5.1. Descriptive Statistics
Regarding the personal characteristics of the surveyed chartered accountants, it was possible to obtain answers from professionals in all the Portuguese districts and autonomous regions (Portuguese local administrative organizations), with greater incidence in the districts of Lisbon and Setúbal as well as in the district of Porto, a situation that is compatible with the concentration of business activities and with the distribution of chartered accountants by regions [
79].
Regarding the age and gender of the surveyed chartered accountants, the obtained data highlight that around 63% of them are aged between 35 and 55 years and that most of them are female (around 75%), which is partially justified by the fact that the number of women enrolled as members of the OCC is currently slightly higher than the number of men [
71]. Furthermore, previous studies on the perceptions of Portuguese chartered accountants have shown that women are more likely to participate in this kind of study than men.
Data taken from the questionnaire also show that 55.4% of the surveyed chartered accountants have between 10 and 25 years of professional experience and 26.4% have more than 25 years of experience, which is also compatible with the characteristics of the target group. Regarding the size of the surveyed chartered accountants’ portfolio of clients, the results are summarized in
Table 1.
The data regarding the experience of the professionals and those presented in
Table 1, concerning their portfolio of clients, provide evidence that the surveyed chartered accountants are mostly experienced professionals with small and medium-sized portfolios of clients. These data are particularly relevant because they allow us to confirm that the weight of the perceptions of the chartered accountants working in “big accounting enterprises”, with working realities that are quite different from those experienced by the generality of Portuguese chartered accountants as outsourcing service providers, has little impact on the results obtained in the questionnaire.
Table 2 presents the results relating to the surveyed accountants’ level of ability to use ICT; it stands out that 36.1% considered that they have an acceptable level of ability and around half classified their ICT skills as good or excellent.
These data on ICT proficiency might at first seem not to make sense, considering that the surveyed chartered accountants from the lower age groups are a minority; however, the increasing dematerialization of accounting, tax, and social security obligations in Portugal in the last two decades have made ICTs everyday tools for most Portuguese chartered accountants, regardless of their age.
The surveyed chartered accountants were asked to indicate their opinion on how their clients perceived the impact of their work on the survival/continuity of their enterprises in the first wave of the pandemic, which allows to obtain an insight view of how evaluate their contribution, in the context of alignment with the main goals of SDG 8.
Table 3 presents their responses.
The majority (about 70%) of the surveyed chartered accountants believed that their clients perceived their work in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (focusing on the first wave of the pandemic) as having a positive or very positive impact on the survival/continuity of clients’ enterprises.
In addition, the authors sought to reinforce these data with information on the effective impact of accountants’ work on the survival/continuity of their clients’ enterprises. Thus, in this sense, the authors aimed to determine the weight of clients with suspended activity or closure (due to the pandemic) in the surveyed accountants’ portfolios of clients. The data regarding this reality (on the date of the questionnaire’s application) are summarized in
Table 4.
The results regarding the importance of the Portuguese chartered accountants’ work supporting the survival or continuity of enterprises in the pandemic period were, thus, corroborated by the fact that about 41% of the chartered accountants surveyed, on the date they completed the questionnaires (October to December 2020), reported not having cases of clients with suspended activity (without income) or closed due to the pandemic. Moreover, about 44% of the professionals reported cases of suspension or closure of clients’ activity in a small percentage of their portfolio (up to 10%). Considering the dimension of the crisis, which, by the time the questionnaire was carried out, had already taken hold of the Portuguese economy, the authors considered the results regarding the percentage of accountants’ clients with suspended or closed activity as very positive and demonstrates an effective contribution of Portuguese chartered accountants to mitigating potential setbacks in the scope of SDG 8 due to the crisis caused by the pandemic, corroborating the testimonies of Portuguese personalities about the importance of their role in pandemic context [
14].
These positive results required dedication and hard work from the Portuguese chartered accountants, as well as the need to adapt their work model to conform to the requirements of the Portuguese Health Authority’ standards. The following tables (
Table 5 and
Table 6) present the results relating to the impacts suffered by the professionals’ work due to the need to adapt and support clients during the period under analysis.
The data regarding the chartered accountants’ perception of the change in their work volume after the first wave of the pandemic are summarized in
Table 5.
From the data presented in
Table 5, on the surveyed chartered accountants’ perception of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic’s first wave on their workload, the authors concluded that most of them (78.6%) perceive that their work volume has increased or highly increased due to the additional work involved in helping their clients’ businesses to avoid the adverse economic consequences of the pandemic’s first wave.
These results are in line with the data obtained from a questionnaire applied by the OCC to its members in April 2021, regarding the first year of the pandemic, which showed that 78% of the surveyed chartered accountants considered that the pandemic had increased their workload. The data collected by our questionnaire also allowed us to conclude that the increase in the accountants’ work volume, due to the economic effects of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, was essentially due to the time spent by accountants reading and interpreting the large amount of legislation that was being published, as well as the treatment of the support for the business sector, created by the Portuguese Government in the scope of the pandemic crisis, the instruction and preparation for which was carried out mainly by them.
