mary canning

SUMMARY The offshoring of external audit work to so-called low-cost countries is prevalent among the Big 4 professional services firms. Despite this, our understanding of how this form of offshoring influences audit practitioners and the audit process is limited. This study examines how and why offshoring emerged as an organizational matter that changed the way audit work is organized in a Big 4 firm context. Our findings demonstrate how changes in the design of offshoring processes influence interactions between onshore and offshore auditors. We uncover how individual “boundary spanners” struggle to coordinate audit work across the multiple boundaries that separate onshore and offshore auditors. Furthermore, we show how the institutionalization of “boundary spanning” functions in organizational structures and processes can have the unintended consequence of widening the boundaries between onshore and offshore auditors. Finally, we offer evidence of the effect of offshoring on the l...

Title Regulation and governance of the professions: institutional work and the demise of 'delegated' self-regulation of the accounting profession Authors(s) Canning, Mary; O'Dwyer, Brendan Publication date 2018-03-07 Publication information Saks, M., Muzio, D. (eds.). Professions and Professional Services Firms: Private and Public Sector Enterprises in the Global Economy Publisher Routledge Link to online version https://www.amazon.co.uk/Professions-Professional-Service-Firms-Enterprises/dp/1138675954/ Item record/more information http://hdl.handle.net/10197/9730 Publisher's statement This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Professions and Professional Services Firms: Private and Public Sector Enterprises in the Global Economy on 7 March 2018, available online: https://www.routledge.com/Professions-and-Professional-Service-Firms-Private-and-Public-Sector-Enterprises/Saks-Muzio/p/book/9781138675957

Recent reported failings of audit practice and the extent of fines and sanctions issued against major audit firms in the Netherlands have resulted in severe criticism of the Dutch accounting profession. This paper contemplates how a noted Dutch tradition of excellence in auditing has shifted to one dominated by notions of inadequacy. It considers the content of AFM inspection reports, analyses various elements of the profession’s response to the criticisms being made of the quality of auditing, reflects on the scale and nature of identified problems, assesses the implications for the standing and future development of the auditing profession in the Netherlands and explores the scope for meaningful experiential learning and practice advancement.

... a certain capacity through, for example, tests of competence; the further study of a ... One core secondary function Millerson (1964) identifies involves the raising of professional status ... of the functions above has therefore led to many professional associations obtaining substantial ...

... a certain capacity through, for example, tests of competence; the further study of a ... One core secondary function Millerson (1964) identifies involves the raising of professional status ... of the functions above has therefore led to many professional associations obtaining substantial ...

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to extend and deepen our understanding of the production and interpretation of accounting regulation. It analyses how, in response to a regulatory crisis, a revised set of regulatory arrangements, principally in the realm of disciplinary procedure oversight, was re-negotiated and re-shaped in the Irish professional accounting context. We mobilize the concept of regulatory space ( and ) and Oliver’s (1991) typology of strategic responses to institutional pressures to theorise the actor dynamics, strategies and resources enrolled throughout the process of developing and interpreting the proposed regulations. By highlighting the interaction between different sets of actors within the regulatory realignment, we extend Oliver’s (1991) (implicit) focus on the strategic responses of one class of actor during an institutional change. While prior research finds that regulators adopt compromise or acquiescence strategies when confronted with aggressive regulatee resistance, thereby significantly diluting proposed regulations (see, Shapiro & Matson, 2008), we unveil a context where regulators successfully enrolled strategies of defiance to repel this resistance. We also find limited evidence of agreement on meaning between the regulators and regulatees, despite conceptions of regulatory space viewing this agreement as central to the initial interpretation of regulatory rules (Scott, 2001). Our analysis provides a counterpoint to prior research suggesting that the accounting establishment has been highly successful in influencing the design and interpretation of new regulations aimed at overseeing the accounting profession (see, Malsch & Gendron, 2011). Drawing on our findings, we suggest that the passivity of national regulators in the process of developing and interpreting (local or global) regulations should not be automatically presumed. We conclude with a call for an enhanced focus on the influence of national political and social contexts on the development and interpretation of accounting regulations.

The authors would like to sincerely thank Yves Gendron for his detailed and extremely helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper and to acknowledge the helpful comments of Juan Banhos, Bernard Pierce, Carol Tilt, Jeffrey Unerman, and an anonymous reviewer for the ...

The authors would like to sincerely thank Yves Gendron for his detailed and extremely helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper and to acknowledge the helpful comments of Juan Banhos, Bernard Pierce, Carol Tilt, Jeffrey Unerman, and an anonymous reviewer for the ...