Balancing today and tomorrow: the role of analytics, automation, and digital readiness in digital transformation for accounting functions

Purpose This study aims to set out to challenge the prevailing assumption in the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework that process automation and analytics invariably enable further digital progress. Drawing on the notion of technological path-dependency, the study investigates whether – and under which conditions – automation, analytics and digital readiness reinforce or undermine one another across accounting functions. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional survey of 819 German accounting professionals (2020) covering financial accounting (FA), management accounting (MA) and tax/audit was analyzed with Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The study develops and validates a formative multi-item DIGITAL READINESS scale and executes multi-group analyses to test boundary conditions for the ANALYTICS resp. AUTOMATION–READINESS link across functions, firm sizes and industries. Additional robustness checks are used. Findings Evidence confirms a positive impact of several technology and organizational factors on the implementation of automation and analytics but also reveals an automation-rigidity paradox: higher levels of process automation are negatively related to an accounting function’s capability to absorb subsequent digital innovations. The new DIGITAL READINESS scale shows satisfactory reliability and validity and can be interpreted as adaptive capacity for further digital transformation. Research limitations/implications The single-country, cross-sectional design limits causal inference and generalizability. Future studies should track organizations longitudinally, replicate in other institutional contexts and examine curvilinear or time-lagged effects of automation. Practical implications Chief financial officer (CFOs) should balance automation gains with modular governance and workforce upskilling to avoid rigidity traps. The validated scale offers a diagnostic tool for benchmarking digital readiness before investing in next-wave technologies such as generative artificial intelligence. Originality/value The study confirms several findings of prior research concerning the impact of TOE factors on digitalization, uncovers and theorizes a negative automation effect that contradicts core TOE expectations, refines the TOE framework by integrating a flexibility/path-dependency lens and mapping its boundary conditions and contributes a newly validated digital readiness measure for reuse in accounting and IS research.