Studying the potential of personnel in financial and accounting academic positions in the digital age

Abstract

Currently, the position of financial and accounting academics is very important in the digital age. This is because the work of financial and accounting academics involves finance, budgets, financial statement analysis, and financial monitoring and evaluation. Therefore, this research was conducted to study the potential components, compare the potential levels, and suggest guidelines for developing the potential of financial and accounting academic personnel in the digital age of autonomous and public universities. The research methodology used was a mixed method, both qualitative and quantitative.  The quantitative research sample consisted of 200 financial and accounting professionals, while the qualitative data came from key informants, namely 3 qualified individuals who were interviewed in-depth in the academic year 2023. The calculations used Yamane's formula and an acceptable error value of 0.05. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire assessing three dimensions of professional potential: knowledge, skills, and attributes. The questionnaire consisted of 45 items, with item-objective congruence (IOC) values ranging from 0.67 to 1.00, discrimination indices between 0.43 and 0.88, and Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of 0.966. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, frequency, percentage, mean, factor analysis, t-test, and correlation analysis. The findings revealed that the professional potential of financial and accounting academic personnel comprises three core dimensions: knowledge, skills, and attributes, all of which met the criteria for confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, a statistically significant difference was found at the 0.05 level, indicating that public university personnel demonstrated higher mean scores in all dimensions compared to those from autonomous universities.