scholarly journals The Wealth Defence Industry: A large-scale study on accountancy firms as profit shifting facilitators

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Ajdacic ◽  
Eelke Heemskerk ◽  
Javier Garcia-Bernardo
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Tax Planning ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Profit Shifting ◽  
Defence Industry ◽  
Planning Strategies ◽  
Big Four

Corporations increasingly engage in innovative ‘tax planning strategies’ by shifting profits between jurisdictions. In response, states try to curtail such profit shifting activities while at the same time attempting to retain and attract multinational corporations. We aim to open up this dichotomy between states and corporations and argue that a wealth defence industry of professional service firms plays a crucial role as facilitators. We investigate the subsidiary structure of 27,000 MNCs and show that clients of the Big Four accountancy firms show systematically higher levels of aggressive tax planning strategies than clients of smaller accountancy firms. We specify this effect for three distinct strategies and also uncover marked differences across countries. As such we provide empirical evidence for the systematic involvement of auditors as facilitators in corporate wealth defence.

The interplay between global accounting firms and national institutional contexts: The establishment of the Big Four in China from 1978 to 2007

2021 ◽  
pp. 103237322110581
Author(s):  
Wenjun Wen ◽  
Amanda Sonnerfeldt
Keyword(s):  
Economic Transition ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Accounting Firms ◽  
Audit Market ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Reform And Opening Up ◽  
Big Four ◽  
Opening Up

This paper provides an analysis of the establishment of global accounting firms (the ‘Big Four’) in China between 1978 and 2007. Drawing on the extant literature on professional service firms, and the work of Faulconbridge and Muzio (2015) , this paper examines how the Big Four entered China following the country's ‘Reform and Opening-up’ and evolved from tentative representative offices to established accounting firms in the Chinese audit market. Based on an extensive analysis of archival materials and interviews, the findings of this paper show that the Big Four's establishment in China has been deeply intertwined with the country's socio-political and economic transition. It reveals important conjunctural moments in history that have provided the Big Four with important windows of opportunity to actively shape local institutional change to their own interests. This paper contributes to the extant accounting literature on the expansion of the Big Four in China by highlighting the interplay between their surrounding institutional context and their capacity for agency.

Language at work in the Big Four: global aspirations and local segmentation

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 2031-2054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Detzen ◽  
Lukas Loehlein
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Organizational Relationships ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Big Four

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how professional service firms (PSFs) manage the linguistic tensions between global Englishization and local multilingualism. It achieves this by analysing the work of Big Four audit firms in Luxembourg, where three official languages co-exist: Luxembourgish, French, and German. In addition, expatriates bring with them their native languages in a corporate environment that uses English as its lingua franca. Design/methodology/approach The paper combines the institutionalist sociology of the professions with theoretical concepts from sociolinguistics to study the multifaceted role of language in PSFs. Empirically, the paper draws from 25 interviews with current and former audit professionals. Findings The client orientation of the Big Four segments each firm into language teams based on the client’s language. It is thus the client languages, rather than English as the corporate language, that mediate, define, and structure intra- and inter-organizational relationships. While the firms emphasize the benefits of their linguistic adaptability, the paper reveals tensions along language lines, suggesting that language can be a means of creating cohesion and division within the firms. Originality/value This paper connects research on PSFs with that on the role of language in multinational organizations. In light of the Big Four’s increasingly global workforce, it draws attention to the linguistic divisions within the firms that question the existence of a singular corporate culture. While prior literature has centred on firms’ global–local divide, the paper shows that even single branches of such firm networks are not monolithic constructs, as conflicts and clashes unfold amid a series of “local–local” divides.

Making up ideal recruits

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 233-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Gebreiter
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Recruitment Practices ◽  
Ultimate Objective ◽  
Big Four

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of graduate recruitment in the professional socialisation and subjectification of Big Four professionals. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on documentary data and interviews conducted at one British university. It adopts an interpretive perspective and is informed by Foucault’s work on technologies of power and technologies of the self. Findings The paper argues that the graduate recruitment practices of Big Four firms represent a series of examinations which produce the category of ideal recruits. It moreover suggests that this category serves as the ultimate objective of an ethical process whereby aspiring accountants consciously and deliberately seek to transform themselves into the type of subjects they aspire to be – ideal recruits. Research limitations/implications The findings of the paper are primarily based on interviews conducted at one university. Future research could explore if students at other universities experience graduate recruitment in similar or different ways. Originality/value The paper highlights the constitutive role of graduate recruitment practices and shows that they can construct ideal recruits as much as they select them. It also shows that graduate recruitment is an important anticipatory socialisation mechanism that can compel aspiring accountants to learn how to look, sound and behave like Big Four professionals long before they join such organisations. Finally, the paper discusses its implications for the future of the profession, social mobility and the use of Foucault’s work on technologies of power and the self in studying subjectivity at elite professional service firms.

scholarly journals Segmentation of quantity surveying professional services for focus strategy and diversification

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-308
Author(s):  
Michael Adesi ◽  
De-Graft Owusu-Manu ◽  
Frank Boateng
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Simple Random Sampling ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Quantity Surveying ◽  
Focus Strategy

Purpose Notwithstanding that numerous studies have focused on strategy in quantity surveying (QS) professional service firms, there is a paucity of investigation on the segmentation of QS professional services. The purpose of this study is to investigate the segmentation of QS services for diversification and a focus strategy formation. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts the positivist stance and quantitative approach in which a simple random sampling technique was used to select participants. In total, 110 survey questionnaires were administered to registered professional QS, out of which 79 completed questionnaires were returned for analysis. Findings The paper identifies three main QS service segments characterised by low, moderate and high competition. In addition, this study found that the concentration of traditional QS services in the building construction sector is due to the unwillingness of QS professional service firms to diversify into the non-construction sectors such as oil and gas. The diversification of QS services in the low competitive segment requires the adoption of agile approaches. Research limitations/implications The study was limited to numeric analyses and so would be complemented by qualitative research in the future. Practical implications This paper is useful to QS professional service firms interested in diversifying their services into the non-construction sectors to enhance the pricing of their services. Originality/value Segmentation of QS services is fundamental to the formulation of focus strategy for non-construction sectors such as oil and gas and mining to enhance the pricing of QS professional services.

scholarly journals Fragmented fields: Professionalisms and work settings in Italian management consultancy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Maestripieri
Keyword(s):  
Professional Service ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Work Settings ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
Professional Service Firm

Abstract Management consultancy has long been a contested terrain in the sociology of the professions. Although the professionalism of management consultants has always been emphasized by practitioners themselves, the lack of a strong community of peers has been an impediment to their professionalization. In this article, I argue that professionalism is not the outcome of a process of regulation and institutionalization but that it has to be conceived a discourse comprising norms, worldviews, and values that define what is appropriate for an individual to be considered a competent and recognized member of this community. Given the diversity characterizing the field, there are multiple discourses surrounding professionalism of management consultants, and these discourses are shaped by work settings. Work settings are a combination of the type of organization professional partnership or professional service firm and the employment status (employee or self-employed). Drawing on the empirical evidence from various work settings (professional service firms, professional partnership, and self-employment), I investigate four clusters of practitioners identified in 55 biographical and semi-structured interviews conducted with management consultants in Italy. Four types of professionalism emerge from the clusters. Organizing professionalism is the sole professionalism that appears in all work settings. Other discourses (corporate, commercialized, and hybrid professionalism) are context-dependent and more likely to be found in specific work settings.

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