Corporate social responsibility as a legitimacy maintenance strategy in the professional accountancy firm

This paper investigates how accountancy firms use corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a device to maintain legitimacy with key constituents. It explores who these constituents (audiences) are for their CSR actions and the strategies they use to maintain legitimacy with these audiences. Interview-based evidence from 18 large accountancy firms in the United Kingdom (UK) identifies the main CSR constituents as: clients and potential clients of the firm; graduates as potential entrants to the industry; internal audiences represented by the firms' staff and partners; and other external audiences constructed as members of those local communities in which the firm operate. In the largest firms, maintaining pragmatic legitimacy with some client, graduate and internal audiences is frequently dependent on the development of moral legitimacy established with other external constituents (communities). Consequently, the typologies of legitimacy developed are largely pragmatic, the most ephemeral and most easily attained form, rather than something that is enduring, embedded and taken-for-granted.     

Specialization and matching in professional services firms

Economic theory indicates that firms can match workers to jobs and promote productivity‐enhancing specialization better than markets, yet few data exist. We empirically test whether firms enhance matching and specialization in the context of obstetrics. We then examine whether consumers benefit from this. We find that high‐risk patients in group practices match with specialists more than patients of solo physicians, and this improves patients’ health outcomes. Matching based on a patient’s clinical need for a cesarean section delivery and a physician’s cesarean section skill also occurs, but less extensively. These results support the hypothesis that firms facilitate matching and specialization.     

The role of attitudinal loyalty in the development of customer relationship management strategy within service firms

To facilitate the management of customer relationships, software manufacturers have developed customer relationship management (CRM) systems. These are enterprise-wide applications that can provide a single view of any customer's interactions with the company by tracking communications from both sides, recording purchases and thus developing an understanding of each customer's preferences. The need to generate behavioural loyalty has been identified as one of the major drivers for implementing CRM systems. There is relatively little research on attitudinal loyalty and CRM, however, with the bulk of the research conducted so far being focused on behavioural loyalty. The emphasis on behavioural loyalty has led to CRM being used to develop behavioural loyalty strategies. Generally speaking these strategies involve creating loyalty programmes, where incentives are offered to generate repeat purchase, or to sell more of the organisation's products and services to existing customers. The purpose of this research is to investigate the objectives and strategies of CRM in the finance industry and to compare these with the CRM objectives and strategies found in other service industries. The authors investigate to what degree the development of attitudinal loyalty is a factor in the creation of CRM strategy. This study is a qualitative study made up of 25 one-hour interviews with marketing and CRM managers. These 25 interviews consist of 11 interviews from the finance industry and 14 interviews from other industries as comparators. The results will be presented and contributions, limitations and suggestions for further research discussed.     

Financialization in the workplace: Hegemonic narratives,performative interventions and the angry knowledge worker

This paper uncovers how the pressures of financialization were passed from top management to employees and achieved performative hegemony in a subsidiary of a knowledge intensive, high technology, multinational corporation. Qualitative insights from subsidiary directors, management and knowledge workers are presented. The paper demonstrates that financialization is a performative phenomenon which elevates the role of accounting in organizations. It highlights how budgets can serve as a performative mechanism through which top management can narrate a desired reality and pass down a myriad of performative interventions to achieve this reality. The paper uncovers how financialization can cause insecurity, work intensification, suppression of voice and the enactment of falsely optimistic behaviours; all of which prompt distress and anger amongst knowledge workers. The paper also uncovers sources of counter performativity and resistance but demonstrates that employees ultimately participate in their subordination. Employees pursue financialized performative interventions as they interpret them as the primary method of securing their role in a pervasively insecure work environment.     

The strategy of professional forecasting

We develop and compare two theories of professional forecasters’ strategic behavior. The first theory, reputational cheap talk, posits that forecasters endeavor to convince the market that they are well informed. The market evaluates their forecasting talent on the basis of the forecasts and the realized state. If the market expects forecasters to report their posterior expectations honestly, then forecasts are shaded toward the prior mean. With correct market expectations, equilibrium forecasts are imprecise but not shaded. The second theory posits that forecasters compete in a forecasting contest with pre-specified rules. In a winner-take-all contest, equilibrium forecasts are excessively differentiated.     

