ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Robot. AI
Sec. Industrial Robotics and Automation
Understanding accounting professionals' intention to adopt Robotic Process Automation: A TOE-Based empirical assessment from an emerging country
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Commercial Accounting, College of Business and economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2Department of Accounting and Finance, Faculty of Management and Social sciences, Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria
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The proliferation of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) has been transforming the accounting landscape, with technologies like Robotic Process Automation (RPA) changing the face of traditional accounting processes. This study investigates the level of RPA adoption among accountants in South Africa and examines how technological-organizational-environmental (TOE) factors influence the behavioural intention of RPA adoption. Employing an exploratory cross-sectional survey comprising responses from 100 professional accountants in practice, the study analysed its data combining descriptive statistics with a multiple linear regression model supported by correlation tests to find significant predictors of RPA adoption intention. The robustness of the model, which was verified by multiple pre-and post-analysis checks, revealed findings indicating that institutional support, particularly normative pressure, has the strongest influence on adoption intention, with an adjusted R2 of 0.27 highly significant. This highlights the crucial role that organizational readiness, managerial support, and technology readiness play in enabling RPA adoption. Contrarily, mimetic pressure showed a negative influence, indicating that industry-wide adoption of RPA technology may raise concerns and anxiety about job displacement. Overall, the findings reinforce the importance of organizational capacity building in fostering RPA adoption while also revealing the complexity of environmental and technological factors influencing professional accountants' adoption decisions in a developing-economy context. The findings support SDG 9 by emphasising capacity building and inclusive digital transformation.
Keywords: Accounting professionals, behavioural intention, Developing country, Emerging Technologies, Robotic process automation, TOE framework
Received: 16 Nov 2025; Accepted: 15 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gold, Coovadia and Thipe. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Nusirat Ojuolape Gold
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