IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/crpeac/v88y2022ics1045235421000137.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond intentionality in accounting regulation: Habitual strategizing by the IASB

Author

Listed:
  • Stenka, Renata

Abstract

Adopting critical discourse analysis and Bourdieu’s theorization of dispositional use of language, the present study challenges a common assumption in the accounting standard-setting literature, namely, that regulators’ discourse is purposely and deliberately deployed. I draw on cognitive sociolinguistics to empirically explore the specific manifestations of habitual, that is, pre-reflexive legitimation rhetoric in IASB regulatory texts. My analysis shows how taken-for-granted discursive rationalizations and linguistic forms are operationalized. I then argue that the language observed in regulatory texts, which can be considered as examples of ‘collective thinking artefacts’, enacts standard setters’ institutionalized patterns of reasoning associated with their social position. This critical perspective on the subconscious use of rhetoric generates a series of further questions regarding the lack of reflexivity in accounting regulatory processes.

Suggested Citation

  • Stenka, Renata, 2022. "Beyond intentionality in accounting regulation: Habitual strategizing by the IASB," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:88:y:2022:i:c:s1045235421000137
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2021.102294
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235421000137
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.cpa.2021.102294?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. repec:eme:aaaj00:09513570710731218 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Allen, Abigail & Ramanna, Karthik, 2013. "Towards an understanding of the role of standard setters in standard setting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 66-90.
    3. Lisa Baudot, 2018. "On Commitment Toward Knowledge Templates in Global Standard Setting: The Case of the FASB‐IASB Revenue Project," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(2), pages 657-695, June.
    4. Young, Joni J., 1994. "Outlining regulatory space: Agenda issues and the FASB," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 83-109, January.
    5. Niamh M. Brennan & Doris M. Merkl-Davies, 2014. "Rhetoric and argument in social and environmental reporting: the Dirty Laundry case," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(4), pages 602-633, April.
    6. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-02-2015-1984 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Botzem, Sebastian & Quack, Sigrid, 2009. "(No) Limits to Anglo-American accounting? Reconstructing the history of the International Accounting Standards Committee: A review article," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 988-998, November.
    8. Georgiou, Omiros & Jack, Lisa, 2011. "In pursuit of legitimacy: A history behind fair value accounting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 311-323.
    9. Anne-Laure Farjaudon & Jérémy Morales, 2013. "In Search of Consensus: The Role of Accounting in the Definition and Reproduction of Dominant Interests," Post-Print halshs-00864761, HAL.
    10. Baudot, Lisa & Dillard, Jesse & Pencle, Nadra, 2020. "The emergence of benefit corporations: A cautionary tale," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 67.
    11. Gendron, Yves, 2018. "Beyond conventional boundaries: Corporate governance as inspiration for critical accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-11.
    12. Eero Vaara & Jeanne Tienari, 2008. "A Discursive Perspective on Legitimation Strategies in Multinational Corporations," Post-Print hal-02276724, HAL.
    13. Young, Joni J., 1996. "Institutional thinking: The case of financial instruments," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 487-512, July.
    14. Hines, Ruth D., 1991. "The FASB's conceptual framework, financial accounting and the maintenance of the social world," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 313-331.
    15. Gendron, Yves, 2002. "On the role of the organization in auditors' client-acceptance decisions," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 659-684, October.
    16. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-04-2013-1333 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Sebastian Botzem, 2014. "Transnational standard setting in accounting : Organizing expertise-based self-regulation in times of crises," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 27(5), pages 933-955.
    18. B. Malsch & Y. Gendron & F. Grazzini, 2011. "Investigating interdisciplinary translations: The influence of Pierre Bourdieu on accounting literature," Post-Print halshs-00783872, HAL.
    19. Peda, Peeter & Vinnari, Eija, 2020. "The discursive legitimation of profit in public-private service delivery," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    20. Mats Alvesson & André Spicer, 2012. "A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7), pages 1194-1220, November.
    21. Botzem, Sebastian, 2014. "Transnational standard setting in accounting: Organizing expertise-based self-regulation in times of crises," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 27(6), pages 933-955.
    22. Sebastian Botzem, 2014. "Transnational standard setting in accounting," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(6), pages 933-955, July.
    23. Bertrand Malsch & Yves Gendron & Frédérique Grazzini, 2011. "Investigating interdisciplinary translations," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(2), pages 194-228, February.
    24. Christopher Nobes, 2014. "The development of national and transnational regulation on the scope of consolidation," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(6), pages 995-1025, July.
    25. Mantzari, Elisavet & Georgiou, Omiros, 2019. "Ideological hegemony and consent to IFRS: Insights from practitioners in Greece," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 70-93.
    26. Walter Masocha & Pauline Weetman, 2007. "Rhetoric in standard setting: the case of the going‐concern audit," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(1), pages 74-100, March.
    27. Bhimani, Alnoor & Bond, David & Sivabalan, Prabhu, 2019. "Does greater user representation lead to more user focused standards? An empirical investigation of IASB’s approach to standard setting," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91196, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    28. repec:eme:aaaj00:09513578910132268 is not listed on IDEAS
    29. D'Adderio, Luciana, 2011. "Artifacts at the centre of routines: performing the material turn in routines theory," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 197-230, June.
    30. Damon Golsorkhi & Bernard Leca & Carlos Ramirez & Michael Lounsbury, 2009. "Analysing, Accounting for and Unmasking Domination: On Our Role as Scholars of Practice, Practitioners of Social Science and Public Intellectuals," Post-Print hal-00491674, HAL.
