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The gilded path: capital, habitus and illusio in the fund management field

John Millar (Business School, Durham University, Durham, UK)

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

ISSN: 0951-3574

Article publication date: 28 May 2021

Issue publication date: 12 November 2021

472

Abstract

Purpose

The fund management sector plays an important role in society. The sector exists in close proximity to the accounting profession and the concerns of the paper reflect themes discussed by accounting scholars, particularly financialization, inequality and life within elite professional service organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

This is an interpretive study of the fund management field based in the UK. It is based on 32 semi-structured interviews with individuals with personal experience of the field, combined with reflections from the researcher's own experience as a practitioner within the field.

Findings

The paper describes the backgrounds and motivations of individuals entering the field, the recruitment processes through which they are admitted, and the different strategies used to gain admission to the field. It explores the habitus of successful professionals in the field and the effects of this habitus.

Social implications

An important social implication of the paper is the problematization of the fund management industry's dislocation from broader society.

Originality/value

By identifying the different strategies employed by applicants from different backgrounds, it highlights the role of reflexive agency and the complicity between agent and field. Recognizing that professional fund management is organized as a game, it suggests that individuals are so committed to the game they know they are playing that they fail to realize that they are also drawn into a different game, namely the absorbing game of being a fund manager.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their detailed comments and helpful suggestions. Crawford Spence, Mairi Maclean, Frank Mueller and Stephen Walker all offered insightful feedback on earlier drafts of the paper, and Chris Carter provided invaluable support and guidance throughout. The study also benefited from the comments and suggestions of members of the Warwick Business School Accounting group at a seminar on 13 January 2021, in particular Yuval Millo, Emma McDaid, Fiona Anderson-Gough, Richard Taffler and Hendrik Vollmer.

Citation

Millar, J. (2021), "The gilded path: capital, habitus and illusio in the fund management field", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 34 No. 8, pp. 1906-1931. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-12-2019-4320

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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