Professional Qualification, Technological Innovation and Performance in Accounting Offices

The study aims to analyze the indirect influence of professional qualification on the performance of Offices that provide Accounting Services, through technological innovation. Additionally, it investigates the direct relationship between professional qualification and technological innovation, as well as the influence of the latter with organizational performance. The methodological procedures are of descriptive, quantitative nature and were applied through a questionnaire on an electronic platform, and the data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling estimated using Partial Least Squares, in SmartPLS. The sample includes Accounting Offices associated with the Union of Accounting Services, Advisory, Expertise Information and Research in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (SESCON-RS). The findings indicate that professional qualification influences technological innovation, and latter influences performance. It is observed that technological innovation promotes total mediation between professional qualification and performance, since the indirect effect is significant, while the direct effect is not significant. This way, it is concluded that although the investments with the qualification of the accounting professionals do not directly influence the performance, it promotes a greater technological innovation, which consequently will significantly boost the performance. Theoretically, this research contributes by showing an indirect effect of professional qualification on performance, through the total mediation promoted by technological innovation. In a practical terms, subsidies are shown to infer the relevance of Accounting professionals in qualifying, mainly in the technological terms.