From October 27 to 28, 2022, the International Symposium on Digitalization and Accounting: Reshaping the Future was held offline (online simultaneously) in Xiamen. Policies from International Financial Reporting Standards Board Advisory Board, International Accounting Standards Board, Department of Accounting, Ministry of Finance, Japan Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Yale University, Waseda University, University of Maryland, McGill University, Queensland University of Technology, Xiamen National Accounting Institute, Xiamen University, Lucken Coffee, Ernst & Young, Shanghai Amang Information Technology Co., LTD, etc A total of 550 experts, scholars, teachers and students from the development department, theoretical field and practical field attended the meeting.
The conference is jointly sponsored by the Accounting Development Research Center of Xiamen University, the Key Research Base for Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, and the Department of Accounting, School of Management, Xiamen University. The project was supported by the Development Fund of the Department of Accounting of Xiamen University, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72232007, 71790602, 72232008), and the National Social Science Foundation of China (20&ZD115).
Opening Ceremony
The conference was presided over by Professor Liu Feng, Director of the Accounting Development Research Center of Xiamen University.
Professor Liu Feng
The opening ceremony was delivered by Professor Li Jianfa, former Executive Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Xiamen University and Dean of the School of Management. He first expressed his thanks and welcome all the experts, scholars, and students who are here online and offline. He introduced the background of the workshop. With the vigorous development of the digital economy, the digital wave has redefined the way of social production and life and the way of business operation, which has had a profound impact on the accounting discipline and brought about the reform of accounting. Facing the inevitable trend of the integration of accounting and digitalization, accounting should actively apply digitalization and information technology. Therefore, the symposium invited experts and scholars from the standard-setting departments, academia, and practical circles to explore new ideas through discussion and exchange, and promote the "steady progress" of accounting in the digital revolution.
Professor Li Jianfa
Assistant Professor Li Shengnan translated the opening ceremony speech.
The conference includes four topics: " Digitization and accounting change", " Digitalization and Accounting I: Theory and principles", " Digitalization and Accounting II: Practice and application", and a paper report and comment on four topics.
Digitization and accounting change
The keynote speech will focus on digitalization and accounting change. Around this theme, William Coen, Chairman of the IFRS Foundation Advisory Board; Jian-Qiao Lu, Member of the International Accounting Standards Board; Former President of the Japan Institute of Certified Public Accountants; Professor Aiko Sekine, Waseda University; Shyam, Yale University Professor Sunder and Professor Huang Shizhong, President of Xiamen National Accounting Institute, made two presentations entitled "The Evolving Role of Global Standards in an Increasingly Digitalized World" and "The IASB's Third Agenda Consultation and Digital Financial Reporting ", "Challenges and Opportunities of Accounting Practitioners in the Era of Digitalization ", "Digitization of Human Perception, Models and Technology: Accounting Education, Practice and Research "and" Recognition, Measurement, and Report of Digital Assets based on Business Models "keynote speech.
Keynote speaker
Chairman William Coen first emphasized the importance of standards in a globalized world. Unified standards can increase the comparability of financial reporting, make it more widely accepted and applied, create a more level playing field, and enhance the power of national discourse. So what kind of impact will digital development have on financial reporting? From the perspective of the IFRS Foundation and IASB, digital financial reporting is a long-term concern of the IFRS Foundation. IASB will increase its attention to digital financial reporting, with the ultimate goal of improving the usefulness, quality, readability, and comparability of financial reporting. In terms of digital financial reporting, Chairman Coen sees it not just as a PDF, but as machine-readable (embedded with identifiable "tags") financial reporting. To digitize the financial report, different classification systems should be set for different users of the report, so that the information in the financial report can be more helpful for decision-making. Digital financial reporting provides opportunities for capital markets to improve efficiency and for companies to reduce capital costs by increasing analyst coverage and enhancing information transparency. But at the same time, because IFRS accounting classification has not been adopted globally, digital data quality is low, difficult to access, and other issues, the implementation of digital financial reporting is still facing great challenges.
