IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aosoci/v38y2013i6p525-543.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The apparatus of fraud risk

Author

Listed:
  • Power, Michael

Abstract

‘Fraud risk’ is ontologically different from fraud. Fraud itself is a disruptive event; fraud risk can and must be governed. This essay draws on Foucault’s concept of an apparatus (dispositif) to explain the emergence of this difference. The analysis begins with a concrete case and explicates the history of fraud risk which flows through a specific organizational setting. First, it is claimed that fraud risk must be understood in relation to the broader historicity of risk in which risk expands its reach as an organizing practice category. Second, it is argued that the diverse elements of the fraud risk apparatus – words, laws, best practice guides, risk maps, websites, compliance officers, text books, regulatory judgments and many more – have a trajectory of formation. This trajectory begins with auditing and expands into risk management, regulation and security more generally. Fraud risk management emerges as a highly articulated, transnational web of ideas and procedures which frame the future within present organizational actions, and which intensify the responsibility of senior managers. Overall, the paper challenges the common sense idea that the present shape of fraud risk management is a functional necessity demanded by fraud events. The purpose is to display the historically contingent regime of truth for speaking about fraud, risk and responsibility in organizations. The paper suggests that this ‘regime of truth’ consists in a form of managerial and regulatory knowledge with a ‘grammar’ governing rules for talking about and acting on risky subjects and organizations. The rise of ‘fraud risk’ management and its prominent position within the field of corporate governance in the 21st century is emblematic of an ongoing neoliberal project of individualization and responsibilization.