Regarding other impacts of the pandemic on the activity of surveyed chartered accountants, in terms of investments and expenses, the results are summarized in
Table 6.
As can be seen from the analysis of the data in
Table 6, according to most of the surveyed chartered accountants, during the first wave of the pandemic, there was an increase in their spending, mainly to purchase equipment, training, and telecommunications.
Moreover, the expenses that oscillated less during that period were those related to rent and staff, which correspond to fixed or structural costs. It should be noted that the small fluctuation in labor expenditure is corroborated by the fact that most of the surveyed accountants (around 91%) did not dismiss any employees during the first wave of the pandemic period and did not expect to do so until the end of 2020.
It was also relevant to understand whether accountants’ income increased during the first wave of the pandemic due to charging their clients for the extra work and expenses either through an increase in their monthly fee or as a direct extra fee for the services provided in this context (see
Table 7).
Even though most of the surveyed chartered accountants experienced an increase in their volume of work and in their activity expenses, derived from the extra support provided to clients, as can be seen in
Table 7, most accountants did not charge their clients for these (around 67% of surveyed chartered accountants), and there were even situations in which the accounting fees decreased at the beginning of the pandemic period due to accountants’ solidarity with the difficult situation that some clients were experiencing and their fear of losing clients.
The analysis of data in
Table 7, reinforces the fact that most Portuguese chartered accountants have supported on their own the extra work provided to their clients during the height of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19, evidencing their contribution on a social responsibility perspective, since most did not charge their clients with an extra fee to compensate for the increase in the volume of work and expenses.
The data collected by the questionnaire also allowed us to verify the increased difficulty in carrying out the receiving of regular monthly fees in the first wave of the pandemic compared with the pre-pandemic period. These results regarding the variation in the surveyed chartered accountants’ income during the first wave of the pandemic follow the same trend as those obtained by the OCC in the survey of its members; that is, most of the surveyed chartered accountants, despite experiencing an increase in their volume of work, did not increase their clients’ monthly fees. However, the results obtained by the OCC are slightly more optimistic, with 19.4% of the surveyed chartered accountants stating that they had increased their income during such period.
Figure 2 summarizes the position of most accountants interviewed, about the changes in their work volume and expenses and on their fees, during the 1st wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
As can be seen in
Figure 2, most chartered accountants, despite the increase in their work volume and expenses during the pandemic, assumed these charges internally, not passing them on to their clients.
As a result of this evidence, the authors can state that, during the first wave of the pandemic, most chartered accountants working with smaller enterprises in Portugal played a key role in mitigating the resultant economic problems (
Table 3 and
Table 4). This confirms the conclusions of Stocker et al. (2022) [
80] (p. 175) when they defend that ”new practices and policies can emerge more effectively and inclusively, with a holist perspective”. During this process, most of them had an increase in their volume of work and expenses, however they did not increase their fees (
Figure 2). Thus, most accountants sacrificed their free time and incurred in additional costs without charging it to their clients.
Within this scope, Portuguese chartered accountants, by embarking on a mission to save their clients’ enterprises from collapsing economically and financially, highlighted clients as the most relevant stakeholders, saved many SMEs and many jobs, simultaneously safeguarded their own clients’ portfolios, and provided a service for the benefit of the society into which they are integrated, living up to their status as a profession of public utility (stakeholder theory).
5.2. Tests of the Hypotheses
In the previous section, we found, based on a self-assessment, that most Portuguese chartered accountants had an important role on maintaining the economic sustainability of their clients at the height of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 (contributing to mitigate the impacts of the crisis on the SDG 8 goals), and that they acted unselfishly, spending their time, and supporting some additional costs (demonstrating a sense of social responsibility). In this section, we aim to understand whether the self-assessment of their performance and attitudes (SR and positive impact on SDG 8) can be explained based on their personal and professional characteristics, as well as on their ICT skills.
5.2.1. Test to H1
It is important to notice that the variable “perception of how accountants’ clients value the effort that they have made to support enterprises in facing the economic problems experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic” is used, in this research, to understand the chartered accountants’ self-assessment about the importance of their role in mitigating the negative impact of the pandemic in SDG 8 compliance.
Although most of the surveyed chartered accountants believed that their clients perceived their performance in the context of the first wave of the pandemic as positive or very positive, it is also important to note that around 25% of the surveyed chartered accountants considered that their clients classified their work, in the pandemic context, as not positive, highlighting that 10.1% of them believed that their clients’ perception was negative or very negative. It is, therefore, important to seek some explanations for these very different opinions of the surveyed chartered accountants. Accordingly, the authors tested the explanatory capacity of the chartered accountants’ personal and professional characteristics and their ICT skills on their perception of clients’ evaluation of their performance in the pandemic context.
