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Explores the relationship between enterprise and accountability within the context of the UK corporate governance debate over the last decade. The development of the corporation, through the concept of limited liability and the consequent separation of ownership and control, enabled entrepreneurial activity to flourish within a framework of corporate accountability defined by company law and accounting and audit practice. Financial scandals during the 1980s highlighted the apparent inadequacies of this framework to meet the demands of the current business environment, leading to a series of policy recommendations relating to corporate governance. These recommendations were initially based on a central concern with accountability and control but it has been argued that this focus potentially inhibits enterprise: more recent pronouncements have emphasised broad principles rather than detailed prescription in an attempt to correct this balance. This shift in emphasis is traced and it is suggested there is sparse evidence to support the contention that accountability hinders enterprise.

Why would a body seeking to represent its members as the prime advisers to business choose a domestic goddess for its main visual image? The paper aims to examine recent changes to the visual branding of a professional body by reference to its logo, and those of competing bodies, to illustrate the importance of visual communication in establishing professional reputation. The paper seels to trace the historical antecedents of the logo and analyse the relevance of its components to the body's current mission.

A descriptive and historical analysis is followed by a discussion of alternative theoretical frameworks that might be used to draw conclusions about the significance of professional badges.

Visual rebranding is expensive but may be unclear. Despite statements about modernisation and clarification, new badges can contain as many contradictory messages as old ones, which may be a result of inward facing viewpoints and competing internal forces within organisations, detracting from the clarity of the intended external message.

Money spent on rebranding may be wasted if the organisation does not have a clear view of its market position and how it might differentiate itself.

Appeals to different philosophical schools may be successful in generating insights, but those insights still need to be validated. If they can be validated, in‐depth knowledge of a body of writings may be unnecessary.

Little previous work has examined the visual branding of professional bodies and discussed alternative approaches to analysis. The dialogue format makes the content more accessible.

Traditional approaches to management which incorporate top‐down systems of control do not readily accommodate the need, imposed by a changing business environment, for more flexible methods of harnessing the knowledge and commitment of employees. In this situation, trust has been recognized as an important factor for organizational success but any relaxation of control may be constrained by the demands of accountability to internal and external stakeholders. In this paper, we illustrate the complexity of the relationship between trust and control in the context of corporate governance by examining the internal audit technique of control self‐assessment. We argue that the dependence of control processes on trust has been insufficiently explored and that neglecting to consider the reciprocal nature of trust relationships from an employee perspective may hamper the effectiveness of control systems designed to enhance accountability.

The publication of the Turnbull guidance represented a radical redefinition of the nature of internal control as a feature of corporate governance in the UK, explicitly aligning internal control with risk management. This paper explores this change, using sociological perspectives on risk and its conceptualisation to frame the debate about internal control and risk management within the UK corporate governance arena – the most recent manifestation of an ongoing competition for the control of economic and social resources. The paper demonstrates that developments in corporate governance reporting requirements offer opportunities for the appropriation of risk and its management by groups wishing to advance their own interests. This is illustrated by a review of recent changes in internal audit.

Wheelchairs and mobility devices are important to enable mobility for students who are unable to functionally walk by themselves to fully participate in daily life. However, they can be enablers or barriers to inclusion and participation for students. Children and adolescents, like other wheelchair users, have a varying number of reasons to use chairs, but what type of chair, how it is used and what type of participation it encourages or discourages is as individual as the child themselves. This is an area of practice that has little evidence on which to base decisions, leading to inconsistencies of provision practice and inclusion in mainstream environments. This chapter will discuss why children use wheelchairs in the first place, then outline some of the typical types of wheelchair available and discuss matching the child to their wheelchair. Barriers to appropriate use of wheelchairs include policy, funding, attitudes and perceived skill set. Children who use wheelchairs often do not gain the motor experiences that their peers do yet are expected to perform skilled wheeled mobility, often without training. Finally, inclusion in school is about inclusion not only in the classroom but also in all activities to do with their school-based communities.

The choice of what type of mobility a child needs is down to their self-defined goals in the context of their school environment, family and general ecosystem. Other forms of wheeled mobility included adaptive bicycles for children who are unable to utilise nonadapted bikes. The basis for assessment for wheeled mobility is the student. The most important part of adaptive seating is to match the student, their self-defined goals and their developmental needs. Barriers to inclusion are discussed. The final section of this chapter includes a discussion of where wheeled mobility is going into the future.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of legitimacy threats on corporate incentive to obtain external carbon assurance.

The sample consists of the largest US companies that disclosed carbon emissions to CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) over the period 2010-2013. Based on legitimacy theory, firms are more likely to obtain carbon assurance when they are under greater legitimacy threat. Carbon assurance is measured using CDP data. Three proxies are identified to measure legitimacy threat related to climate change: carbon emissions intensity, firm size and leverage.

