INNOVATION IN ACCOUNTING TASKS: EMPIRICAL STUDY IN TWO PROFESSIONAL GROUPS

. The aim of this study is to contribute to the knowledge on innovation in accounting tasks, from the point of view of two professional groups. Its goals are: evaluating the importance given by the professionals to accounting tasks; identifying whether there is convergence between the two professional groups, regarding the importance of the tasks; examining whether there is an association between the professionals’ individual characteristics and the importance they attach to the tasks. Two professional groups were surveyed: 105 financial officers of the top 500 Portuguese companies; and 412 Chartered Accountants. The results obtained allowed us to conclude that the respondents attach more importance to the traditional tasks, linked to the concept of a monetary­oriented accountant, and less importance to the more innovative tasks, related to business strategy; there is no convergence between the two professional groups in terms of the importance of the accountants’ participation in the strategic tasks. Regarding the association between individual characteristics and the level of importance assigned to the accounting tasks, we found an influence of the following characteristics: gender; academic degree of the professionals; and the institution where that degree was obtained.


Introduction
The goals of accounting have evolved over time, which made it necessary for accountants to adapt to the new business needs. However, it is not yet consensual which tasks are part of the current role of accountants within the organizations (Burns, Baldvinsdottir 2005;Yazdifar, Tsamenyi 2005). A research on this subject it is thereby justified. Additionally, several studies report the existence of a conflict between company managers and accountants, with negative consequences regarding the efficiency and the effectiveness of the companies themselves (Friedman, Lyne 2001;Baldvinsdottir et al. 2009). These studies make it relevant to analyze whether there is convergence between the different professional groups, regarding the importance assigned to accounting tasks.

Literature review
The duties of an accountant have been changing, in order to adapt to what the companies need. Some studies argue that the role of accountants has changed, from the traditional tasks of beancounters to the innovative duties of business lawyers, supporting and advising managers in strategic decisions (Burns, Baldvinsdottir 2005;Yazdifar, Tsamenyi 2005). The accountants themselves see that transition in a positive way (Byrne, Pierce 2007;Järvenpää 2007). The two responsibilities associated to the job of beancounters and business lawyers were characterized by Sathe (1983) as independence and involvement. This author concluded that only accountants who possess key personal characte ristics and qualities will be able to overcome the inherent tension between the two responsibilities, and assign the required levels of emphasis to both. Currently, we see the use of the term "hybrid" accountant as indicating someone who is equally involved in both types of the previously characterized activities (Burns, Baldvinsdottir 2005;Albu et al. 2011). Previously already, Burns et al. (1999) had quoted the emergence of hybrids accountants, combining financial expertise with commercial concerns. Recent stu dies conclude that currently accountants have to perform innovative tasks, such as consulting for and supporting fi nancial market operations (Jones 2010;McMullen, Sanchez 2011). In the perspective of Jones (2010), accountants are not restricted to accounting departments only, instead they are increasingly being sought to perform consulting work. For this purpose, they must have a knowledge of the global context and the economic environment in which the com pany operates, of the inner workings of the organization and the positions of the various stakeholders, and of the use of information technologies and the way the companies operate and apply the ethical concepts inherent to the job (Jones 2010). McMullen and Sanchez (2011) conducted a study on the involvement of accountants in issuance pro cesses of private companies' securities for listing on the stock exchange, and concluded that these professionals are specifically qualified to facilitate this type of innovative tasks. The accountants have the ability and the information knowledge the company holders need to make this decisi on, and may subsequently provide the financial and non financial information necessary to fulfill the requirements of the securities commissions (McMullen, Sanchez 2011).
There is a reasonable consensus in literature about the key factors that originate an increasing business orientation in the accountants' role, (Granlund, Lukka 1997;Järvenpää 2001;Byrne, Pierce 2007;De Loo et al. 2011). These fac tors often include: a change in market conditions; an or ganizational redesign; new management philosophies; an increase in business complexity; development systems; innovations in management techniques; developments in human resources; and the impetus for change. Scapens et al. (2003) reported the results of a survey con ducted on UK companies in two successive periods: what existed between 1995 and 2000, and what was expected for the 2000-2005 period. The authors concluded that the most important tasks in the 1995-2000 period are the so called traditional accounting tasks: business performance eva luation; cost and financial control; interpreting and presen ting the management accounts; planning, and management budgets. Regarding the forecast for the 2000-2005 period, the authors concluded that the traditional accounting tasks appeared equally positioned at the highest levels of impor tance, however new innovative tasks appeared on the list of the most important ones: strategic planning and decision making; generation and creation of value. The Scapens et al. (2003) study was replicated in Portugal for the 2000-2005 period (Vicente et al. 2009), where it was concluded that the most important tasks are: cost and financial control; interpreting and presenting the management accounts; costcutting; cost structure analysis; business performan ce evaluation. When comparing both countries, it appears that the greater proximity for the ten most important tasks happens in the 2000 to 2005 period in Portugal, and in the 1995 to 2000 period in the UK.
