Management Accounting 4.0: The Future of Management Accounting

Recent advances in technology have motivated and facilitated a revolution in the manufacturing domain, named “Industry 4.0.” Industry 4.0 significantly changes the manufacturing paradigm by linking the physical world with its virtual model, enabling communications among machines, enhancing collaborations across the value creation chain, and increasing intelligence in the manufacturing process. Those changes are also expected to dramatically influence current business models and impact the management accounting domain. The profession may adjust existing procedures to adapt to these changes or invent novel approaches to improve analyses and decision-making, and will likely become more intelligent and automated. This paper explores a new management accounting paradigm: Management Accounting 4.0 using the organizing principles of accounting information systems meta-theory model. We further establish a roadmap toward the new paradigm from the perspectives of vision, strategy approach, requirements, and priority areas.