Financial scandals, accounting change and the role of accounting academics: A perspective from North America

Abstract

This paper examines the responses of North American academics to the recent wave of accounting and audit scandals, pointing out that the main response has either been to appeal to a moralistic concept of ethics or to portray them as isolated incidents or indicative of problems elsewhere (e.g. relating to investment advice). We suggest that these responses fail to address the social and political context of accounting. Drawing on Bourdieu's framework for analysing academic work, the paper locates North American accounting academia, even though it is quite fragmented and diverse, in the Corporate University, and the allegiances of North American accounting academics to the accounting industry. However, recent scandals also provide an opportunity to intervene effectively and produce meaningful change. Through collective action, perhaps through the Association for Integrity in Accounting, we offer suggestions for interventions to produce substantive and worthwhile changes in teaching and research.

Keywords:

• Accounting scandals
• Association for Integrity in Accounting
• symbolic capital
• accounting ethics
• accounting interventions
• accounting academia

Acknowledgements

David Cooper acknowledges the support of the Certified General Accountants of Alberta, and the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Notes

¹See Oakes et al. (1998) for a discussion of restricted and widespread fields.

²Of course, we, and the business schools we work in, are not immune from the influence of patrons. However, we acknowledge the partisan nature of our work and do not attempt to legitimize it by misleading claims to ‘independence’.