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The purpose of this Special Issue of Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management is to focus on qualitative research in accounting from a North American perspective. The goal is to highlight the possibility of greater contributions to qualitative research in accounting from researchers based in North America and to highlight some significant contributions produced by authors in North American universities in the qualitative domain.

The paper is conceptual in nature.

This sample of North American qualitative research in accounting provides an example of some of the different types of qualitative work being done. In most respects the articles are similar to qualitative research being done in other parts of the world. Perhaps the key difference is that the research has been undertaken for the most part by senior researchers who have been able to take some risks with a research paradigm that may not be widely accepted at their universities or they may be fortunate to be located at universities which value such research.

The paper broadens the view of qualitative research to North America where it appears that qualitative research has been relatively undervalued in recent years.

This paper traces the development of Enron Corp. from a regulated natural gas distribution company to a worldwide energy trading company to its ultimate demise in bankruptcy in December 2001. The paper examines whether Enron should be viewed as an accounting failure, with investors and creditors being severely misled by false financial statements, or whether it was a business failure that was obscured by accounting practices that strained the limits of credibility. It is the contention of this paper that astute financial analysis would have revealed the instability of the Enron business model, thereby alerting investors and creditors to the lack of credit worthiness of the company. At the same time, the paper argues that had there been an appropriate level of transparency in the financial statements, investors and creditors would have been provided with a more realistic view of the company’s financial position and its results of operations, thereby facilitating their ability to assess the viability of the company and avoid their bankruptcy losses.

The bankruptcy of Enron Corp. has evolved into a scandal of enormous proportions involving allegations of fraud, corruption and unethical practices on the part of Enron’s corporate executives, members of its board of directors, external auditors, and high government officials in the USA. No doubt there will be many articles written about various aspects of the Enron scandal. The focus of this paper is on the relationships between Enron’s business model and the deregulatory phase of the American economy during the 1980s and 1990s. It is the argument of this paper that deregulation in the US electricity and natural gas industries fostered the creation of the Enron business model, and that this model was unsustainable, resulting in the demise of Enron Corp. Furthermore, while Enron can be viewed as an example of capitalistic excess, the paper reveals how the Enron business model developed as an American form of a public private partnership, similar to the types of public private partnerships that have been created in recent years in the UK. Investigating Enron as a public private partnership may help us to better understand the role of public private partnerships in contemporary capitalism and shed some light on the advisability of deregulatory schemes and the unintended consequences that can result from such schemes.

Focuses on large, international public accounting firms and the manner in which these firms attempt to manage a changing environment and defend against threats to the self‐regulation of public accounting. Investigates the strategies and responses of these large firms to the challenges of a changing environment, and questions whether such strategies and responses will be effective in the future in maintaining the self‐regulation of public accounting. In addition, discusses why traditional accounting and auditing research methods have been unable to reveal and investigate the complexities of the environment in which the large firms operate. Suggests the use of alternative research methods (i.e. qualitative methods) in order to address relevant research questions more effectively. Comprises four sections. The first section discusses the significance of the large accounting firms as an area of critical inquiry and summarizes threats to continued self‐regulation. The second section discusses the concept of structure and the investigation of structure through qualitative research methods. The second section also discusses the strategies that the large firms have developed to achieve success. The third section discusses why the strategies may not be successful in the future. The fourth section provides a summary and discusses implications for research in accounting and auditing.

Accounting researchers have frequently borrowed theories and methods from other disciplines. A noteworthy importation movement in recent decades involves the work of French intellectuals and philosophers, not least Pierre Bourdieu. This paper aims to contribute to the sociology of the accounting discipline by examining how Bourdieu's works have been translated into the domain of accounting research.

The investigation is articulated through three modes of analysis. First, it evaluates Bourdieu's recognition in the domain of accounting research, through an examination of the extent to which Bourdieu's writings are cited in accounting articles. Focusing on accounting articles which rely significantly on Bourdieu's thought, the paper then examines which of his publications have been mobilized, and how researchers have articulated his ideas in studying accounting phenomena. The third line of inquiry addresses the extent to which accounting researchers have used Bourdieu's core concepts holistically, that is to say in mobilizing simultaneously the concepts of field, capital and habitus.