The literature suggests that modern accountants have adapted successfully, and are increasingly involved in the decisionmaking process, performing innovative tasks of a strategic nature (Fern, Tipgos 1988;Oliver 1991;Bhimani, Keshtvarz 1999;Rowe et al. 2008). However, the literature still has not clearly distinguished strategic from operational tasks, and therefore there is little empirical evidence on the role of accountants in strategic management. The little evi dence that exists is limited to the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. Fern and Tipgos (1988) conducted a study in the largest US companies and found that the participation of accountants in the strategic ma nagement process was surprisingly high. They announced that more than 75% of the inquired accountants were invol ved in activities associated with the strategic management process, such as: develop the mission; establish objectives; coordinate planning; formulate strategies; select best stra tegies; translate strategies into budgets; monitor past plans. Bhimani and Keshtvarz (1999) conducted a similar survey in the United Kingdom and obtained similar conclusions. Rouwelaar and Bots (2008) distributed a questionnaire to 119 accountants in Dutch business units, indicating that the involvement of accountants in the management of organi zations can take two different forms: an involvement in stra tegic decisions, or an involvement in operational decisions. The authors concluded that the involvement of accountants in strategic decisions is positively related with the compa ny's characteristics, such as the level of decentralization and the stability of the business unit performance, and the attributes of the accountants themselves, such as the level of extroversion. Rouwelaar and Bots (2008) demonstrate, therefore, that the accountants' personal characteristics are relevant for the study of their involvement in strategic and operational decisions.

Methodology
Given the objectives and according to the literature review, the following research questions were formulated: -Research question 1: What is the importance attached to the general and strategic accounting tasks? -Research question 2: Is there a difference, in the importance attached to the tasks, between the two professional groups? -Research question 3: What are the individual cha racteristics that influence the importance attached to the tasks? To answer the questions two professional groups were selected: the financial officers of the top 500 Portuguese companies; and the Chartered Accountants (CA). Given the characteristics of the populations, namely their geographi cal dispersion, we opted to collect the data through a survey.
Considering the CA population we requested the colla boration of the Chamber of Chartered Accountants (CCA). According to this entity, the CA universe in Portugal, at the start of this research, consisted of 72,975 professionals in total. For this group of respondents we chose to use a noncausal sample for convenience, because although lo sing representation this is the most appropriate solution for this study, given the high costs and the difficulties of using a random sampling process. The questionnaire for the Chartered Accountants was delivered during four CCA training sessions. In total, we received 412 replies.
The same questionnaire was distributed to the popu lation of financial officers of the top 500 Portuguese com panies, via email with a link to access the website where the questionnaire was hosted. This procedure was repeated at 15 day intervals during five months. During the fifth month of the questionnaire distribution, there were also some phone calls made, as a way to encourage the companies to colla borate with the study, in order to increase the number of replies. After these procedures, we received 105 answers out of the universe of the top 500 Portuguese companies, corresponding to 21% of the universe.
The questionnaire to the CA and the financial officers presented a list of 32 accounting tasks, adapted from Scapens et al. (2003), that the respondents were asked to rank in terms of importance, using a five point Likert scale were the ends mean 1 (unimportant) and 5 (extremely important). In order to analyze the importance perception, regarding the involvement of accountants in business tasks of a strategic scope, the CA and the financial officers were requested to grade the degree of involvement of the accountants using a Likert scale from 1 (no involvement) to 5 (total involvement) for ten tasks related with the company's strategy. The tasks considered were based on the studies of Fern and Tipgos (1988), and Bhimani and Keshtvarz (1999). At the end of the questionnaire the respondents were asked to provide some demographic data, namely: age, gender, academic degree, and the institution where that degree was obtained.

