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The sociology of professions literature has theorized that the professions are undergoing a dramatic transformation from being traditional professions to “entrepreneurial professions” populated by “knowledge workers.” In part, this transformation is associated with the commodification and commercialization of professional endeavor.

Our purpose is to enlist the processual ordering perspective to examine the ongoing transformation of the Big 5 (and following the collapse of Arthur Andersen during our field study)/4 public accounting firms to become entrepreneurial firms populated by global knowledge experts. More specifically, we focus on the inter-play of power and meta-power across three moments of the social construction process – externalization, objectivation, and internalization – through which the ethos of entrepreneurialism is being socially constructed within these firms, their individual members, and in the public accounting profession. Finally, we explore impressions gleaned from our qualitative, naturalistic field study.

The time period from the mid-1980s through 2002 is described in this series of research as a “pre-SOX” era of rapid deprofessionalization in U.S. pubic accountancy resulting in the loss of professional status. This was a period, however, when all professions were suffering some deprofessionalization. During the pre-SOX period it appears that leadership in public accountancy responded to a nearly perfect storm of changes confronting the profession with a corporate mentality of management by objectives, commercialization, and profit maximization resulting in constant and substantial net deprofessionalization greater than that of other professions. Starting in the late-1970s and continuing through 2001, some critics of public accountancy have asserted that leaders in the profession either lost or forgot what was required for public accountancy to be recognized as a profession. The conclusion stated in this paper is that public accountancy has lost its professional status in or before 2002. The reasons and events leading to this conclusion are presented and discussed. In the United States it appears as though once professional status is lost, regaining the elite status is more difficult. The question is if public accountancy can learn from history going into the substantial changes to be confronted in the post-SOX era of public accountancy and regain or at least make progress toward regaining professional status.

Over the last decade, the accounting convergence process with the development and adoption of IFRS as national standards has become the focus of governments, professionals, and researchers. In 2005, the EU (including Germany) and Australia adopted IFRS. A survey by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (2010) reported that 89 countries have adopted or intend to adopt IFRS for all their domestic listed companies. Currently, more than 100 jurisdictions require or permit the use of IFRS, with countries such as Canada, Brazil, and Argentina being the most recent adopters (IFRS Foundation, 2011b). This growing number of countries implementing IFRS and their experiences and emerging challenges have further raised researchers' interest in this controversial topic (Ashbaugh & Pincus, 2001; Atwood et al., 2011; Byard et al., 2011; Christensen et al., 2007; Daske et al., 2008; Ding et al., 2007; Hail et al., 2010a, 2010b; Kvaal & Nobes, 2010; McAnally et al., 2010; Mechelli, 2009; Niskanen, Kinnunen, & Kasanen, 2000; Stolowy, Haller, & Klockhaus, 2001; Tyrrall et al., 2007). However, these studies have concentrated on the development and application of specific accounting standards and practices and/or cross-national and cross-cultural issues concerning adaptation, implementation, and evaluation of IFRS. Moreover, an increasing number of studies have been devoted to classifications of accounting models and categorization of accounting standards, principles, and values (Chanchani & Willett, 2004; D'Arcy, 2000, 2001; Doupnik & Richter, 2004; Doupnik & Salter, 1993; Gray, 1988; Kamla, Gallhofer, & Haslam, 2006; Nair & Frank, 1980; Patel, 2003, 2007; Perera & Mathews, 1990; Salter & Doupnik, 1992). However, very few studies have critically examined the historical development of accounting practices and issues related to convergence in its socioeconomic context and, importantly, we are not aware of any study that has rigorously examined the institutionalization of Anglo-American accounting practices as international practice with an emphasis on power and legitimacy in the move toward convergence of accounting standards.

This chapter examines the notion that contemporary tourists prefer luxury experiences rather than luxury products by testing the opinions and attitudes of middle-class tourists as a critical target for global luxury tourism through the lens of experience-oriented accommodation. Notions from the study were used in conceptualising a spectrum to describe the shades of grey within luxury tourism. A Japanese temple lodging known as ‘shukubo’ in Koyasan, an experience-based accommodation, was used as a case to investigate the preferences of two groups of middle-class Thai tourists: non-pilgrims and pilgrims. The results, which revealed positive opinions and attitudes towards the programme, confirm that both groups were satisfied with the luxury tourism experience programme. However, non-pilgrims, described as psychocentric tourists (represented in black at the left end of the spectrum), tended to embed them with luxury materials, such as the accommodation's facilities and amenities. Conversely, pilgrims, identified as allocentric travellers (represented in white at the right end of the spectrum), were inclined to define ‘simplicity’ as a luxury. They were also interested in learning experiences at both ‘off-the-beaten-track’ and famous branded destinations. The differences found in such an example as described above conceptualised tourists' personalities regarding luxury tourism within three shades of grey: dark grey, grey and light grey, depending on the intensity of their interests in material concerns or learning experiences. Findings from this study are general; however, it presents an original concept developed from demographic and psychographic factors to broaden the understanding of luxury tourism, which is undergoing a paradigm shift.

