Michel Gendron, Van Son Lai and Issouf Soumaré
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effects of the maturities of credit‐enhanced debt contracts on the value of an insurer's loan‐guarantee portfolios.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effects of the maturities of credit‐enhanced debt contracts on the value of an insurer's loan‐guarantee portfolios.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper proposes a contingent‐claims model and uses as measure of credit insurance risk, the market value of the private guarantee, which accounts for projects' and guarantor's specific risks, correlations as well as financial leverage.
Findings
The results indicate that in the case of insuring the debts of two parallel projects with different specific risks, one high‐risk and the other low‐risk, the tradeoff between maturities of the guarantees increases with the projects' expected losses, hence the maturity choice decision is crucial for portfolios subject to high expected losses. For a two sequential projects loan‐guarantee portfolio, the paper finds that, regardless of the order of execution of the projects, it is the maturity of the debt supporting the high‐risk project that drives the risk exposure of the portfolio.
Practical implications
Since the management of portfolios of guarantees is of significant importance to many organizations both domestically and internationally, this paper proposes a simple and tractable model to gauge the impact of maturity choices for loan‐guarantee portfolios.
Originality/value
This is a first attempt at modeling multiple maturities in the context of portfolios of vulnerable loan guarantees.
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Michel Gendron and Michael Bourdeau‐Brien
The purpose of this paper is to use a stylised multi‐period model to describe the economic dynamics related to title risks and the implications of title insurance in the risk…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use a stylised multi‐period model to describe the economic dynamics related to title risks and the implications of title insurance in the risk management decision process. Some fear that insofar as the quality of public records is concerned, the purchase of title insurance might induce a race to the bottom that would reduce the possibility to identify and correct title defects. This phenomenon is illustrated and the impact of different title risk management strategies and conditions under which recourse to lawyers is preferable to the purchase of title insurance are examined.
Design/methodology/approach
The main source of risk is the disparity between the characteristics of a property and what is written on its title. The choice of a title risk management strategy is modeled as the probability of hiring a lawyer versus that of buying insurance. Consistent with the literature, the deterioration of public records is made a function of the risk management decisions.
Findings
Results suggest that when public records are sound, the race to the bottom can be avoided and high title values maintained by adopting a risk management strategy based on recourse to lawyers; when public records are flawed, insurance companies may be in a better position than lawyers to maintain title values; switching back and forth from insurers to lawyers does not benefit title values.
Originality/value
The originality and the value of this paper is the study of title insurance which, while an important component of title risk management process, has received limited attention in the academic literature.
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Bertrand Malsch, Yves Gendron and Frédérique Grazzini
Accounting researchers have frequently borrowed theories and methods from other disciplines. A noteworthy importation movement in recent decades involves the work of French…
Abstract
Purpose
Accounting researchers have frequently borrowed theories and methods from other disciplines. A noteworthy importation movement in recent decades involves the work of French intellectuals and philosophers, not least Pierre Bourdieu. This paper aims to contribute to the sociology of the accounting discipline by examining how Bourdieu's works have been translated into the domain of accounting research.
Design/methodology/approach
The investigation is articulated through three modes of analysis. First, it evaluates Bourdieu's recognition in the domain of accounting research, through an examination of the extent to which Bourdieu's writings are cited in accounting articles. Focusing on accounting articles which rely significantly on Bourdieu's thought, the paper then examines which of his publications have been mobilized, and how researchers have articulated his ideas in studying accounting phenomena. The third line of inquiry addresses the extent to which accounting researchers have used Bourdieu's core concepts holistically, that is to say in mobilizing simultaneously the concepts of field, capital and habitus.
Findings
Several of the studies which rely significantly on Bourdieu have employed his work holistically, while others have not. Moreover, about half of the studies reviewed in the paper are characterized by a gap between Bourdieu's view of academic research as a support to political and social causes debated in the public arena versus a more dispassionate approach to research. While it is difficult to be conclusive about the implications of these translational gaps, they nonetheless make one aware of some central epistemological issues: Should accounting researchers be more concerned about bringing “the achievements of science and scholarship into public debate”? What are the pros and cons of drawing upon ideas from politically‐engaged intellectuals in order to conduct research characterized by political dispassion? Does it make sense to use certain concepts excerpted from a comprehensive system of thought in a piecemeal way?