Suggested Citation

  • Power, Michael, 2013. "The apparatus of fraud risk," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 525-543.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:38:y:2013:i:6:p:525-543
    DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2012.07.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368212000803
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.aos.2012.07.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carpenter, Brian & Dirsmith, Mark, 1993. "Sampling and the abstraction of knowledge in the auditing profession: An extended institutional theory perspective," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 41-63, January.
    2. Lounsbury, Michael, 2008. "Institutional rationality and practice variation: New directions in the institutional analysis of practice," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(4-5), pages 349-361.
    3. Knechel, W. Robert, 2007. "The business risk audit: Origins, obstacles and opportunities," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 383-408.
    4. Pincus, Karen V., 1989. "The efficacy of a red flags questionnaire for assessing the possibility of fraud," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 14(1-2), pages 153-163, January.
    5. Robson, Keith & Humphrey, Christopher & Khalifa, Rihab & Jones, Julian, 2007. "Transforming audit technologies: Business risk audit methodologies and the audit field," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(4-5), pages 409-438.
    6. Knights, D. & Vurdubakis, T., 1993. "Calculations of risk: Towards an understanding of insurance as a moral and political technology," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 18(7-8), pages 729-764.
    7. Power, Michael, 2009. "The risk management of nothing," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(6-7), pages 849-855, August.
    8. Hopwood, Anthony G., 1987. "The archeology of accounting systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 207-234, April.
    9. Miller, Peter & O'Leary, Ted, 1987. "Accounting and the construction of the governable person," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 235-265, April.
    10. Zimbelman, MF, 1997. "The effects of SAS no. 82 on auditors' attention to fraud risk factors and audit planning decisions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35, pages 75-97.
    11. Peter Grabosky, 2004. "The Global Dimension of Cybercrime," Global Crime, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(1), pages 146-157, February.
    12. Kim Klarskov Jeppesen, 1998. "Reinventing auditing, redefining consulting and independence," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 517-539.
    13. Miller, Peter & Napier, Christopher, 1993. "Genealogies of calculation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 18(7-8), pages 631-647.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ferry, Laurence & Funnell, Warwick & Oldroyd, David, 2023. "A genealogical and archaeological examination of the development of corporate governance and disciplinary power in English local government c.1970–2010," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    2. Corrigan, Lawrence T., 2018. "Budget making: The theatrical presentation of accounting discourse," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 12-32.
    3. Abdul Ghafoor & Rozaimah Zainudin & Nurul Shahnaz Mahdzan, 2019. "Factors Eliciting Corporate Fraud in Emerging Markets: Case of Firms Subject to Enforcement Actions in Malaysia," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 587-608, December.
    4. Mark E. Lokanan & Prerna Sharma, 2023. "Two Decades of Accounting Fraud Research: The Missing Meso-Level Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, September.
    5. Ala'a Zuhair Mansour & Aidi Ahmi & Oluwatoyin Muse Johnson Popoola, 2020. "The Personality Factor of Conscientiousness on Skills Requirement and Fraud Risk Assessment Performance," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(2), pages 405-415, April.
    6. Darlene Himick, 2023. "When Aging and Climate Change Are Brought Together: Fossil Fuel Divestment and a Changing Dispositive of Security," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-15, March.
    7. Hervé Stolowy & Yves Gendron & Jodie Moll & Luc Paugam, 2019. "Building the Legitimacy of Whistleblowers: A Multi‐Case Discourse Analysis," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 7-49, March.
    8. Paolo Vanini & Sebastiano Rossi & Ermin Zvizdic & Thomas Domenig, 2023. "Online payment fraud: from anomaly detection to risk management," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-25, December.
    9. Jemaa, Fatma, 2022. "Recoupling work beyond COSO: A longitudinal case study of Enterprise-wide Risk Management," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    10. Roberto Pietra & Andrea Melis, 2016. "“Governance and corruption: is history repeating itself?” Fostering a debate and inviting contributions from a multidisciplinary perspective," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 20(4), pages 689-701, December.
    11. Jeff Everett & Constance Friesen & Dean Neu & Abu Shiraz Rahaman, 2018. "We Have Never Been Secular: Religious Identities, Duties, and Ethics in Audit Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1121-1142, December.
    12. Aziza Laguecir & Bernard Leca, 2018. "Strategies of visibility in contemporary surveillance settings: Insights from misconduct concealment in financial markets, Critical Perspectives on Accounting," Post-Print hal-01914996, HAL.
    13. Steinbart, Paul John & Raschke, Robyn L. & Gal, Graham & Dilla, William N., 2018. "The influence of a good relationship between the internal audit and information security functions on information security outcomes," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 15-29.
    14. Nam Tran & Don O'Sullivan, 2020. "The relationship between corporate social responsibility, financial misstatements and SEC enforcement actions," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 1111-1147, April.
    15. Shi Qiu & Yuansheng Luo & Hongwei Guo, 2021. "Multisource evidence theory‐based fraud risk assessment of China's listed companies," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(8), pages 1524-1539, December.
    16. Ball, Kirstie & Canhoto, Ana & Daniel, Elizabeth & Dibb, Sally & Meadows, Maureen & Spiller, Keith, 2020. "Organizational tensions arising from mandatory data exchange between the private and public sector: The case of financial services," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    17. Pagliari, Stefano & Kovras, Iosif, 2021. "Individual Accountability in International Economy Policymaking after the Global Financial Crisis," SocArXiv gn8tk, Center for Open Science.
    18. Domenica Lavorato & Rita Lamboglia & Daniela Mancini, 2021. "La relazione tra rischio reputazionale e controllo-guida: possibili linee di ricerca," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(suppl. 2), pages 39-64.
    19. Mohammed Muneerali Thottoli & Md. Aminul Islam & Farid Ahammad Sobhani & Shafiqur Rahman & Md. Sharif Hassan, 2022. "Auditing and Sustainability Accounting: A Global Examination Using the Scopus Database," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-14, December.
    20. Thierry Kirat & Frédéric Marty, 2015. "The regulatory practice of the French financial regulator, 2006-2011. From substantive to procedural financial regulation?," Post-Print hal-01276504, HAL.
    21. Gilbert, Christine, 2021. "Debt, accounting, and the transformation of individuals into financially responsible neoliberal subjects," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    22. Sargiacomo, Massimo & Everett, Jeff & Ianni, Luca & D'Andreamatteo, Antonio, 2024. "Auditing for fraud and corruption: A public-interest-based definition and analysis," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(2).
    23. Laguecir, Aziza & Leca, Bernard, 2019. "Strategies of visibility in contemporary surveillance settings: Insights from misconduct concealment in financial markets," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 39-58.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Himick, Darlene, 2016. "Actuarialism as biopolitical and disciplinary technique," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 22-44.
    2. Robson, Keith & Ezzamel, Mahmoud, 2023. "The cultural fields of accounting practices: Institutionalization and accounting changes beyond the organization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    3. Napier, Christopher J., 2006. "Accounts of change: 30 years of historical accounting research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 445-507.
    4. Guénin-Paracini, Henri & Malsch, Bertrand & Paillé, Anne Marché, 2014. "Fear and risk in the audit process," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 264-288.
    5. Power, Michael, 2015. "How accounting begins: Object formation and the accretion of infrastructure," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 43-55.
    6. Himick, Darlene, 2011. "Relative performance evaluation and pension investment management: A challenge for ESG investing," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 158-171.
    7. Bryer, Alice Rose, 2011. "Accounting as learnt social practice: The case of the empresas recuperadas in Argentina," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 478-493.
    8. Arena, Marika & Arnaboldi, Michela & Azzone, Giovanni, 2010. "The organizational dynamics of Enterprise Risk Management," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 659-675, October.
    9. Neu, Dean & Everett, Jeff & Rahaman, Abu Shiraz, 2015. "Preventing corruption within government procurement: Constructing the disciplined and ethical subject," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 49-61.
    10. Lukas Goretzki, 2013. "Management accounting and the construction of the legitimate manager," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 319-344, February.
    11. Constable, Philip & Kuasirikun, Nooch, 2020. "From cosmological to commercial form: A Buddhist theory of ‘form’, ‘space’ and ‘stream of re-becoming’ in mid-19th century Thai accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    12. Kornberger, Martin & Pflueger, Dane & Mouritsen, Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures: Accounting for platform organization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 79-95.
    13. Eric Pezet, 2004. "Discipliner et gouverner:influence de deux thèmes foucaldiens en sciences de gestion," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 7(3), pages 169-189, September.
    14. Cooper, Christine, 2015. "Entrepreneurs of the self: The development of management control since 1976," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 14-24.
    15. Kornberger Martin & Pflueger Dane & Mouritsen Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures : Accounting for platform organization," Post-Print hal-02276737, HAL.
    16. Ferry, Laurence & Funnell, Warwick & Oldroyd, David, 2023. "A genealogical and archaeological examination of the development of corporate governance and disciplinary power in English local government c.1970–2010," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    17. Schultz Jr., Joseph J. & Bierstaker, James Lloyd & O'Donnell, Ed, 2010. "Integrating business risk into auditor judgment about the risk of material misstatement: The influence of a strategic-systems-audit approach," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 238-251, February.
    18. Olivier Herrbach, 2001. "Audit quality, auditor behaviour and the psychological contract," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(4), pages 787-802.
    19. Bigoni, Michele & Funnell, Warwick, 2015. "Ancestors of governmentality: Accounting and pastoral power in the 15th century," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 160-176.
    20. Karim Jamal, 2008. "Mandatory Audit of Financial Reporting: A Failed Strategy for Dealing with Fraud," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(2), pages 97-110, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:38:y:2013:i:6:p:525-543. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/aos .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.