Several of the studies which rely significantly on Bourdieu have employed his work holistically, while others have not. Moreover, about half of the studies reviewed in the paper are characterized by a gap between Bourdieu's view of academic research as a support to political and social causes debated in the public arena versus a more dispassionate approach to research. While it is difficult to be conclusive about the implications of these translational gaps, they nonetheless make one aware of some central epistemological issues: Should accounting researchers be more concerned about bringing “the achievements of science and scholarship into public debate”? What are the pros and cons of drawing upon ideas from politically‐engaged intellectuals in order to conduct research characterized by political dispassion? Does it make sense to use certain concepts excerpted from a comprehensive system of thought in a piecemeal way?

The paper mobilizes and develops the notion of translation in investigating an interdisciplinary movement.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of the ethical discourse of the US public accounting profession over the last century in relation to Foucault's concept of “codified discourse”. The ethical discourse of the US public accounting profession has evolved from its first code of ethics promulgated in 1917, which focused primarily on protecting the economic interests of the profession, to a position in the most recent promulgation of the code of professional conduct, which contains aspirational elements regarding ethical behavior, but which incorporates few enforceable provisions. It is therefore necessary to look elsewhere for the ethical discourse of the profession, which appears to be located more in the behaviors of accountants practicing in large international public accounting firms, in which the professional accountant becomes molded into an “ethical being” in the Foucaultian sense, as one who is self-regulated and self-formed into an ideal member of the profession.

Using Foucault's concept of “codified discourse”, the author examines changes to the code of ethics of the US public accounting profession of over a period of 100 years. The code of ethics of the US public accounting profession has been one of the primary means through which the ethical discourse of the profession has been communicated to its members. The author addresses the question whether the code of ethics has been principally directed towards protecting the public interest or serving the private interests of the profession. Extending Preston et al. and Beets, the author argues that the changes to the code of ethics have been prompted primarily by market forces and the accounting profession's desire to expand its scope of its services, thus protecting its private economic interests.

The author demonstrates that the ethical discourse of the profession can be found more in the self-forming practices of the profession rather than its code of ethics. These self-forming practices commence early in the career of a prospective accountant and shape the accountant into an idealized “ethical being” in the Foucaultian sense; not an ethical being who complies with a code of ethics, but rather an ethical being who is self-regulated and self-formed into an ideal member of the profession, one who seeks to serve clients while at the same time giving the appearance of acting with integrity and conforming to professional ideals.

The limitations of this paper are similar to those of all qualitative studies in that there is a lack of generalizability.

Most academics are unaware of the informal ethical discourse that is effectively communicated to entry level and junior accountants. Making accounting students cognizant of the actual ethical discourse that they will face in their careers may help them to better deal with the ethical challenges that they will face.

No previous research has dealt with codes of ethics in the public accounting profession as a self-forming practice, using Foucaultian terminology.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Barthes' influence on, and potential for, accounting communication research; and to apply Barthes' principles to visual images of professional accountancy.

The study seeks to provide: a synthesis of prior accounting research that has drawn on Barthes' work, followed by an overview of Barthes' work in both its rational, structuralist, phase, and its more sentimental, post‐structuralist, phase, that identifies strands of interest to accounting communication; and Barthesian semiotic interpretations of visual images of accountancy portrayed in the annual report front covers of a major UK accounting firm through their linguistics (anchorage and relay), denotation and connotation.

Barthes' work has been surprisingly little used in accounting; a number of aspects of Barthes's work could be more fruitfully exploited, especially those from his later post‐structuralist phase; a Barthesian approach assists in reading the dual portrayal of accountancy as both an art and a science, and as business‐aware as well as traditionally professional.

The theoretical section is limited to a broad overview of Barthes' very extensive work; the empirical section provides a detailed analysis of one organization. It would be useful to extend the research to more extended analyses based on Barthes' prolific work, and to many aspects of accounting communication.

The analysis may be of interest to all accounting researchers, practitioners, trainees and auditors, since communication is central to accounting.

The paper adds to theoretical work in accounting communication, to the empirical literature on the interpretation of verbal and visual signs in accounting and accountability statements, and to understanding of the external images of professional accountancy.