ABSTRACT
The aim of this book chapter is to explore how accounting professionals working at small- and medium-sized accounting firms deal with digital transformation. Accountants hired by those accounting firms carry their employer’s ambitions and visions in relation to digitalisation. Yet, they work with clients, often small- and medium-sized enterprises, whose readiness regarding digitalisation might vary. As a result, professional accountants navigate their own digitalisation journey, while handling the needs of their clients and the wishes of their employer. This book chapter explores how accounting professionals in Norway and Sweden deal with digital transformation at the interface between firms’ and clients’ needs. The findings show that professional accountants are “in between” their clients and employer, navigating between four paradoxical tensions, labelled as: coercive versus enabling technological development, digitalisation strategy of the accounting firm versus the readiness of the client, interacting with clients versus being part of a professional industry, and staying versus leaving the industry.
