A Post-SOX History of U.S. Public Accountancy. The History of Deprofessionalization in U.S. Public Accountancy: Part III

Public Accounting Firm Reputation and Status Incentives for Employee Benefit Plan Audit Quality

“…In practice, only audit firm leaders from the Big 4 as well as the next four largest international public accounting represent the public company auditing firms on the governing board. This suggests that these firms have the greatest influence in this industry, particularly in an era of decreased AICPA influence (Sellers et al 2015;Lampe et al 2016).…”

“…As this research describes, status refers to the relative market position or prominence of different companies, particularly in terms of which companies do business with one another. In the financial statement audit market, one example of a status symbol is membership in the Center for Audit Quality ("CAQ") (Lampe et al 2016).…”

The Reinvented accounting firm office: Impression management for efficiency, client relations and cost control

“…The commercialised large public practice firm is most readily evident in its movement over recent decades towards a major focus on revenue generating consulting clientele in comparison with the independent audit or focus of earlier times (Lampe & Garcia, 2013;Lampe et al, 2016;Gardner & Bryson, 2020). As Picard et al (2014) observe, accounting firm advertising increasingly portrays it as a business consultant offering dynamic and versatile consulting expertise (Guo, 2016).…”

The role and impact of professional accountancy associations on accounting education research: An international study

“…Furthermore, the profession itself has moved away from being self-regulating to being regulated (e.g. Sarbannes-Oxley (SOX) enacted in the US in 2002), in the wake of a storm of financial scandals at the turn of the 21 st century (see Lampe et al, 2016). Accountancy firms have been eager to develop new service lines away from traditional areas of activity.…”