Chairman William Coen online
Director Lu Jianqiao first introduced the IASB's Phase III agenda consultations. The main theme of the consultation was the strategic direction and balance of IASB activities; Assessing the prioritization criteria for financial reporting issues that can be included in the IASB's work plan, And new financial reporting issues that could be prioritized in the IASB's work plan. Taking into account cross-cutting factors, such as the impact of collaboration with the ISSB, and based on feedback from stakeholders, the IASB has decided to maintain the current level of focus on its main activities and to increase the study of intangible assets and cash flow statements and related matters in proposed projects, while taking due account of climate-related risks. With regard to digital financial reporting, as Chairman Coen said, by digitizing financial reporting, investors can obtain more and more information, and the efficiency of capital markets will be improved accordingly. However, digitization of financial reporting still faces challenges such as the lack of global adoption of IFRS accounting classification, low quality of digital data, and difficult access. To overcome these difficulties, the IASB decided to increase its focus on digital financial reporting to improve the usefulness, quality, readability, and comparability of digital financial information. In the future, the IASB plans to consider the impact of increased consumption of digital financial information on accounting standards, work with the ISSB to develop consistent methods and concepts for the IFRS digital taxonomy, and work with the digital reporting ecosystem to promote the consumption of digital reporting.
Lu Jianqiao Director online
Professor Aiko Sekine introduced the question of whether AI would replace accounting practitioners and proposed that the significance of accounting workers is not only to mechanically engage in basic work such as bookkeeping but more importantly to make judgments and communicate in economic activities. Professor Sekine pointed out that with the progress of technology, blockchain, financial technology, and other emerging technologies put forward higher requirements for accounting and auditing, requiring accounting workers to execute more procedures to ensure the security and reliability of financial data. For certified public accountants, the use of AI improves the efficiency of their work to a certain extent, but it also faces the risk of being replaced. As the internal and external environment continues to change, accounting workers should also combine their professional advantages and work with digital partners to build a sustainable society.
Professor Aiko Sekine online
Shyam Sunder traces the discussion of accounting to the early human ancestors' establishment of knowledge about numbers and symbols (Sunder uses the term "perception"). Human beings have experienced the transformation of perception from pure simulation to the combination of analog and digital and then to digitalization, and the transformation of perception technology from analog to digitalization can distinguish human beings and their ancestors. Later, Professor Sunder points out that although the digital perception process discards continuous information, which adds some "noise" to the information, the popularization of the decimal system and ubiquitous numbers indicate that digitalization is very successful. We often perceive our environment in the form of digitalization, and digitalization further affects human cognition and civilization. Professor Sunder points out that almost all ancient civilizations have evidence that digitalization and accounting are closely related. Accounting may be the first attempt of human beings to use numbers to describe the environment in the mental and physical worlds, and due to the development of artificial intelligence and computer technology in the past century, this close relationship has taken a quantitative leap, such as the application of AI in auditing. Finally, Professor Sunder proposed that although the development of digital computing and communication technology in the past century has produced a feedback effect on accounting education, practice, and research, regulatory agencies and rule-makers should not exaggerate and misunderstand the role of computers, and ignore the limitation of computer technology in classification and motivation. We, and the standard-setters in particular, must remain vigilant and cautious about the limited role of computer technology.
Professor Shyam Sunder's online
Professor Huang Shizhong gave a speech on the importance of digital assets and how to recognize, measure, and report digital assets based on business models. He proposed that under the background of great changes in economic shape, data has become a very important production factor, so it is necessary to "enter the table" of data production factors. However, due to the impact of accounting standards and other factors, data production factors are not reflected in the financial statements, which makes the correlation between accounting information and stock prices decline after entering the era of the digital economy. Then, he took several enterprises as examples and believed that it is important to discuss the recognition, measurement, and reporting of digital assets from the perspective of business models. The recognition of digital assets must not only meet the definition of assets but also meet the standards of relevance and trueness. The choice of initial measurement and subsequent measurement methods of digital assets is affected by the business model, and the existing financial statements are insufficient. Data assets are not included in the report. He believes that the recommendations of organizations such as the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and the International Business Council (IBC) can be referred to, and the digital assets that affect the value creation of enterprises can be included in the social issues and governance issues of ESG reports for disclosure to make up for the shortcomings of financial reporting. Subsequently, Professor Huang Shizhong communicated and discussed with teachers and students the measurement and influence of digital assets.