    31. Alan Richardson & Burkard Eberlein, 2011. "Legitimating Transnational Standard-Setting: The Case of the International Accounting Standards Board," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 98(2), pages 217-245, January.
    32. Ioana Lupu & Raluca Sandu, 2017. "Intertextuality in corporate narratives: a discursive analysis of a contested privatization," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(3), pages 534-564, March.
    33. Sylvain Durocher & Yves Gendron, 2011. "IFRS: On the Docility of Sophisticated Users in Preserving the Ideal of Comparability," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(2), pages 233-262.
    34. Cooper, David J. & Robson, Keith, 2006. "Accounting, professions and regulation: Locating the sites of professionalization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 415-444.
    35. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-03-2013-1287 is not listed on IDEAS
    36. repec:dau:papers:123456789/10730 is not listed on IDEAS
    37. Bengtsson, Elias, 2011. "Repoliticalization of accounting standard setting—The IASB, the EU and the global financial crisis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 567-580.
    38. Anne-Laure Farjaudon & Jérémy Morales, 2013. "In search of consensus: The role of accounting in the definition and reproduction of dominant interests," Post-Print hal-01630501, HAL.
    39. Young, Joni J., 2006. "Making up users," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 579-600, August.
    40. Paul F. Williams & Sue P. Ravenscroft, 2015. "Rethinking Decision Usefulness," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(2), pages 763-788, June.
    41. Power, Michael, 2021. "Modelling the microfoundations of the audit society: organizations and the logic of the audit trail," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100243, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    42. Yves Gendron, 2001. "The Difficult Client†Acceptance Decision in Canadian Audit Firms: A Field Investigation," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), pages 283-310, June.
    43. Farjaudon, Anne-Laure & Morales, Jérémy, 2013. "In search of consensus: The role of accounting in the definition and reproduction of dominant interests," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 154-171.
    44. Ioana Lupu & Laura Empson, 2015. "Illusio and overwork: playing the game in the accounting field," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(8), pages 1310-1340, October.
    45. Harvey, Charles & Yang, Ruomei & Mueller, Frank & Maclean, Mairi, 2020. "Bourdieu, strategy and the field of power," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    46. Hayoun, Shaul, 2019. "How fair value is both market-based and entity-specific: The irreducibility of value constellations to market prices," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 68-82.
    47. Renata Stenka & Peter Taylor, 2010. "Setting UK standards on the concept of control: An analysis of lobbying behaviour," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 109-130.
    48. Joni J. Young, 2014. "Separating the Political and Technical: Accounting Standard†Setting and Purification," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 713-747, September.
    49. Omiros Georgiou, 2018. "The Worth of Fair Value Accounting: Dissonance between Users and Standard Setters," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(3), pages 1297-1331, September.
    50. Chua, Wai Fong & Taylor, Stephen L., 2008. "The rise and rise of IFRS: An examination of IFRS diffusion," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 462-473.
    51. Sylvain Durocher & Yves Gendron, 2014. "Epistemic commitment and cognitive disunity toward fair-value accounting," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(6), pages 630-655, December.
    52. Zhang, Ying & Andrew, Jane, 2014. "Financialisation and the Conceptual Framework," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 17-26.
    53. Christopher Nobes, 2014. "The development of national and transnational regulation on the scope of consolidation," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 27(5), pages 995-1025.
    54. Young, Joni J., 2003. "Constructing, persuading and silencing: the rhetoric of accounting standards," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 621-638, August.
    55. B. Malsch & Y. Gendron & F. Grazzini, 2011. "Investigating interdisciplinary translations: The influence of Pierre Bourdieu on accounting literature," Post-Print halshs-00586846, HAL.
    56. David J. Cooper & Wayne Morgan, 2013. "Meeting the evolving corporate reporting needs of government and society: arguments for a deliberative approach to accounting rule making," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 418-441, August.
    57. Daoust, Laurence, 2020. "Playing the Big Four recruitment game: The tension between illusio and reflexivity," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    58. Power, Michael K., 2003. "Auditing and the production of legitimacy," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 379-394, May.
    59. Anthony G. Hopwood, 1994. "Some reflections on 'The harmonization of accounting within the EU'," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 241-254.
    60. Walters, Melissa, 2004. "Alternative accounting thought and the prison-house of metaphor," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 157-187, February.
    61. Stenka, Renata & Jaworska, Sylvia, 2019. "The use of made-up users," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    62. Bamber, Matthew & McMeeking, Kevin, 2016. "An examination of international accounting standard-setting due process and the implications for legitimacy," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 59-73.
    63. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-05-2014-1705 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Everett, Jeff & Shiraz Rahaman, Abu & Neu, Dean & Saxton, Gregory, 2024. "Letters to the editor, institutional experimentation, and the public accounting professional," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    2. Durocher, Sylvain & Picard, Claire-France & Dugal, Léa, 2024. "Giving sense to and making sense of OCI: When each component makes sense, but the whole does not," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Sophie Giordano-Spring & Carlos Larrinaga & Géraldine Rivière-Giordano, 2024. "Field-configuring events and the failure to standardise accounting for carbon emissions," Post-Print hal-04686904, HAL.
    4. Warren, Rebecca, 2024. "Maintaining and extending hegemony: The politics of accounting standard setting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    5. Ferry, Laurence & Midgley, Henry & Haslam, Jim, 2024. "Democracy, accountability, accounting and trust: A critical perspective reflecting on a UK Parliamentary inquiry into the role of government accounts," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