Importance of the general and strategic accounting tasks
Based on the answers of the two professional groups to the survey with 32 general tasks adapted from Scapens et al. (2003), we used a Principal Component Analysis (PCA), in order to identify groups of tasks. The adequacy of the sam ple to the technique is measured either by the value of the KaiserMeyerOlkin (KMO) measure, or by Bartlett's test of sphericity. The KMO value of 0.947 means the principal components analysis is very good, while the Bartlett's test of sphericity leads to a rejection of the null hypothesis stating that the tasks are independent (Bartlett (435) = 8346.453; p < 0.001), which means that there are significant correlations between the various tasks. On the other hand, the sample also has a suitable size since there are more than five in dividuals for each task included in the analysis. Different solutions were analyzed (number of components to retain), and then we opted for the five principal components so lution fulfilling the Kaiser criterion, which states that the components with eigenvalue higher than one should be re tained (Hair et al. 2010). Note that two tasks were excluded from the analysis (support and advice on matters regarding accounting policies, and financial regulation and external reporting), where their commonality (proportion of task variance explained by the retained components) presen ted a value inferior to 0.5. The five principal components explain 64.4% of the total variance of the initial data, being a value higher than 60% normally considered as reference in social sciences (Hair et al. 2010).
In Appendix 1 the summarized results are presented, indicating for each principal component the tasks with greater weight after the orthogonal rotation "varimax", the variance explained by the component, and the indicator of internal consistency of the component (Cronbach's alpha). Each task was attributed to the component where it presen ted the greater weight, higher than 0.4, and all components presented good internal consistency (Alphas above 0.70). The weight analysis allows us to classify the accounting tasks into five categories: provisional analysis and results; cost analysis; relationship with third parties; information systems; business reporting.
The first category, called provisional analysis and results, groups 11 internal tasks related to the company's operation, in terms of forecasting for the long, medium and short term, and the analysis of results. The next category, called cost analysis, groups 5 tasks related with internal activities that focus on the observation of cost behavior within the orga nization. The third category, called relationship with third parties, groups 7 tasks originating from the analysis of the competition and of the organization's surrounding envi ronment, foreign exchange management, and relationship with customers, suppliers and employees. The next category, called information systems, groups 3 tasks related with the design, implementation, management and supervision of the management information systems, as well as the acti vities linked with the analysis and interpretation of that information. The last category, called business reporting, groups the 4 tasks related with taxation and account analy sis, and also the activities related to payments, receivables and the management of loans.
Based on the results of the PCA and the internal consisten cy of each of the categories (measured by Cronbach's Alpha), we chose to operationalize the categories in terms of indexes, i.e., for each respondent the importance of a category of tasks corresponds to the average of the replies of that respondent to the set of tasks constituting the category. The importance of each task category is therefore measured on a continuous scale from 1 (unimportant) to 5 (extremely important).
The analysis of Table 1 shows that the more important task categories are related with the business reporting tasks, to which half the respondents assigned an importance of 4.25, at the highest, while the average value of importance was 4.19. In second place appear the tasks related to cost analysis, with a median of 3.80 and an average of 3.72. In the last three places of importance we can find the remaining ca tegories: information systems (median = 3.67 and average = 3.46); provisional analysis and results (median = 3.45 and average = 3.39); relationship with third parties (median = 3.14 and average = 3.07). These results show a higher level of importance attributed to traditional accounting, linked to the concept of an accountant oriented to the monetary aspects, and not to the concept of innovative tasks, which is not convergent with the needs of the companies, according to the literature review (Scapens et al. 2003;Jones 2010;McMullen, Sanchez 2011).
Regarding the involvement of accountants in the 10 strategic tasks defined by Fern and Tipgos (1988), and Bhimani and Keshtvarz (1999), we used a PCA in order to group the strategic tasks into categories, following what was done for the analysis of the accountants' general tasks. Sample adequacy is very good (KMO = 0.933; Bartlett (45) = 4907.734; p < 0.001). The PCA results lead to a solution with only one principal component, which includes the 10 tasks, and explains 71.5% of the total variance of the ini tial data. This component was called strategic tasks and is operationalized through an index, i.e., the average of the respondents' replies to the 10 tasks, being its scale from 1 (no involvement) to 5 (total involvement). Note that all com monalities are greater than 0.646, and the component has good internal consistency, since Cronbach's Alpha is equal to 0.955 (see Appendix 2). The average involvement is 3.12 (SD = 0.93), meaning the professionals recognize that there must be a moderate level of involvement of the accountants in the strategic tasks.
