IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/crpeac/v34y2016icp79-97.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The marketization of accountancy

Author

Listed:
  • Picard, Claire-France

Abstract

The 1980s were marked by the introduction of marketing expertise into the accounting field as an influential area of knowledge. Previously disregarded and even formally forbidden by the profession, marketing initiatives became essential for the advancement of an increasingly profit-centered practice. Within just a few years, marketing became an obligatory passage point within accountancy in order to attract and maintain clientele, recruit qualified staff, and retain competent employees. Based on data generated from interviews and document analysis, this article documents the “marketization” of accountancy in North America—specifically in the context of accounting firms—and its implications for the field. To conduct this work, I draw on actor–network theory and Callon’s moments of translation. My results show that the marketization movement can be regarded in two contradictory ways: as the result of a network of translations and associations where skepticism dominates, or as the fruit of the “progress” of marketing skills achieved after marketing expertise was legitimated. This study also underlines the implications for professional accountant status and identity representation as a result of the recruitment of marketing experts by accounting firms. Fundamentally speaking, this paper questions the threat that the marketization of accountancy poses to traditional professionalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Picard, Claire-France, 2016. "The marketization of accountancy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 79-97.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:34:y:2016:i:c:p:79-97
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2015.07.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235415000854
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.cpa.2015.07.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertrand Malsch & Yves Gendron, 2013. "Re-Theorizing Change: Institutional Experimentation and the Struggle for Domination in the Field of Public Accounting," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 870-899, July.
    2. Miller, Peter & Kurunmäki, Liisa & O'Leary, Ted, 2008. "Accounting, hybrids and the management of risk," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(7-8), pages 942-967.
    3. Miller, Peter & O'Leary, Ted, 1994. "Accounting, "economic citizenship" and the spatial reordering of manufacture," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 15-43, January.
    4. Anne-Laure Farjaudon & Jérémy Morales, 2013. "In Search of Consensus: The Role of Accounting in the Definition and Reproduction of Dominant Interests," Post-Print halshs-00864761, HAL.
    5. Chris Carter & Crawford Spence, 2014. "Being a Successful Professional: An Exploration of Who Makes Partner in the Big 4," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 949-981, December.
    6. Yves Gendron, 2008. "Constituting the Academic Performer: The Spectre of Superficiality and Stagnation in Academia," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 97-127.
    7. Robson, Keith & Humphrey, Christopher & Khalifa, Rihab & Jones, Julian, 2007. "Transforming audit technologies: Business risk audit methodologies and the audit field," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 409-438.
    8. Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2013. "Agonizing over engagement: SEA and the “death of environmentalism” debates," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 1-18.
    9. Yves Gendron & C. Richard Baker, 2005. "On interdisciplinary movements: The development of a network of support around Foucaultian perspectives in accounting research," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(3), pages 525-569.
    10. Tremblay, Marie-Soleil & Gendron, Yves, 2011. "Governance prescriptions under trial: On the interplay between the logics of resistance and compliance in audit committees," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 259-272.
    11. Grey, C., 1998. "On being a professional in a "Big Six" firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(5-6), pages 569-587.
    12. Jeacle, Ingrid, 2008. "Beyond the boring grey: The construction of the colourful accountant," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1296-1320.
    13. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10730 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Suddaby, Roy & Cooper, David J. & Greenwood, Royston, 2007. "Transnational regulation of professional services: Governance dynamics of field level organizational change," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 333-362.
    15. Anne-Laure Farjaudon & Jérémy Morales, 2013. "In search of consensus: The role of accounting in the definition and reproduction of dominant interests," Post-Print hal-01630501, HAL.
    16. Farjaudon, Anne-Laure & Morales, Jérémy, 2013. "In search of consensus: The role of accounting in the definition and reproduction of dominant interests," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 154-171.
    17. Michael Barrett & Yves Gendron, 2006. "WebTrust and the “commercialistic auditor”: The unrealized vision of developing auditor trustworthiness in cyberspace," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(5), pages 631-662, September.
    18. Claire-France Picard & Sylvain Durocher & Yves Gendron, 2014. "From meticulous professionals to superheroes of the business world," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(1), pages 73-118, January.
    19. David J. Cooper & Wayne Morgan, 2013. "Meeting the evolving corporate reporting needs of government and society: arguments for a deliberative approach to accounting rule making," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 418-441, August.
    20. Windsor, Carolyn & Warming-Rasmussen, Bent, 2009. "The rise of regulatory capitalism and the decline of auditor independence: A critical and experimental examination of auditors’ conflicts of interests," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 267-288.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:thr:techub:10021:y:2021:i:1:p:582-593 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Bitbol-Saba, Nathalie & Dambrin, Claire, 2019. "“It’s not often we get a visit from a beautiful woman!” The body in client-auditor interactions and the masculinity of accountancy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. François Brouard & Merridee Bujaki & Sylvain Durocher, 2017. "Attracting Prospective Professional Accountants Before and After the CPA Merger in Canada," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 105-127, June.