Women and the prospects for partnership in professional accountancy firms

This paper examines three possible reasons (stereotypical discrimination, structural obstacles and employee's preferences) for the lack of women partners in professional accountancy firms in Australia, UK and New Zealand. Data are collected from an experimental survey and interviews of current partners. Whilst women's perceived preferences and organisational structural barriers contributed strongly to the lack of women partners in all sizes of firms, traditional stereotypical discrimination against women at the partnership decision point was only displayed in metropolitan large non‐Big 4 firms, and it is suggested that this is related to intense competitive pressure and a constrained partnership resource.     

注册会计师行业国际化发展战略的几点思考

实现注册会计师行业的国际化,是注册会计师行业贯彻落实国务院关于加快发展服务业若干意见的一项战略举措,是更好服务中国经济社会发展和助推中国企业走出去战略的重大行动,也是一项重大而艰巨的使命,需要协会、事务所、注册会计师做大量细致扎实的准备工作。笔者认为,应着重从以下几个方面着手准备。     

High-technology development zones and innovation in knowledge-intensive service firms: Evidence from Chinese A-share listed firms

Academic attention has been increasingly focused on the relationship between the practice of development zones and firm innovation. This paper explores the impact effect and mechanism of the establishment of high-tech development zones on the innovation behavior of knowledge-intensive service enterprises using data from A-share listed companies from 2005 to 2019. It is found that the establishment of high-tech development zones has a significant positive effect on the improvement of innovation capability among knowledge-intensive service enterprises. After mitigating the endogeneity problem, considering the sample selection problem, and conducting other robustness tests, the estimation results still support the baseline findings. Meanwhile, the innovation effect of high-tech zone establishment shows significant heterogeneity. Specifically, the impact of high-technology development zone establishment on firms' innovation capacity is most significant among technology service firms. In addition, the effect of high-tech development zone establishment on firms' innovation capability is more significant if the firms are located in national high-tech zones, or the eastern region, or in regions with high openness. Therefore, regions should actively optimize their upgrading and transformation of existing high-tech zones, strengthen the integration between high-tech zones, and actively guide the innovative development of knowledge-intensive service enterprises in high-tech zones.     

Sources of professional staff turnover in public accounting firms: Some further evidence

A recent article by Rhode et al. (1977) identified 39 variables associated with professional staff turnover in public accounting firms. The present study attempted to extend this prior work by examining the antecedents of the turnover act, namely those variables associated with the turnover decision. Using a valence-instrumentality-expectancy framework, measures of task outcome valence and instrumentality were evaluated with turnover expectations for a sample of 306 staff-level accountants. The findings indicated that the turnover decision was largely a function of negatively-valued task outcomes and the likelihood of obtaining these outcomes in one's current position, and the higher likelihood of obtaining certain positive outcomes in alternative positions.     

Organizational maturation and professional management: An indicator of decline in high-tech firms

This article looks at traditional American manufacturing industries and the important but neglected problem of the training and roles of American managers. It discusses oligopolies and declining growth rates and looks at the implications of a field study conducted in high-tech firms.     

做好事务所执业质量控制的一些经验

会计师事务所内部质量控制的关键是执行业务过程中的质量控制,它关系到出具业务报告的质量、为客户服务的水准,说到底关系到事务所的生存和发展。几年来,我所十分重视业务质量管理,设置了质量管理部、总会计师室,按照财政部和中注协有关质量控制准则的要求,制定了相应的质量管理制度并付诸实施,齐心协力、脚踏实地地抓质量,增强了员工的质量意识,有效防范了执业风险。以下是我们的一些经验和体会。     

会计师事务所业务差异化战略若干问题

一、事务所选择业务差异化战略的原因根据哈佛大学教授迈克尔.波特(Michacl Porter)关于竞争战略的论述,任何一个组织想赢得竞争优势,都离不开三种竞争战略:总成本领先     

Transfers of corporate control in firms with noncontrolling blockholders

I model the choice between a negotiated block trade and a public tender offer as means of acquiring control in a firm with a large minority blockholder. Potential acquirers differ in their (privately known) value‐creation ability. In equilibrium, block trades are made by lower ability acquirers compared to tender offers. The equal opportunity rule (EOR) and the “freezeout” rule are complements in promoting efficiency of control transfers. Stronger investor protection may hamper value‐increasing takeovers when the EOR is present. The model also delivers predictions about announcement returns and the incidence of block trades and tender offers under different legal regimes.     

