Known by the company they keep: a study of political campaign contributions made by the United States public accounting profession

Dwyer, Peggy D.

doi:10.1016/j.cpa.2003.09.002

Cited by 31 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Public interest arguments often resonate with political stances taken by the An Examination of the U.S. Public Accounting Profession's Public Interest Discourse and… AICPA and Big 4 leadership (Roberts et al 2003). Furthermore, the profession is sometimes transparent about its private interest motives for political activity (Dwyer and Roberts 2004). Specifically, Dwyer and Roberts (2004) find that the public accounting profession provides financial support for legislators who are clearly aligned with certain segments of U.S. society (i.e., ''Business'' and ''Conservative'' interest groups) and not with others (i.e., ''Civil Rights,'' ''Labor,'' ''Liberal,'' and ''Women's'' interest groups).…”

Section: Conceptual Development and Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, the profession is sometimes transparent about its private interest motives for political activity (Dwyer and Roberts 2004). Specifically, Dwyer and Roberts (2004) find that the public accounting profession provides financial support for legislators who are clearly aligned with certain segments of U.S. society (i.e., ''Business'' and ''Conservative'' interest groups) and not with others (i.e., ''Civil Rights,'' ''Labor,'' ''Liberal,'' and ''Women's'' interest groups). Parker (1994) developed a private interest model of professional accounting body ethics that delineates how its ethical codes can be used by the public accounting profession to pursue its private interests.…”

Section: Conceptual Development and Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Politicians elected to public office with the campaign contribution support of the profession develop and pass legislation much broader and more impactful than only professional regulation over accounting practice (Roberts 2006). Thus, the public accounting profession, by supporting specific candidates, privileges that candidate's conception of the public interest over other candidates seeking the same office (Dwyer and Roberts 2004). Similarly, the profession's federal lobbying activities often represent the private interest legislative preferences of the firm, profession, or client base.…”

Section: Conceptual Development and Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, while the political campaign contributions of the profession have been studied (Roberts et al 2003;Dwyer and Roberts 2004;Roberts 2006;Thornburg and Roberts 2008), less has been written about its lobbying activities. Thus, we know very little about the profession's motivations for lobbying or its lobbying efforts in general.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Examination of the U.S. Public Accounting Profession’s Public Interest Discourse and Actions in Federal Policy Making

Baudot

Wallace

2016

J Bus Ethics

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Participation in the political process by the United States public accounting profession often blurs the role of the profession as advocates for the public interest with its role as advocates for its own private interests. In this study, we draw from prior theoretical and empirical work to investigate recent federal political activities of the public accounting profession to shed light on these sometimes contradictory roles. In particular, we investigate ten contemporary regulatory issues of interest to the AICPA. We analyze 36 AICPA legislative advocacy letters related to these issues that were provided to federal policy makers. In addition, we analyze the public accounting profession's federal lobbying reports that were submitted during this same time period. The analysis allows us to assess the public interest discourse present in the AICPA legislative letters as well as the extent of political action taken by the profession related to these issues based on the profession's lobbying efforts. Our analyses (1) demonstrate that the profession's discourse and actions often reflect both public and private interest motivations, (2) allow us to categorize the profession's advocacy efforts as arising from specific motivations, and (3) show that the profession's public interest arguments used to advocate for their policy positions change depending upon the specific legislative issue being considered.

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Section: Conceptual Development and Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conceptual Development and Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conceptual Development and Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

An Examination of the U.S. Public Accounting Profession’s Public Interest Discourse and Actions in Federal Policy Making

Baudot

Wallace

2016

J Bus Ethics

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“…Motivation is often linked to several perspectives, including that accounting firms act in the: (1) private and/or client-focused interest of the profession (Canning and O'Dwyer 2001;Dwyer and Roberts 2004;Gendron 2011, 2013), or (2) public interest in protecting the public or users of financial statements (Willmott, Cooper, and Puxty 1993;Roberts, Dwyer, and Sweeney 2003). Studies on the motivation of accounting firms to participate in standard setting have centered on whether client-auditor relationships impact the positions accounting firms take on standard-setting proposals.…”

Section: Accounting Profession Engagement With Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Accounting Profession's Engagement with Accounting Standards: Conceptualizing Accounting Complexity through Big 4 Comment Letters

Baudot

Demek

Huang

2018

Auditing: A Journal of Practice &Amp; Theory

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link Acknowledgements:This paper reflects an effort to collaborate across paradigms. We extend our gratitude to the coeditors in their consideration of our paper. We thank the participants in the audit-reading group at the University of Central Florida for their early ideas and encouragement. We also appreciate the editorial assistance of Wioleta Olczak.1 The Accounting Profession's Engagement with Accounting Standards: Conceptualizing Accounting Complexity through Big 4 Comment Letters ABSTRACTRegulators, standard setters, and the accounting profession maintain that complexity in accounting standards is a significant issue. However, it is unclear what complexity means in the context of accounting standards. This study examines, via comment letter submissions, the accounting profession's engagement with complexity in accounting standards. We analyze comment letters submitted to the Financial Accounting Standards Board over a 12-year period and find the profession characterizes complexity through three dimensions -multiplicity, diversity, and interrelatedness. We examine the Big 4's discourse on these dimensions and observe consistency between audit firms in their discourse on several features. For instance, we find that firms primarily oppose proposed FASB changes when firms perceive those changes to increase rather than decrease complexity. Additionally, firms perceive proposed changes to affect financial statement preparers more often than other stakeholders. However, the Big 4 do not hold universal opinions as to the root causes of complexity. At the cross-firm level, we find inconsistencies that imply heterogeneity in the Big 4's discourse on root causes. Such inconsistency may, in and of itself, construct accounting complexity. Ultimately, we maintain that the Big 4's engagement with accounting standards has consequences for how complexity is thought and acted upon in accounting standards.

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Rethinking the accounting stance on sustainable development

Ngwakwe

2012

Sustainable Development

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The economic accounting of natural resources assets, especially for water resources assets, is still in the exploratory stage in China. The contents and scope of water assets accounting need to be further improved. In order to explore the coordination between social and economic development and population, resources and environment, combined with the definition and attributes of assets in economics, accounting, statistics and management, this paper is based on the research about accounting of natural resources assets in recent years. The classification of water assets and its main accounting scope were put forward, and the intrinsic relationship between the concept of sustainable development and water accounting was systematically analyzed. The clear content of water assets is conducive to consolidating the construction of water assets accounting system, which can provide the theoretical basis for the decision makers to implement the sustainable development strategy, and to realize the rational allocation of water resources. It plays a catalytic role for the sustainable development of water resources and the protection of water ecological environment.

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Known by the company they keep: a study of political campaign contributions made by the United States public accounting profession

Cited by 31 publications

References 16 publications

An Examination of the U.S. Public Accounting Profession’s Public Interest Discourse and Actions in Federal Policy Making

An Examination of the U.S. Public Accounting Profession’s Public Interest Discourse and Actions in Federal Policy Making

The Accounting Profession's Engagement with Accounting Standards: Conceptualizing Accounting Complexity through Big 4 Comment Letters

Rethinking the accounting stance on sustainable development

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