The results obtained differ from those of other studies conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom. Fern and Tipgos (1988) report that the participation of accountants in the strategic management process is sur prisingly high. Bhimani and Keshtvarz (1999) conducted a similar investigation in the United Kingdom, having ob tained similar conclusions to the study of Fern and Tipgos (1988), diverging therefore from the results obtained now in Portugal. This comparison allow us to conclude that accoun ting in Portugal, when compared with other countries, is still very much focused on the monetary aspects and inte rested in the traditional tasks of cost control and external reporting, rather than on the more innovative tasks related with business strategy.

Effect of the professional group on task importance
The analysis of professional group influence on the impor tance of general and strategic tasks was carried out using the six categories resulting from the two PCA analysis: provisional analysis and results; cost analysis; relationship with third parties; information systems; external reporting; strategic tasks. obvious that the CA value more all task categories than the financial officers.
The order of importance of the categories shows that the differences exist only from the third position onwards. The task category related with business reporting is the most important for the CA (average = 4.26; SD = 0.59) and for the financial officers (average = 3.90; SD = 0.76). With the next level of importance comes cost analysis, with an average of 3.84 (SD = 0.67) and 3.28 (SD = 0.94), respectively for the CA and the financial officers. In the third and fourth places of importance there is a difference of opinion between the two professional groups. The CA consider in third place the category of provisional analysis and results (average = 3.57; SD = 0.59), and in fourth the information systems (average = 3.52; SD = 0.74); while for the financial officers the categories are reversed; in the third level of importance comes the category of information systems (average = 3.22; SD = 0.88), and only after that the category of provisional analysis and results (average = 2.79; SD = 0.98). In the last two places of importance the positions are also reversed in terms of the opinions of the CA and the financial officers.
Comparing the task categories according to the profes sional groups shows that accountants attach more impor tance to all task categories than the financial officers. The CA give an average level of importance above 3 (central point of the scale) to all task categories, while the financial officers only give an average above 3 to three task categories: business reporting; cost analysis; information systems.

Effect of individual characteristics on task importance
At this point we analyzed possible associations betwe en the individual characteristics of the respondents and the importance attached to the six task categories. The characteristics of the professionals analyzed are gender, age group, academic degree, and the institution where that degree was obtained.
With regard to the gender of the respondents, the CA present a balanced distribution, where 46% are male and 54% female. Financial officers have a much less balanced distribution, as only one third are female. Tables 3 and 4 suggest that females attach a slightly higher importance to the various task categories, being this evidence stronger in the task category of provisional analysis and results (ETA = 0.109), where the average importance is 3.47 for the females and 3.30 for the males. The slight differences between gen ders always translate into weak relationships between gen der and the importance of each task (very low Eta values).
With regard to the respondents' age, only 9% of the CA are between 21 and 30 years old, with the highest frequency being between 31 and 40 years old (46%). In the group of financial officers, only 1% are between 21 and 30 years old, almost half (48%) are between 31 and 40 years old, 32% are between 41 and 50 years old, and the remaining 19% are older than 51 years old. Tables 5 and 6 suggest that younger professionals tend to attach less importance to the task cate gory of information systems, being the average importance of 3.37 for the professionals between 31 and 40 years old and 3.58 for the professionals over the age of 50. The slight Regarding the academic degree of the respondents, the majority (77%) of the CA is a college graduate, with a licen tiate or a bachelor's degree, and only 12% have a secondary level education or equivalent. In the financial officers group there is a small minority (2%) with a secondary level edu cation, while the vast majority are college graduates (79%). Tables 7 and 8 suggest that the professionals with higher aca demic education attach less importance to the task catego ries, when compared with the professionals with lower aca demic education. In each of the task categories the highest averages of importance (between 4.29 for external reporting and 3.31 for the strategic tasks) are from the professionals with a secondary level education. On the other hand, the lowest averages (between 4.09 for external reporting and 2.86 for the strategic tasks) are from the professionals with a higher academic education. The analysis conducted, whether by analyzing the ave rages or by analyzing the Spearman correlations, suggests that the greater the academic degree the lower tends to be the importance attached to the accounting tasks. This as sociation is particularly evident in the relationship with third parties, strategic tasks and information systems task categories.
