The ubiquitous influence of regulation on entrepreneurial action

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to theorise, and demonstrate empirically, how regulation generates indirect impacts on small companies that arise through the medium of relationships with stakeholders whose actions affect them. Specifically, the paper explores how relations with stakeholders shape the process of small company adaptation to statutory financial reporting obligations. Design/methodology/approach – The analysis draws principally on qualitative interview data from small company preparers of abbreviated accounts and their accountants, but also uses survey data to demonstrate the prevalence of the account filing and advisory practices reported in interview. Findings – Small companies’ relations with accountants mediate the influence of financial reporting regulation by shaping how firms discover, interpret and adapt to their statutory obligations. Where accountants inform small companies of the option to file abbreviated accounts, or advise them to file such accounts, and clients act on that advice, then relations with accountants mediate the impact of regulation on that business. Accountants typically advise small company clients to file abbreviated accounts as the “default position”, one departed from only in very specific circumstances. Accountants are complicit, therefore, inadvertently or otherwise, in the production of the effects of clients’ filing decisions. Originality/value – The study expands the conception of how regulation contributes to entrepreneurial action by focusing on the indirect effects arising for small firms via their relations with the stakeholders with whom they interact. Regulatory regimes are a condition of all forms of entrepreneurial action and the ensuing performance outcomes. Regulation therefore exerts a ubiquitous influence on entrepreneurial action that is substantial, pervasive and enduring. Without reference to the necessary enabling functions of regulation, explanations of entrepreneurial processes remain incomplete.