Compares auditors’ legal liability to third parties in several major countries, with principal emphasis on comparisons between the USA and the UK. Public accountants claim that they are being adversely affected by lawsuits brought by shareholders, creditors and other third parties. It has been...

This paper adopts a literary theory perspective to depict accounting reports and information as texts rather than as economic commodities and so available for analysis from the vantage point of semiotic linguistic theory. In doing so it takes the literary turn followed by many of the social...

The bankruptcy of Enron Corp. has evolved into a scandal of enormous proportions involving allegations of fraud, corruption and unethical practices on the part of Enron’s corporate executives, members of its board of directors, external auditors, and high government officials in the USA. No...

Purpose – To examine the rhetorical claims put forth by several prominent organizations in the American public accounting profession that claim to act in the public interest, and to attempt to identify the ideological position or positions underlying their claims. Design/methodology/approach...

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to illustrate the complexity surrounding the meaning of the terms “economic reality” and “neutral representation” as these terms are applied to the resolution of financial accounting issues. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the...

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to investigate the introduction of French theory into English language accounting research and to assess the impact of the work of French social theorists on the accounting research domain. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a citation...

Focuses on large, international public accounting firms and the manner in which these firms attempt to manage a changing environment and defend against threats to the self‐regulation of public accounting. Investigates the strategies and responses of these large firms to the challenges of a...

Investigates the negative effect on employee welfare caused by economic decisions taken by corporate managements which they attribute to the adoption of an accounting standard, focusing on the case of McDonnell Douglas Corporation, which ended health‐care benefits for on‐union employees as a...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the recent evolution of the regulation of statutory auditing since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the USA by comparing the regulatory structures for auditing in the USA, France and Canada. Design/methodology/approach – Using publicly...

This paper traces the development of Enron Corp. from a regulated natural gas distribution company to a worldwide energy trading company to its ultimate demise in bankruptcy in December 2001. The paper examines whether Enron should be viewed as an accounting failure, with investors and creditors...