Sources of professional staff turnover in public accounting firms revealed by the exit interview

Employee and employer stated reasons for leaving public accounting were studied together with the conditions surrounding departure and the best and least liked qualities of CPA firm work. Data collected after employee terminations on selected aspects of the work was shown to be a good predictor of whether employees left of their own volition or at the request of the firm and revealed several areas suitable for improving personnel relationship and reducing professional staff turnover.     

A comparison of V-I-E model predictions: A cross-national study in professional accounting firms

Behavioral research in accounting has largely ignored the impact of cross-national differences. This paper deviates from that trend and reports the results of a study comparing the predictive ability of the Valence-Instrumentality-Expectancy (V-I-E) model of motivation in two cultural settings: Australia and the United States of America. Data was collected from a matched sample of 45 staff-level auditors drawn from a large public accounting firm in each of the two respective countries. The findings indicate that few differences exist between the two groups with respect to personal value structures, motivation levels, and perceptions of the work environment. The results are significant both as a systematic cross-national comparison of accounting groups and as an extension of current V-I-E research in accounting.     

服务质量缺口模型在中小会计师事务所的运用

一、服务质量缺口模型介绍一般认为,服务具有四个特性:无形性、异质性、不可分割性、易消失性。从本质上看,服务质量是个主观概念,一般只能从客户角度来识别、感知其内涵,这决定了不可能采用客     

The boundaries of firms as information barriers

When contracts are incomplete, the property‐rights theory of firms suggests that ownership of physical assets provides better outside options, which in turn strengthen the owner's incentives to invest in the enterprise. This approach is less suitable for human capital firms such as management consulting that lack physical assets. This article develops an alternative theory for integration that sheds light on the boundaries of human capital firms. In particular, when a relationship between parties includes large potential externalities, reducing the outside option of each party will be beneficial. Integration provides this reduction by blurring the contribution of individual parties within the firm, and thus lowering their independent market valuation. Unlike some results in the property‐rights literature, the results here are robust to variations in ex post bargaining solution.     

Performance management and organizational strategy: How to design systems that meet the needs of confrontation strategy firms

The link between organizational strategy and performance management system design has been examined in numerous studies. Invariably, strategy is conceptualized using archetypes developed in the 1970s and 1980s. Scholars have increasingly questioned the wisdom of relying on strategic archetypes that are plainly dated and conspicuously disconnected from the possibility of firms competing head-to-head, not out of choice but out of necessity. Cooper (1995) calls such a situation the undertaking of a confrontation strategy. Using an exploratory research design, this paper draws on nine qualitative case studies to examine how performance management systems are designed to meet and support the implementation of a confrontation strategy. Initially six firms, spanning a variety of what were expected to be mature, highly competitive industries likely to feature confrontation strategies, were recruited for participation. This initial study was then followed by a more concentrated examination of one particular industry: the banking industry. Findings from the total case study sample of nine firms lead to the presentation of an original table contrasting the unique performance management system designs associated with the three distinct strategies of cost leadership, differentiation, and confrontation. In particular, and in contrast to firms pursuing cost leadership or differentiation strategies, firms with confrontation strategies are likely to feature collaborative organizational cultures, lean organizational structures, and training and development programs that focus on developing empowered, multi-skilled teams of self-governing and coordinating employees. The exploratory intent of the paper, and thus its reliance on a small sample size of nine organizations, may limit the generalizability of the paper’s findings. In spite of this limitation, the findings offer opportunities for researchers to move beyond the exploratory approach presently adopted and empirically test the confrontation strategy and performance management system linkages proposed. Additionally, practitioners are likely to benefit from a clearer understanding of the type of performance management system design needed to support confrontation strategies.     

事务所审计质量控制指标体系探讨

一、事务所审计质量控制指标体系的建立依据《中国注册会计师质量控制基本准则》的结构,加之与国际审计准则的协调,结合南京市会计师事务所的具体情况,本文将质量控制分为全面质量控制和项目质量控制两个层次,