    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. Stenka, Renata & Jaworska, Sylvia, 2019. "The use of made-up users," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. Baudot, Lisa & Cooper, David J., 2022. "Regulatory mandates and responses to uncomfortable knowledge: The case of country-by-country reporting in the extractive sector," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    3. Durocher, Sylvain & Georgiou, Omiros, 2022. "Framing accounting for goodwill: Intractable controversies between users and standard setters," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Kohler, Hervé & Pochet, Christine & Le Manh, Anne, 2021. "Auditors as intermediaries in the endogenization of an accounting standard: The case of IFRS 15 within the telecom industry," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    5. Hervé Kohler & Christine Pochet & Anne Le Manh, 2021. "Auditors as intermediaries in the endogenization of an accounting standard: The case of IFRS 15 within the telecom industry," Post-Print hal-03337420, HAL.
    6. Durocher, Sylvain & Picard, Claire-France & Dugal, Léa, 2024. "Giving sense to and making sense of OCI: When each component makes sense, but the whole does not," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    7. Erb, Carsten & Pelger, Christoph, 2015. "“Twisting words”? A study of the construction and reconstruction of reliability in financial reporting standard-setting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 13-40.
    8. Yasmine Chahed, 2021. "Words and Numbers: Financialization and Accounting Standard‐Setting in the United Kingdom," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 302-337, March.
    9. Mantzari, Elisavet & Georgiou, Omiros, 2019. "Ideological hegemony and consent to IFRS: Insights from practitioners in Greece," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 70-93.
    10. Pucci, Richard & Skærbæk, Peter, 2020. "The co-performation of financial economics in accounting standard-setting: A study of the translation of the expected credit loss model in IFRS 9," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    11. Murphy, Tim & O’Connell, Vincent, 2017. "Challenging the dominance of formalism in accounting education: An analysis of the potential of stewardship in light of the evolution of legal education," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-29.
    12. Christoph Pelger & Nicole Spieß, 2017. "On the IASB’s construction of legitimacy – the case of the agenda consultation project," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 64-90, January.
    13. Bhimani, Alnoor & Bond, David & Sivabalan, Prabhu, 2019. "Does greater user representation lead to more user focused standards? An empirical investigation of IASB’s approach to standard setting," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91196, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Bertrand Malsch & Yves Gendron, 2013. "Re-Theorizing Change: Institutional Experimentation and the Struggle for Domination in the Field of Public Accounting," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 870-899, July.
    15. Maroun, Warren & van Zijl, Wayne, 2016. "Isomorphism and resistance in implementing IFRS 10 and IFRS 12," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 220-239.
    16. Morley Julia, 2022. "The Pluralistic Foundations of Conceptual Veiling," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 191-210, May.
    17. Morley, Julia, 2022. "The pluralistic foundations of conceptual veiling," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114359, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Vollmer, Hendrik, 2019. "Accounting for tacit coordination: The passing of accounts and the broader case for accounting theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 15-34.
    19. Ejiogu, Amanze & Ambituuni, Ambisisi & Ejiogu, Chibuzo, 2021. "Accounting for accounting’s role in the neoliberalization processes of social housing in England: A Bourdieusian perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    20. Himick, Darlene & Brivot, Marion & Henri, Jean-François, 2016. "An ethical perspective on accounting standard setting: Professional and lay-experts’ contribution to GASB’s Pension Project," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 22-38.

    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:crpeac:v:88:y:2022:i:c:s1045235421000137. 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: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/critical-perspectives-on-accounting/ .

    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.