Professor Huang Shizhong
Professor Liu Feng summarized the speeches of the five keynote speakers, and proposed that the impact of digitalization is not only in the sense of tools, but also requires the academic community to conduct rigorous and in-depth theoretical research on the impact of digitalization and accounting from the ideological and even philosophical level, and discuss the impact of digitalization combined with the evolution of business models, to provide effective theoretical support for the formulation of standards.
On October 28, the conference entered the sessions of "Digitalization and Accounting I: Theory and Standards", "Digitalization and Accounting II: Practice and Application" and paper report and discussion.
Digitalization and Accounting I: Theory and principles
The first keynote speech of the morning on "Theory and Principles" was moderated by Professor Ellie Chapple from the Queensland University of Technology.
Ellie Chapple online
In The keynote session, Professor Shun Cao from the University of Maryland, Yu Chen, Director of Systems Division II, Accounting Division of the Ministry of Finance, and Professor Hong-ping Tan from McGill University respectively gave speeches on "The Evolving Scope of FinTech and AI: Examples and Opportunities ", "Accounting Standards for Enterprises in our country and thinking about the accounting problems of data resources", "Analyst Scenario Analysis" keynote speech.
Keynote speaker
Professor Cao Shun took the application of AI technology in the capital market as an example to illustrate the digital background of the finance and accounting industry, and lead to the necessity of digital transformation of accounting education. In accounting, AI and big data technologies have been used in several areas such as decentralization and decision-making, but are still concentrated at the market level and have not penetrated deep into the company level. Mr. Cao Shun pointed out that the classification of fintech and artificial intelligence research has three types: one is simply extracting a variable from machine learning for research; The second is the research of artificial intelligence itself, such as artificial intelligence analysis, machine analyst; The third is the deeper thinking behind artificial intelligence. These studies also face many challenges. For example, people pay more attention to the questions that the technology can answer than to the technology itself; How can technology be understood and accepted? How do you justify the existence of these technologies? Artificial intelligence brings both challenges and opportunities. Schools should set up more relevant courses and seize the opportunities for industry, cooperation, and academic research brought by artificial intelligence.
Professor Cao Shun online
Dr. Chen Yu first introduced the recent progress of the construction of enterprise accounting standards in our country and the rich means of the Ministry of Finance to guide the practice and emphasized that in recent years, adhering to the international convergence and serving the domestic practice, and constantly improving the system of enterprise accounting standards in improving the capital market recognition. Dr. Chen Yu believes that data assets have become one of the important factors of production, our country attaches great importance to the market of data factors, activate the potential of data factors, and put forward new requirements for the study of accounting standards related to data assets. First, we need to solve the problems of what is data, data resources, and how to classify data. It further shared and discussed topics such as whether special accounting standards should be established for data assets, legal ownership and valuation issues faced by data assets, and how to draw lessons from international experience.
Dr. Chen Yu online
Professor Tan Hongping introduced a classic literature on marketing that the choice of research model should not be limited to simple, complex, or machine learning, but should consider more of the data itself. Taking text analysis as an example, it can play many roles in accounting, such as measuring the expression, readability, and disclosure quality of accounting disclosures. Professor Tan Hongping encourages doctoral students to use text analysis in their research, based on a special data source: big data in capital markets. Next, Professor Tan Hongping mainly shared the scenario analysis with us and proved the significance of long-term research through specific cases. The research showed that when the recommendations or tone of the report were paid attention to for a long time, the market reaction was stronger. Based on the advantages and disadvantages of scenario analysis, Professor Tan Hongping proposed a hypothesis and verified that there is a positive correlation between the accuracy of scenario analysis and challenge prediction.