Originality/value
The paper mobilizes and develops the notion of translation in investigating an interdisciplinary movement.
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This paper aims to bring to the fore some conditions of possibility surrounding the audit society thesis that might have contributed to construct a sense of distinctiveness around…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to bring to the fore some conditions of possibility surrounding the audit society thesis that might have contributed to construct a sense of distinctiveness around it, thereby facilitating its spread and travel in the accounting research community (and beyond) as a meaningful epistemological agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
My argument is that the aura of distinctiveness surrounding the audit society thesis as a noteworthy epistemological agenda relates to outsider influences, concept plasticity, and in-depth persuasiveness. I discuss these three features of distinctiveness through excerpts from the book and my own interpretations, the whole analytic process being circumscribed by a disciplined imagination exercise (Weick, 1989).
Findings
While the webs of unpredictability surrounding social life necessarily influenced the travel of the audit society thesis in academia, it seems to me that the thesis’ journey may have been helped by the author’s outsider status, the malleability of the thesis’ key concepts, and the medium (as a book) through which the thesis was articulated (which provided a persuasive platform to underline and demonstrate the depth of the argument).
Originality/value
In an age where journal rankings abound, the audit society thesis constitutes a telling demonstration that one can have a meaningful impact in setting an epistemological agenda and consolidate her/his scholarly reputation through the publication of a scholarly book.
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Henri Guénin-Paracini, Yves Gendron and Jérémy Morales
– This paper aims to better understand why neoliberal governance is so resilient to the crises that frequently affect all or part of the economy.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to better understand why neoliberal governance is so resilient to the crises that frequently affect all or part of the economy.
Design/methodology/approach
The argument of this paper relies on a macroanalysis of discourses surrounding the Global Financial Crisis.
Findings
Drawing on Girard and Foucault’s work, this paper argues that the resilience of neoliberalism partly ensues from the proclivity of this mode of governing to foster, for reasons that this paper seeks to highlight, spontaneous and widespread processes of scapegoating in times of turmoil. As a consequence of these processes, crises often are collectively construed as resulting from frauds: the blame is focused on specific actors whose lack of morality is denounced, and this individualizing line of interpretation protects the regime from systemic questioning.
Practical, social and political implications
Particular actors, rather than the system itself, are made accountable when things go wrong. Consequences are paramount. Today’s political economy is characterized with a proclivity toward social reproduction. While substantive change is possible in theory, considerable challenges are involved in practice in overcoming the dominance of neoliberalism in society.
Originality/value
Although Girard’s work has exerted significant influence over a number of disciplines in the social sciences, his ideas have not yet been widely used in governance and accountability-related research. Anthropological theorizations – such as those proposed by Girard – are valuable in providing us with a sense of how power develops in the economy.
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Thierry Viale, Yves Gendron and Roy Suddaby
The authors study how communication agencies became important sites for the rise of measurement expertise in the government of consumer conduct following the development of online…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors study how communication agencies became important sites for the rise of measurement expertise in the government of consumer conduct following the development of online consumption. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the processes by which digital measurement developed (within the agencies) as a new legitimate form of expertise, able to produce relevant and detailed knowledge about the government of web users.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors carried out a field examination in France, predicated on 100 interviews with actors involved in communication consultancy. Drawing on the concepts of governmentality and inter-jurisdictional experimentation, the authors examine how digital measurement expertise acquired legitimacy within agencies. The authors also analyze how contemporary technologies of measurement and surveillance, as operated by in-house digital experts, provide advertising specialists and advertisers with increasingly precise data on consumer conduct and thought.
Findings
The constitution and legitimization of digital measurement expertise was characterized by experimentation, culminating in the production of persuasive claims of tangibility concerning communication impact, and in relative agreement on the relevance of digital expertise in operating increasingly powerful technologies of measurement and surveillance.
Originality/value
While the role of experts in promoting and implementing neoliberal governmentality is emphasized in the literature, the study indicates that considerable work is needed to develop and legitimize expertise consequent with neoliberalism. Also, the analysis highlights that the spread of digital measurement expertise and knowledge production in the government of web users constitutes a noteworthy step in the neoliberalization of society. Behind the front of “free” conduct lies an increasingly powerful network of technologies and expertise aimed at rendering consumer conduct knowable and predictable.
