Digitalized Accounting Information Systems in SMEs: A Contingency-Based Typology

Abstract

This article develops a contingency-based typology of how digitalized accounting information systems (AIS) are used in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Prior research has examined digital accounting systems, cloud-based AIS, AIS success, information quality, decision-making effectiveness, management control effectiveness and SME performance. However, digitalized AIS use is often treated as a broad and undifferentiated construct, which limits understanding of the distinct purposes served by digitalized accounting information in SMEs. Drawing on a structured integrative literature review of 36 publications, this article integrates research on digitalized AIS, business intelligence and analytics, contingency theory, AIS alignment, SME accounting practices and information systems success. The analysis leads to a typology distinguishing three configurations: compliance-oriented digitalization, management-oriented digitalization and decision-support-oriented digitalization. The article argues that transitions among these configurations are not automatic but depend on technological, organizational, environmental, actor-related and information-related conditions. The contribution is conceptual: it shifts attention from whether SMEs adopt or use digitalized AIS to how, by whom and for what purposes digitalized accounting information is mobilized. The typology also provides a basis for empirical research on the determinants, transitions and effects of digitalized AIS use orientations in SMEs, particularly in contexts where accounting digitalization remains strongly shaped by compliance requirements and managerial appropriation.