Professor Tan Hongping online
Digitalization and Accounting II: Practice and application
The second keynote speech of "Practice and Application" in the morning was moderated by Professor Liu Feng.
The application of digitalization at the enterprise level, the scene is multi-dimensional. There are not only business models built on digitalization, such as various platform enterprises, but also enterprises that are deeply integrated into digitalization, such as current logistics and supply chain integration enterprises. Of course, there are also accounting systems that are restructured based on digital logic.
In this session, representatives of three leading companies in the application of digital practices are invited to share their experiences and insights. They are Mr. Jiang Shan, Senior Vice President of Luckin Coffee, Mr. Yin Guowei, EY Greater China Digital Audit, and Innovation Lead partner, and Mr. Zhang Fan, founder of Shanghai Amazing Information Technology Co., LTD.
Representative of enterprises
Mr. Jiang Shan, Senior Vice President of Luckin, made a share entitled "Using blockchain technology to enhance the credibility of enterprise business property data". He introduced the development history of Luckin, including its founding in 2017, listing on NASDAQ in 2019, and the financial data event exposed in early 2020. After that, Luckin's new management reorganized the business, focused on products and experience, and gradually solved the remaining problems. After resolving the debt issue in early 2022, the company's operations normalized. In this context, with the help of blockchain technology, the reconstruction of Luckin's social public image, and improving the credibility of Luckin's financial data information, is the responsibility of the management to investors and consumers. Luckin aims to strengthen the logic and process of data management, present the real situation of the business, continuously strengthen data credit enhancement, and cooperate with Beijing Microchip Blockchain and Edge Computing Research Institute to carry out financial information credit enhancement projects. The project is divided into two stages: the first stage is to use its data to increase trust, focusing on the sales link to increase data trust; The second stage is to use third-party data to increase trust, introduce external third parties to join the alliance chain, multi-party consensus verification, and invite customers to participate in the co-construction, and combine some brand business activities with the blockchain platform. Luckin has completed the development of the chain of the important data of its own and joint sales business. Finally, President Jiang took self-operating platform payment as an example to illustrate the technical idea of introducing tripartite data in the future, to further enhance the credibility of data.
Mr. Jiang Shan online
Mr. Yin Guowei from Ernst & Young delivered a speech entitled "Digital Audit Practice Discussion". He introduced the practice and experience of EY in using digitalization to improve audit efficiency and better serve society. He believes that an important driver of the transformation of audit digitalization is the continuous strengthening of regulation. The China Securities Regulatory Commission believes that auditors have a responsibility to pay attention to the integrity of business data and the match between business data and financial data. ISA 315 requires auditors to understand the impact of an entity's use of IT. The PCAOB requires auditors to test the application controls of IT systems and question the accuracy and completeness of output data. Although accounting firms are currently faced with many challenges such as backward audit technology, the low added value of work, and insufficient investment in high-value audit activities, this also means that the audit can become more and more valuable opportunities. In the future, we should do a "digital current" audit, change the production mode, and explore the value of data. In combination with the characteristics of China's digital audit, Ernst & Young will be digital throughout the audit process, so that the audit is no longer limited to the final balance of the balance sheet, to the "process audit", and can even trace the middle of the business data. In the end, Mr. Yin introduced the exploration and innovation of EY in the digital audit by taking the auditing process of bank flow analysis as an example.
Mr. Yin Guowei online
As a representative of successful digital industrialization, Dr. Zhang Fan introduced the theoretical application of digital transformation construction in the securities and futures industry from the aspects of "benefit analysis, background overview, application practice, and transformation cases" in his speech "Based on the theoretical application of digital transformation construction in the securities and futures industry". Dr. Zhang Fan believes that in the field of small finance, how to balance technology and risk is a problem that needs to be paid attention to. "Improving management efficiency and providing industrial support" is the meaning of digitalization in the field of small finance, and it is also the essence of digital transformation. In the application practice and transformation case section, Dr. Zhang Fan introduced in detail the unified supervision data submission based on the application of the industry data model, the intermediate components of business architecture based on the application of the industry data model, and the business development mode based on the application of industry data model. Finally, Dr. Zhang Fan pointed out that the four difficulties in digital transformation are: compliance is irreplaceable; The assessment method of the licensee is the fundamental reason restricting the digital transformation; In terms of organizational structure, licensee organizations are more business-oriented than digital-transformation oriented; Licensee's digital transformation is talent-constrained (from talent-centric to digital-centric).