This paper finds that firms with higher levels of emissions are more likely to obtain independent assurance, and large firms show the same tendency, as they are probably under pressure from their large group of stakeholders. In sum, the findings suggest that firms with higher carbon emissions face greater threats to their legitimacy, and the adoption of carbon assurance can mitigate risks to legitimacy with enhanced credibility of carbon disclosure in stakeholders’ decision-making.

The study has some limitations. The authors have relied on CDP reports for analysis and focus on the largest companies in the US. Caution should be exercised when generalising the results to smaller firms, other countries or voluntary carbon assurance information disclosed in other communications channels.

This study provides extra insights into and an improved understanding of determinants and motivation of carbon assurance, which should be useful for policymakers to develop policies and initiatives for carbon assurance. The collective results should be useful for practicing accountants and accounting firms.

The paper investigates how legitimacy threats affect firms’ choice of external carbon assurance in the context of US, which has not been documented previously. It contributes to the understanding of legitimacy theory in the context of voluntary carbon assurance.

Identity regulation is part of a management control package. Organizations regulate employees’ self-identity to influence their behaviors. The success of this regulation depends on its trade-off with employees’ work identities and personalities. Organizational discourse nurtures this dynamic and interactive process. We focus on the regulation of an (undesired) organizational identity that is born at the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender, sex and migrant discrimination in accounting-related positions. We aim to analyze how Latina accountants who migrate to Spain perceive that their triple status as Latina, women and migrants affects their careers as accountants and interpret whether this triple intersectional discrimination aims to create a Latina accountant’s self-identity.

This critical study follows a phenomenological approach to analyze the experiences of women born in Latin America who migrated to Spain to occupy accounting-related positions. A thematic analysis of their semi-structured interviews allowed us to examine the challenges faced by Latina accountants in their accounting careers in Spain.

Our interviewees' narratives display an internalization of, even resignation to, a self-identity that we label “Latina accountant identity.” This identity is based on explicit discrimination discourses that cause them to suffer from the intersection of racism, sexism and migrant conditions and is nurtured by the discourses of their senior managers, co-workers and subordinates.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to frame the regulation of an intersectional discriminatory identity that is used to control Latina accountants from the inside, acting on the triple condition of Latinas, women and foreigners, influencing their self-perceptions regarding work and personal lives.

The purpose of this paper is to understand: how and why do experienced professionals, who perceive themselves as autonomous, comply with organizational pressures to overwork? Unlike previous studies of professionals and overwork, the authors focus on experienced professionals who have achieved relatively high status within their firms and the considerable economic rewards that go with it. Drawing on the little used Bourdieusian concept of illusio, which describes the phenomenon whereby individuals are “taken in and by the game” (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992), the authors help to explain the “autonomy paradox” in professional service firms.

This research is based on 36 semi-structured interviews primarily with experienced male and female accounting professionals in France.

The authors find that, in spite of their levels of experience, success, and seniority, these professionals describe themselves as feeling helpless and trapped, and experience bodily subjugation. The authors explain this in terms of individuals enhancing their social status, adopting the breadwinner role, and obtaining and retaining recognition. The authors suggest that this combination of factors cause professionals to be attracted to and captivated by the rewards that success within the accounting profession can confer.

As well as providing fresh insights into the autonomy paradox the authors seek to make four contributions to Bourdieusian scholarship in the professional field. First, the authors highlight the strong bodily component of overwork. Second, the authors raise questions about previous work on cynical distancing in this context. Third, the authors emphasize the significance of the pursuit of symbolic as well as economic capital. Finally, the authors argue that, while actors’ habitus may be in a state of “permanent mutation”, that mutability is in itself a sign that individuals are subject to illusio.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how external auditors communicate with audit committees (ACs).

A total of 53 interviews were conducted with participants in the ACs of 22 French companies listed in the CAC 40 index, including external and internal auditors, CFOs, AC chairpersons, and members.

In multiple accountability relationships, external auditors sit in the middle. They therefore use impression management (IM). While AC members expect them to be transparent, they are also expected to preserve managers’ “face” by sustaining impressions of consistency. The construction of impressions of consistency and transparency takes place mainly backstage, through time-consuming teamwork shared by auditors and CFOs. External auditors have power to make things transparent, but the use of such power is tricky, because it can damage relationships with CFOs. External auditors have a difficult “discrepant role” (Goffman, 1959) to play.

This study provides insights into what occurs behind the scenes with ACs, which can help regulators think deeper about relationships between external auditors and ACs.

This research makes contribution to governance, IM, and AC literature. It analyzes the AC process from external auditors’ – rather than AC members’ – points of view. Highlighting the AC process backstage, it shows that IM can be carried out collectively toward an internal rather than external audience and demonstrates that external auditors practice rather than limiting IM.