    4. Jeff Everett & Constance Friesen & Dean Neu & Abu Shiraz Rahaman, 2018. "We Have Never Been Secular: Religious Identities, Duties, and Ethics in Audit Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1121-1142, December.
    5. Parker, Lee D. & Schmitz, Jana, 2022. "The Reinvented accounting firm office: Impression management for efficiency, client relations and cost control," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    6. Dunne, Neil J. & Brennan, Niamh M. & Kirwan, Collette E., 2023. "How the Big Four maintain and defend logic equilibrium at concurrent performances," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    7. Beau, Pauline & Jerman, Lambert, 2022. "Bonding forged in “auditing hell”: The emotional qualities of Big Four auditors," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Durocher, Sylvain & Bujaki, Merridee & Brouard, François, 2016. "Attracting Millennials: Legitimacy management and bottom-up socialization processes within accounting firms," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-24.
    9. Grégory Jemine & François-Régis Puyou & Florence Bouvet, 2024. "Technological innovation and the co-production of accounting services in small accounting firms," Post-Print hal-04325739, HAL.
    10. Robson, Keith & Bottausci, Chiara, 2018. "The sociology of translation and accounting inscriptions: Reflections on Latour and Accounting Research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 60-75.
    11. Joe Putulowski & Rick Ardito & Robert Crosby, 2021. "A Quantitative Investigation: Applying the 4P's of Marketing to Entrepreneurial Accounting and Tax Preparer Firms," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 21(1), pages 582-593, July.
    12. Gholamhossein Mahdavi & Abbas Ali Daryaei, 2017. "Attitude toward business environment of auditing, corporate governance and balance between auditing and marketing," Contaduría y Administración, Accounting and Management, vol. 62(3), pages 1019-1040, Julio-Sep.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gendron, Yves, 2018. "Beyond conventional boundaries: Corporate governance as inspiration for critical accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-11.
    2. Daoust, Laurence, 2020. "Playing the Big Four recruitment game: The tension between illusio and reflexivity," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    3. Dermarkar, Simon & Hazgui, Mouna, 2022. "How auditors legitimize commercialism: A micro-discursive analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    4. Brown, Judy & Tregidga, Helen, 2017. "Re-politicizing social and environmental accounting through Rancière: On the value of dissensus," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1-21.
    5. Stenka, Renata & Jaworska, Sylvia, 2019. "The use of made-up users," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    6. Claire France Picard & Sylvain Durocher & Yves Gendron, 2013. "From Meticulous Professionals To Superheroes Of The Business World: A Historical Portrait Of A Cultural Change In The Field Of Accountancy," Post-Print hal-00993019, HAL.
    7. François Brouard & Merridee Bujaki & Sylvain Durocher & Leighann C. Neilson, 2017. "Professional Accountants’ Identity Formation: An Integrative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 225-238, May.
    8. Morales, Jérémy & Sponem, Samuel, 2017. "You too can have a critical perspective! 25 years of Critical Perspectives on Accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 149-166.
    9. Daoust, Laurence & Malsch, Bertrand, 2019. "How ex-auditors remember their past: The transformation of audit experience into cultural memory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Beau, Pauline & Jerman, Lambert, 2022. "Bonding forged in “auditing hell”: The emotional qualities of Big Four auditors," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    11. Guo, Ken H., 2018. "The odyssey of becoming: Professional identity and insecurity in the Canadian accounting field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 20-45.
    12. Stenka, Renata, 2022. "Beyond intentionality in accounting regulation: Habitual strategizing by the IASB," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    13. Baudot, Lisa & Cooper, David J., 2022. "Regulatory mandates and responses to uncomfortable knowledge: The case of country-by-country reporting in the extractive sector," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    14. Cooper, Christine, 2015. "Entrepreneurs of the self: The development of management control since 1976," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 14-24.
    15. Durocher, Sylvain & Bujaki, Merridee & Brouard, François, 2016. "Attracting Millennials: Legitimacy management and bottom-up socialization processes within accounting firms," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-24.
    16. repec:mth:ijafr8:v:8:y:2018:i:2:p:166-178 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Brivot, Marion & Cho, Charles H. & Kuhn, John R., 2015. "Marketing or parrhesia: A longitudinal study of AICPA's shifting languages in times of turbulence," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 23-43.
    18. Kuruppu, Chamara & Adhikari, Pawan & Gunarathna, Vijitha & Ambalangodage, Dayananda & Perera, Priyanga & Karunarathna, Chaminda, 2016. "Participatory budgeting in a Sri Lankan urban council: A practice of power and domination," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-17.
    19. Dunne, Neil J. & Brennan, Niamh M. & Kirwan, Collette E., 2023. "How the Big Four maintain and defend logic equilibrium at concurrent performances," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    20. Sorola, Matthew, 2022. "Q methodology to conduct a critical study in accounting: A Q study on accountants’ perspectives of social and environmental reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    21. Jensen, Mads Langballe & Agyemang, Gloria & Lehman, Cheryl R., 2021. "Accountabilities, invisibilities and silences in a Danish slave trading company on the Gold Coast in the early 18th century," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:34:y:2016:i:c:p:79-97. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/critical-perspectives-on-accounting/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.