Purpose – The paper sets out to examine the use of accounting as part of the privatization process of a national … railway in Canada. The argument is that proponents of the privatization used accounting strategically to justify and sustain … the privatization. Major societal events, such as the privatization of national assets, merit close scrutiny so that an …

senior management's narrative regarding the privatization of a major transportation enterprise, Canadian National Railway (CN … deployed to help sustain a rhetoric of post‐privatization success. The aptness (and the danger) of accounting language in … discourse in the aftermath of a privatization. A narrative perspective is adopted, in which an imagined future post‐privatization …

in the UK. The Government justified its privatization programme on a number of grounds. In particular, it claimed that … privatization would improve industrial performance by subjecting the nationalized industries to the discipline of the market, and so … lower costs relative to output, did not occur. Significant increases in efficiency had occurred prior to privatization …

reports, corporate press releases, and relevant media from the four years following privatization. Findings The authors argue … interdiscursive construction of corporate narratives, which is a key element in understanding how discourses around privatization are …