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This study aims to examine constituents’ political participation in the establishment of an Accounting Standards Advisory Forum (ASAF).

Based on a literature review, three hypotheses regarding political participation in global accounting standard-setting are constructed: regional disparity, professional dominance and financialization. These hypotheses are tested through a content and narrative analysis of the comment letters on the establishment of the ASAF.

Consistent with the regional-disparity hypothesis, neither Anglo–Saxon nor European Union countries were active advocates or positive supporters of ASAF’s establishment. However, no evidence supporting the professional and financialization hypotheses was found. Narrative analysis suggests a divergence of opinion among vested-interest groups in the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), emerging nations and other groups, rather than the traditional conflicts between Anglo–Saxon and European countries. This suggests the possibility of a future-destabilizing factor in global standard-setting.

By discussing the IASB’s organizational and strategic changes and the constituents’ responses, this study describes the IASB’s organizational dynamics: how various stakeholders react to each other. Although prior studies primarily focused on comment letters regarding the contents of an accounting standard or the standard itself, this study examines such letters considering the size and composition of, and membership in, the ASAF, an organization within the IFRS Foundation (IFRSF). Therefore, the study reflects constituents’ opinions regarding their participation in the IFRSF/IASB more directly.

The purpose of this study is to examine the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)’s response to criticism and political pressure at the time of the global financial crisis through the lens of legitimacy theory.

This study constructs a thick description about a causal mechanism between social crisis and organizational change using a process-tracing approach that combines a historical narrative and a theoretical consideration.

The IASB faced criticism of its accounting standards for financial instruments and its governance structure during the financial crisis. This criticism represented the crises of pragmatic and cultural legitimacy. Facing these legitimacy crises, the IASB adopted such legitimation strategies as normalization and restructuring to repair its legitimacy. Additionally, in these repairing processes, the IASB, as a bonus, became institutionally embedded itself in the global political arena and succeeded to strengthen its legitimacy.

The study suggests that the financial crisis had a significant impact on the standardization of transnational accounting. Indeed, the crisis was an important turning point of the IASB’s work on revising its accounting standards to reduce complexity and altering its Constitution. Moreover, the authors bridge the gaps in the literature on accounting and legitimacy by examining how the IASB used particular legitimacy repair strategies when facing its legitimacy crises