Abstract
The current energy prices do not include the environmental, social, and economic short and long-term external effects. There is a gap in the literature on the decision-making model for the energy transition. True Cost Accounting (TCA) is an accounting management model supporting the decision-making process. This study investigates the challenges and explores how big data, AI, or blockchain could ease the TCA calculation and indirectly contribute to the transition towards more sustainable energy production. The research question addressed is: How can IT help TCA applications in the energy sector in Europe? The study uses qualitative interpretive methodology and is performed in the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland. The findings indicate the technical feasibilities of a big data infrastructure to cope with TCA challenges. The study contributes to the literature by identifying the challenges in TCA application for energy production, showing the readiness potential for big data, AI, and blockchain to tackle them, revealing the need for cooperation between accounting and technical disciplines to enable the energy transition.
Highlights
The energy markets face challenges in the transformation towards sustainable alternatives, with some European countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands showing stronger readiness than others, i.e., Poland and Hungary [1,2,3]
The current study proposes to address the challenges in True Cost Accounting (TCA) application, using IT as the primary data source for account management [32]
Materials and Methods This research aims to contribute to the literature on sustainability accounting by providing insights into improving the TCA methodology with the application of big data, AI, and Blockchain
Summary
The energy markets face challenges in the transformation towards sustainable alternatives, with some European countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands showing stronger readiness than others, i.e., Poland and Hungary [1,2,3]. Studies are scares on how to enable decision-makers throughout the energy production chain (from energy sources and production entities to energy (pro)consumers) to make better decisions, i.e., choose more sustainable alternatives This paper addresses this gap by analysing the True Cost Accounting model for energy cost estimation based on a broad scope of information covering all aspects of the energy production chain, both internal and external. The analysis goes beyond a single discipline and combines technical and accounting literature to critically assess the TCA model for energy cost estimation It explores the potential of an innovative idea of strengthening the TCA model with big data, Artificial Intelligence, and blockchain. We investigate the current challenges of TCA and the current use of big data in management accounting
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