Regarding the academic institution that conferred the degree, 7% of the CA obtained their degree in secondary schools and training centers, 43% in polytechnics institu tes, and almost half (49%) in universities. The institutions attended by the financial officers are essentially universities (72%) or polytechnic institutes (26%). Tables 9 and 10 sug gest that graduates from universities attach less importance to the task categories, when compared to graduates from polytechnic institutes. In each of the task categories the lower averages of importance (between 4.13 for external reporting, and 2.90 for relationships with third parties) are from professionals with a degree from universities. The in dividuals who attach more importance to the provisional analysis and results tasks (average = 3.56), business repor ting tasks (average = 4.27) and strategic tasks (average = 3.29) are the ones graduated from polytechnic institutes.
The relation detected between the institution that awar ded the degree and the importance of the tasks is however weak, being more intense in the provisional analysis and results (Eta = 0.206) and the relationship with third parties (Eta = 0.201) categories.

Conclusions
This study was operationalized through the formulation of three research questions that aim to meet the following objectives: analyze the importance given by the profes sionals to the accounting tasks; identify whether there is convergence between the two professional groups; examine whether there is an association between the professionals' individual characteristics and the level of importance as signed to the tasks.
To analyze the first research question we studied the level of importance given by the professionals to the accounting general and strategic tasks. The study allowed us to conclude that business reporting was the task category to which was attached the greater importance level, followed by the cost analysis category. The category to which was attached the lower importance level was relationship with third parties. These results suggest that the professionals give more im portance to the traditional tasks, linked with the concept of an accountant oriented to the monetary aspects, instead of to the more innovative tasks, which is not in line with the needs of the organizations. Regarding the strategic tasks, the results showed that the professionals attach to it a level of importance equivalent to the least important category in general tasks: relationship with third parties. These results are again divergent from what the organizations need, and go against the studies made in other countries, namely the United States and the United Kingdom, which concluded that there is a strong involvement of accountants in the more innovative tasks related to business strategy.
On the other hand, and regarding the second research question, the results showed that the CA attach a higher degree of importance to all task categories, when compared with the financial officers. This difference is particularly relevant in strategic tasks, which indicates that there is no convergence between the two professional groups regar ding the importance of the accountants' participation in strategic tasks.
Additionally, with regard to the third research question, the results showed that female professionals tend to give more importance to all task categories, when compared to their male counterparts, while age has no clear influence on the level of importance assigned to the task categories. With regard to education we concluded that the higher the academic degree of the professionals, the lower tends to be the importance given to all task categories, and that the graduates from universities tend to attach a lower level of importance to all task categories, when compared to gra duates from polytechnics.
This study contributes to the knowledge of accounting tasks for two reasons. First, because it concludes that the re is no convergence between the two professional groups inquired -the CA and the financial officers -, which does not suit what the organizations need. Secondly, because it concludes that task importance perception is influenced by some individual characteristics of these professionals.
The main limitation of this study is the existence of factors that do not guarantee sample representativeness, considering that these are not random. They are, however, large samples that ensure the different population strata are represented. On the other hand, the fact that the study measured only the professionals' perceptions on the im portance of the accounting tasks, suggests that in the future we should analyze the tasks actually performed in order to assess their importance in the daily practice of the accoun ting professionals. For future research we suggested also the application of the same questionnaire to other professional groups, such as the Statutory Auditors and financial audi tors, and also in other countries with a culture similar to the Portuguese. Finally, the results found raise some issues that should be analyzed in the future. For instance, to determine why the CA tend to value more all the possible tasks they can perform, including the strategic ones, showing interest in a greater involvement in organizational management; to examine whether the financial officers tend to consider the tasks performed by accountants as an operational manage ment tool, and as an input to the decisions to be made by the managers with impact on a broader time horizon; to identify the factors that justify the nonalignment between accountants and financial managers, in terms of the impor tance of the accounting tasks; to analyze what differentiates university education from polytechnic education, that leads the professionals who received their degree at university to assign less importance to all task categories than their colleagues from the polytechnics. All questions that this study raises will enable the higher education institutions, the regulatory boards for these professional groups, and the companies to reflect on the role accountants should have in society and in the companies. These reflections may lead to a restructuring of courses, to a reformulation of regulations, and to a greater promotion of the role of the accountant, as long as the various players work together to promote better organizational performance using the outputs produced by the accountants, who may, in the future, become business partners.