations in developing sustainability reporting standards.

This study explores the relationship between corporate financial performance and ESG, reporting performance across all three ESG pillars: Environmental, Social, and Governance. We used a robust panel dataset of over 28,274 firm-year observations from listed companies worldwide (covering 2019–2023), combining financial metrics and ESG performance scores from the Refinitiv database. Panel regression results indicate that more profitable firms (measured by Net Income and Return on Assets (ROA)) exhibit statistically significant higher ESG performance across all three pillars, reinforcing the view that financial strength supports more comprehensive sustainability efforts. By contrast, firms with more ESG controversies attain significantly lower ESG scores, suggesting that incidents of misconduct or governance failures undermine sustainability reporting credibility. These findings contribute to the literature by empirically validating the dual role of financial success and reputational risk in shaping ESG performance. This study also offers practical insights for regulators, investors, and corporate managers. Strong profitability can facilitate improved ESG transparency, whereas proactive measures and stricter oversight are needed to address controversies, enhance accountability, and mitigate greenwashing.