Professional service firms, globalisation and the new imperialism

Abstract

Structured AbstractPurpose -This paper draws on insights from critical accounting research to ground the globalisation of professional service firms more firmly in the history and actuality of imperialism. In so doing, the paper also helps in forging a stronger connection between accounting scholarship and interdisciplinary professions-focused debates in the wider field of management and organisation studies (MOS).Design/methodology/approach -This is a desk based study of existing literature on the globalisation of professional service firms analysed through the lens of imperialism via an exploration of relevant research on the accounting profession.Findings -The analysis reveals rich insights into the workings and impact of imperialism that can usefully be drawn on to better inform our understanding of globalisation in the professional services sector and, in particular, to develop existing interdisciplinary debates on the relationship between the professions and institutions at the global level.Research limitations/implications -The implications of this paper are that the nature of professional services firms (and the professions more generally) is further illuminated, especially their role in (re)producing imperialism in a supposedly post-national and postcolonial world. Further, the paper opens new avenues for future research on the relationship between professional service firms, globalisation and contemporary imperialism.Originality/value -This is the first attempt to draw together critical accounting studies of globalisation with research on the globalisation of professional service firms in the generalist field of MOS. In so doing, it contributes to a cross-fertilization of the two fields and helps in making the former more central to ongoing debates in the latter. The paper also contributes to the emerging body of postcolonial theorising in MOS by shedding light on the role of professional service firms in (re)producing imperialism in the modern world economy.

Internationalization of Professional Service Firms

“…For example, Boussebaa et al's (2014b) study in the context of management consultancies reveals how UK offices portray themselves as sources of knowledge while treating peer units based in smaller nations as recipients, and how such a representation serves to naturalize and strengthen exploitative, core-periphery knowledge exchange relations within the organization. Such findings again fly in the face of the idea of the "transnational" firm and reveal how PSFs are not only characterized by an unresolved tension between federalism and transnationalism but also (re)productive of quasi-imperial power relations (see Boussebaa (2016) for a detailed examination of such power relations in the context of the Big Four).…”

“…A greater focus on varying forms of internationalization and the driving factors behind these is required as is an appreciation of the tension between the rhetoric of the transnational PSF and the reality of more federally coordinated structures. Investigating these tensions and developments across the heterogeneous professional services sector is important as is the effort to connect this with issues of power within the firm, especially in the context of the changing geography of the global political economy (see Boussebaa 2016). This is a promising agenda for future research.…”

(Dis)Assembling policy pipelines: unpacking the work of management consultants at public meetings

“…Do they provide an accurate appraisal of things or is their advice compromised by underlying political and economic affiliations? Along similar lines, a number of studies have also investigated the role of large consulting firms in importing managerial frameworks taken from other places, which are then transplanted, like cookie cutters, to very different contexts (see Boussebaa, 2015;Kipping and Wright, 2012). In this section, I will critically appraise these two approaches with a focus on management consultants.…”

“…In this sense, DiMaggio and Powell (1983:152) have likened consulting firms to "Johnny Appleseeds" that "spread a few organizational models throughout the land". Moreover, as the majority of these firms originated from and continue to be headquartered in the United States, and to a lesser extent in the United Kingdom, they are often viewed as agents of colonization, actively exporting Anglo-American styles of management to other parts of the world (Boussebaa, 2015).…”

The work of global professional service firms

“…In doing this, we follow on from those who have highlighted the work GPSFs do for capitalism and elites (Morgan, 2006) and for the institutions of the economy (Boussebaa, 2015b;, by drawing attention to the intimate connections between the firms' mode of organizing, their activities in markets throughout the world, and the structures of the global economy. In particular, we highlight five research agendas which, we believe, relate to a pressing series of questions about the power, politics and effects of the international work of GPSFs in the early years of the 21st century.…”