De la genèse du nouveau Conseil National de la Comptabilité (2007) : un cas d'isomorphisme institutionnel ?

This article proposes an interpretation of the reform of the French accounting standards setter initiated by the decrete n? 20076629 of the 27 th of april 2007 related to the national standards board, the Conseil National de la Comptabilité (CNC). This reform, if it goes to its term, will give birth to a French Autorité des Normes Comptables (ANC). The proposed interpretation derives from a neo-institutionalist framework. It uses in particularly the notions of path dependency and of institutional mimetism. First, the new CNC is situated as an institution in relation with its predecessors. Then, It is compared with two institutions the architecture of which could have inspired its conceptors, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). It appears that the new CNC clearly steps out of the French accounting regulation?s historical path and tends to mime French « autorités administratives indépendantes » of the AMF type. Now, such an « autorité » is highly inspired from the SEC. So, paradoxically, the model of the new French Autorité des Normes Comptables would be the SEC rather than the FASB.