Management Accounting Digitalization in Emerging Economies: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of AI and Data Quality as Serial Mediators of Financial Performance

Digital transformation is reshaping management accounting practices worldwide, yet empirical evidence on how digitalization translates into improved financial performance, particularly in emerging economies, remains fragmented and contested. Drawing on institutional theory, dynamic capabilities theory and contingency theory, this study investigates whether the digitalization of management control processes directly improves financial performance and whether artificial intelligence (AI) and data quality sequentially mediate this relationship. A sequential mixed-methods design was employed: an exploratory qualitative phase involving semi-structured interviews with 18 management controllers and finance professionals in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco (analyzed via NVivo 15) was followed by a confirmatory quantitative phase administering a structured questionnaire to 68 professionals, analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM, SmartPLS 4). Results reveal that digitalization alone does not significantly improve financial performance (H1 rejected; β = 0.154, p = 0.293), and AI in isolation does not sufficiently mediate this relationship (H2 rejected; β = 0.169, p = 0.100). However, the complete serial mediation chain, digitalization to AI to data quality to financial performance, is statistically significant and robust (H3 confirmed; β = 0.179, p = 0.020). These findings challenge naive technological determinism in management accounting transformation and demonstrate that AI-driven performance gains are conditional on coherent data governance.