Dual Roles and Blurred Identities : A Framing Contest between Professional Associations in a Local Strategic Action Field

This paper examines professional associations’ local responses to global demands of audit standardization. Our longitudinal study from 1998 to 2018 analyses how professional associations of the German audit profession engaged in an intense framing contest over the adoption of external quality controls. Drawing on the concept of strategic action field and the literature on framing, we unpack how the gap between large audit firms and small audit firms increasingly undermined the capacity of the traditional professional associations to fulfill their dual role of governance and representation. We unveil how their failed attempt to maintain the image of a single, unified profession ultimately led to the creation of a new professional association representing the “small auditor” professional, which successfully, albeit temporarily, took control over the field of German auditing. Our findings suggest that the passivity of small audit firms in the process of translating global modes of audit regulation should not be presumed. Rather, we provide insight into how small audit firms can rebuild their own distinct identity by actively responding to waves of global audit regulation. Doing so, and contrary to prior research, our case suggests that governance units within strategic action fields are not necessarily aligned with the interests of the most powerful field actors