Borderless with unequal opportunity? experts’ perspectives on the asean economic community and impact on indonesian accountant profession

Abstract

The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), a regional integration in Southeast Asia that started at the end of 2015 and is expected to bring new challenges and opportunities. However, an assessment of the capabilities of Indonesian management accountants suggests that they may struggle with challenges because of the free flow of skilled labour. In this study, we aimed at presenting and analysing Indonesian experts’ perspectives on the readiness of management accounting professionals in Indonesia to work in the new economic era. It also provides recommendations for improvements in the profession. This research uses in-depth interviews as well as questionnaires distributed to top-level management; some of the participants are also working as academics in universities. This study found that class differences as theorised by Weber play significant roles in determining readiness. These differences could be attributed to the perceived qualities of universities in Indonesia, implying that management accountants from more reputable universities are more prepared than those from less prestigious institutions. The demand side analysis performed in this study implies the expectation gaps in skills and education due to the class stratification as a barrier. The gap found in this study has to be filled to optimise the open chances offered by AEC to the profession of accounting in Indonesia. Although this is not the first research about the impact of ASEAN Economic Community to a specific profession, the study has an original value of addressing such impact on the management accountant profession in Indonesia.