Mapping the intrinsic value of the art of architecture and the art of nature within the context of Kakunodate and the preservation of its samurai manors and Sakura heritage trees, this paper proposes that from the perception of tourists, the preservation of both items is important. Extending the psychology of pricing that is subject to consumers’ preference and expectation to the context of valuation of cultural heritage assets, the purpose of this paper is to suggest that including the art of nature and the aesthetic of Sakura to the art of architecture (Samurai manors) will add more value to the cultural heritage of Kakunodate than when only the art of architecture is mentioned.

This paper uses Contingency Valuation Method to solicit tourists willingness-to-pay to preserve the architecture and the nature in Kakunodate. The survey uses a double bounded dichotomous choice model to elicit the various levels of tourists preference in various scenarios. Response from more than 1,000 tourists in three scenarios were collected. Through a maximum likelihood method and a subsequent truncated calculation, results are reported.

The results support the conceptual argument that the art of nature adds value to the art of architecture only. Tourists are found to be willing to pay more to support both the architecture (samurai houses) and nature (cherry trees) than the samurai houses alone.

The research findings add to the inventory of research on prior works in heritage trees, conservation of trees and heritage tourism, and cultural heritage assets in general. The empirical findings support prior theoretical works that examined the relationship of nature and art, art and architecture, and architecture as visual consumption.

The findings have managerial implications for policy makers relative to a possible increase of revenue by adding accompanying-nature component to focal architectural assets when soliciting funding support.

The originality and this piece stems from extending trees as an art form in nature and its added value to architecture within the context of cultural heritage assets. The empirical findings add to the much discussed relationships among art, nature, and architecture.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of superstars (and other factors) on football fans’ attraction to competition (i.e. disloyal behavior).

A proprietary data set including archival data on professional German football players and clubs as well as survey data of more than 900 football fans is used. The hypotheses are tested with two-sample mean-comparison t-tests and multivariate probit models.

This study provides evidence that superstars both attract new fans and contribute to the retention of existing fans. While the presence of superstars, team loyalty and team identification prevent football fans from being attracted to competition, the team's recent performance seems to have no effect. Fans who select their favorite player from a competing team rather choose superstars, young players, players who are known for exemplary behavior and defenders.

This paper contributes to existing research by expanding the list of antecedents of disloyalty and by being the first to employ independent, quantitative data for the assessment of superstar characteristics in the context of team loyalty.

The purpose of this paper is to review the contribution made by auditing research over the last three decades to understandings of audit practice and to consider the implications for the future development of the discipline.

The approach takes the form of a literature review.

The paper challenges the extent of one's knowledge of audit practice, highlighting a variety of concerns with dominant research approaches/traditions and pin‐pointing a range of research questions and approaches which offer potentially rewarding insights of the audit practice arena.

The paper emphasises the scope for auditing researchers and practitioners to think differently about audit practice and to work collectively in pursuing advances in auditing knowledge and educational processes more generally.

The paper illustrates just how vibrant contemporary auditing research agendas can be when the focus is directly on understanding the practice of audit and the work of associated regulatory institutions. It argues that the development of the auditing research discipline has been hindered by desired attachments to so‐called notions of “scientific rigour” and a reluctance across significant parts of the discipline to undertake (or even acknowledge) research of a more “qualitative” or “critical” dimension.

This paper examines micro-practices of resistance to understand how they influence accounting.

A qualitative methodology based on interviews is used to explore an extreme case of disciplinary organization, that of the French Armed Forces whereby secrecy and discipline are the norm. The study draws on James Scott's concept of infrapolitics to illustrate how service members manage to appear obedient and disciplined, while simultaneously criticizing and resisting accounting practices “below the radar” of surveillance.

The study describes “resistance in obedience” to account for how service members resist while following discipline. Three main forms of resistance are identified. Containment consists in obstructing and delaying a process of change that depends on willing participation of active supporters. Subversion consists in weakening the sources of information and the communication channels. Sabotage consists in fragmenting accounting (here a balanced scorecard) by separating performance indicators from cost accounting. The study shows that these three tactics of hidden and informal resistances prevent the spread of accounting reforms, disrupt transparency and create a blockade around financial information.

The study of resistance to accounting in a setting where compliance and discipline are the norm shows how widespread it can be. In that respect, future research could provide a more systematic understanding of resistance in action and its conditions of possibility in various contexts and settings. This article further illustrates the allure of opacity against the threats of transparency and accountability. The use of accounting in opaque settings opens interesting avenues of research, since the appeal of accounting has often been related to the allure of transparency and to accounting's potential to create visibilities. Finally, this paper opens a perspective for future research on how micro-resistance meets micro-practices of power in the context of ostensibly liberated, participative and non-authoritarian management.

While previous literature argued that resistance to accounting arises when it is used to increase discipline, our findings challenge this assumed dichotomy, by showing that sometimes accounting is resisted in the name of discipline. This study further outlines the fact that the “allure” of transparency is not universal but can also prove disruptive and be contested. In addition, this study contributes to the literature on resistance to accounting that mainly focused on overt, dramatic and organized forms of resistances, by highlighting the existence of a more widespread, omnipresent yet hidden and mundane, day-to-day, form of opposition, which significantly influences accounting. Finally, the findings show that resistance is not only an outside force intersecting with accounting but also an intrinsic force that shapes accounting from the inside.