From the set of tests performed on the independent variables, only gender and ICT proficiency showed a statistically significant influence on their perception, as shown below.
“Gender”: In the context analyzed, statistically significant differences in perceptions were found between genders (U (474) = 18,447.5;
p < 0.05). The mean rank is higher in the male domain, so men have a more positive perception of their performance in enterprises, while women tend to have a less positive view of their performance. There is also a correlation between the two variables (with
p = 0.034). These results are justified by previous studies that found that women are more pessimistic than men in the work environment and in their career development [
81].
“ICT skills”: In this scope, there are statistically significant differences in perceptions according to the professionals’ ICT skills (H (474) = 15,402; p < 0.05). The mean rank increases as the degree of ICT skills increases since both variables are on an increasing scale: the greater the professionals’ ICT proficiency, the greater their perception of a positive performance in their clients’ enterprises and vice versa. A positive correlation was also found between the two variables (with p = 0.000).
Other independent variables tested: There are no statistically significant relationships between the other dependent variable and the remaining independent variables tested.
Thus, H1 is partially accepted for accountants’ gender and ICT proficiency and partially rejected for their age group, region, size of the portfolio of clients, and level of experience. Male accountants and those with a greater ICT proficiency consider having played a more important role in the economic sustainability of their clients at the height of the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, consequently, a more important role in mitigating the negative impacts of COVID-19 in SDG 8 compliance.
5.2.2. Test to H2
Although most of the surveyed chartered accountants perceived that one of the immediate consequences of the “economic management of the pandemic” was an increase in their work volume, 20% did not perceive such increase; some chartered accountants even considered that their work volume had decreased or highly decreased due to the pandemic. Thus, it is important to understand which factors may explain these very different perceptions among the surveyed chartered accountants in the analyzed context. Thus, the authors tested the explanatory capacity of the chartered accountants’ personal and professional characteristics and their ICT skills for their perception of the variation in their workload in the scope of the pandemic.
It was found that the variables of gender and size of the portfolio of clients, among all the explanatory variables tested, were the only ones that showed a statistically significant influence on such perception, as presented below.
“Gender”: In this context, statistically significant differences in perception were found between genders (U (503) = 20,927.5;
p < 0.05). The mean rank is higher in the female domain, so women have a higher perception of an increased workload due to the pandemic, while men have a lower perception. There is also a correlation between the two variables (with
p = 0.038). As previously mentioned, according to earlier studies, there is a tendency for women to be more pessimistic in the work context [
58], which is corroborated by these results.
“Size of the portfolio of clients”: In this regard, statistically significant differences in perceptions were identified depending on the size of chartered accountants’ portfolio of clients (H (503) = 16,096; p < 0.05). The mean rank increases as the size of the professionals’ portfolio of clients increases since both variables are on an increasing scale: the larger the portfolio of clients of chartered accountants, the greater their perception of an increase in their workload and vice versa. A positive correlation between the two variables was also found (with p = 0.000).
Other tested independent variables: There are no statistically significant relationships between the dependent variable and the remaining independent variables tested.
Thus, H2 is partially accepted for chartered accountants’ gender and for the size of their portfolio of clients and partially rejected for their age group, region, ICT skills, and level of experience. Female accountants and those with a greater clients’ portfolio perceived more the increase in their workload.
5.2.3. Test to H3
It is important to notice that the variable “Accountants’ decision to charge their clients for the variation in their workload and expenses through an increase in their monthly fees” in this research is used to understand the chartered accountants’ self-assessment about their contribution to the SDG 8 compliance and they sense of social responsibility.
Most surveyed chartered accountants did not manage to bill their clients with the increment in their work volume and additional expenses, and there is a group that even reduced the amount charged; however, another group, albeit with little significance, managed to charge their clients for the variation in their work volume. It was important to seek explanations, especially for situations that differed from the majority. Accordingly, the authors tested the explanatory capacity of chartered accountants’ personal and professional characteristics and their ICT skills for their decision to charge their clients for the additional workload and expenses in monetary terms.
The results provide evidence that none of the tested independent variables have a statistically significant relationship with the dependent variable. H3 is totally rejected. Despite, in the pandemic context, most chartered accountants have contributed with their pro bono work in favor of SDG 8 and have shown their sense of social responsibility, none of the tested variables statistically explains these accountants’ behavior.
5.2.4. Summary of Tests Result Analysis
The results of the hypothesis tests to H1–H2 signify the importance of gender for chartered accountants’ perception of their work and its valuation by third parties. The results suggest that male chartered accountants, as well as professionals with better ICT skills, tend to evaluate the importance of their work for the survival and continuity of their clients’ enterprises more positively in the context of the first wave of the pandemic; regarding the increase in chartered accountants’ workload, the perception is greater and statistically significant in the case of female chartered accountants and professionals with larger clients’ portfolios. These results corroborate the previous literature on women’s less optimism in the work context [
81,
82] and suggests that the domain of ICT was important in the performance of accountants in pandemic context.