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Amanda Sonnerfeldt
Senior lecturer
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The interplay between global accounting firms and national institutional contexts: The establishment of the Big Four in China from 1978 to 2007
Author
Summary, in English
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.
Department/s
- Accounting and Corporate Finance
Publishing year
2022
Language
English
Pages
95-124
Publication/Series
Accounting History
Volume
27
Issue
1
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Topic
- Business Administration
Keywords
- public accounting profession
- the Big Four
- institutional change
- china
Status
Published
Project
- ‘Standards for assurance in a globalizing world’ funded by Ragnar Söderbergs Stiftelse completed 30/4/2017
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1032-3732