Dr. Zhang Fan online
Professor Liu Feng made a summary of the link. He pointed out that while digitalization has eliminated many jobs and even industries, it not only brings challenges to our knowledge structure and innovation requirements but also adds many new industries and jobs. Taking XBRL as an example, he proposed that if digital technology cannot be effectively and rapidly industrialized, it will soon be marginalized in the era of digital intelligence with the rapid development of science and technology and iterative high rhythm and short cycle. He called on all students to actively embrace the digital era and find their position and opportunities in the new era of continuous change and rapid iteration
Paper report and comment
In the afternoon academic seminar, a total of 7 papers were selected by experts for the conference report, expert comments, and exchanges. The reporter and the paper title were: "Business expectation gap and digital transformation of listed Companies -- Value tool or disclosure Tool?" "Information Spil-over Effect of Enterprise Digital Transformation -- Based on the Empirical Research Evidence of Enterprise Supply Chain in Our Country" by Li Yu from Wuhan University; "Research on the Accounting Treatment of Data Assets under the Background of Digital Economy -- Based on the Perspective of Data Value classification" by Wu Yujun from Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen); "Can the Digital Economy Promote the high-quality development of Enterprises -- Based on the Empirical evidence of the quality of Enterprise Innovation" by Song Jing from Macao University of Science and Technology, and "The Effect of digital transformation on management's Strategic information Disclosure: Promote or Inhibit?" by Yang Lingyun from Shandong University of Finance and Economics. -- Based on the evidence of "Management Discussion and Analysis", "Enterprise Digital Transformation and Organizational Empowerment -- Evidence from Listed Companies in Our Country" by Chen Yingxing from Xiamen University and "Can digital transformation promote the Upgrading of Enterprise Internal Control?" by Cheng WeiXuan from Xiamen University. -- Based on the evidence of China's A-share listed companies ".
Dr. Cao Yanan
Dr. Li Yu
Associate Professor Wu Yujun
Dr. Song Jing
Dr. Yang Lingyun
Dr. Cheng Weixuan
In this seminar, teachers Guo Rui, ShenTu Lirong, Associate Professor Liu Yuanyuan, Chen Xiaoqi, Shen Jianghua, Meng Qingxi, and Li Siman from Xiamen University were invited to give in-depth comments on 7 papers from the aspects of contribution, theoretical logic, and empirical results.
Assistant Professor Guo Rui
Assistant Professor ShenTu Lirong
Associate Professor Liu Yuanyuan
Assistant Professor Chen Xiaoqi
Associate Professor Shen Jianghua
Assistant Professor Meng Qingxi
Assistant Professor Li Siman
The paper presentation and communication were conducted by Professor Cai Ning and Associate Professor Xiong Feng from the Department of Accounting, School of Management, Xiamen University
Professor Cai Ning
The closing ceremony was briefly summarized by Xiong Feng, Deputy Director of the Accounting Development Research Center of Xiamen University and Associate professor of the Accounting Department of the School of Management of Xiamen University. Professor Xiong said that digital transformation is an irreversible trend. Based on the theme of digitalization and accounting, this conference has rich discussion content and different research methods, which is very inspiring for the scholars attending the conference. At the same time, he expressed his wishes for the follow-up research of the teachers and students attending the conference.
Associate Professor Xiong Feng
The convening of this international academic conference has attracted many forces from the practice community, academia, and standard-setting departments to discuss and stimulate each other, which provides support for the accounting community to better understand the impact brought by digitalization and explore effective coping strategies.