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Eve Chiapello and C. Richard Baker
This purpose of this paper is to investigate the introduction of French theory into English language accounting research and to assess the impact of the work of French social…
Abstract
Purpose
This purpose of this paper is to investigate the introduction of French theory into English language accounting research and to assess the impact of the work of French social theorists on the accounting research domain.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a citation analysis of articles appearing in selected English language accounting research journals for a sample of French authors, during the periods from the inception of the journals to mid‐2009. In performing this citation analysis, 39 French authors who are well known as social theorists, philosophers, economists or sociologists were included. The accounting research journals chosen for analysis included the top four journals listed in many league tables for accounting research along with several journals that regularly publish research in accounting history or that focus on alternative research paradigms.
Findings
The citation analysis identified the following French authors as being the most frequently cited: Michel Foucault, followed by Bruno Latour and Pierre Bourdieu. The citation analysis also identified the English language accounting research journals in which French social theorists have been most often cited. The two most significant journals have been Critical Perspectives on Accounting and Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, followed by Accounting Organizations and Society, Management Accounting Research and European Accounting Review. The analysis also shows the effects of mimeticism, which seems to have produced a sort of isomorphism in the styles of publication. Accounting, Organizations and Society, appears to be the standard‐setter of the critical‐interpretive field of accounting research.
Originality/value
This paper is the first known to provide a comprehensive analysis of the introduction of French theory into English language accounting research.;
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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…
Abstract
Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
This research is based on 36 semi-structured interviews primarily with experienced male and female accounting professionals in France.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
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Yves Gendron, Luc Paugam and Hervé Stolowy
This essay takes issue with the incommensurability thesis, which assumes that meaningful research work across different paradigms cannot occur. Could it be that the thesis…
Abstract
Purpose
This essay takes issue with the incommensurability thesis, which assumes that meaningful research work across different paradigms cannot occur. Could it be that the thesis understates the case for meaningful relationships to develop across paradigms? Is it possible that researchers can authentically and rewardingly collaborate across paradigms and create joint studies published in established journals?
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the observation that interparadigmatic research exists, the authors investigate two questions. How is interparadigmatic research expressed in the accounting research literature? How can we comprehend the process that underlies the development and publication of interparadigmatic research, focusing on cohabitation involving the positivist and interpretive paradigms of research?
Findings
To deal with the first question, the authors focus on two interparadigmatic articles: Greenwood et al. (2002) and Paugam et al. (2021). The authors find each article showcases a dominant paradigm – whereas the role of the other paradigm is represented as secondary; that is, complementing and enriching the dominant paradigm. To address the second question, the authors rely especially on their involvement as coauthors of three interparadigmatic studies, published between 2019 and 2022 in FT50 journals. The authors’ analysis brings to the fore a range of facilitators that fit their experiences, such as the development of cross-paradigmatic agreement within the authorship to cope with the complexity surrounding the object of study, the crafting of methodological compromises (e.g. regarding the number of documents to analyze) and the strategizing that the authorship enacted in dealing with journal gatekeepers.
Originality/value
From the authors’ experiences, they develop a model, which provides a tentative template to make sense of the process by which interparadigmatic research takes place. The model highlights the role of what the authors call “epistemic mediation” in producing interparadigmatic studies.
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Bernard Korai and Nizar Souiden
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study that investigates the historical roots of quantitative paradigm hegemony over the qualitative paradigm in marketing using…
Abstract
Purpose
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study that investigates the historical roots of quantitative paradigm hegemony over the qualitative paradigm in marketing using a critical lens. The purpose of this paper is to stimulate thoughtful reflections among marketing scholars so that the dialog among paradigms expands, the stale paradigmatic debates disappear, and the marketing discipline evolves and contributes to the actual functioning of markets and the welfare of society.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is conducted in the light of foucauldian genealogy through the analysis of historical materials that Foucault called discourses, a set of languages, systems of thinking and governality techniques that determine how individuals or organizations come to be disciplined. In this paper, the concept of discourse mainly refers to visible rituals and practices by which marketing researchers have been psychologically and behaviorally shaped to reproduce and perpetuate a hypothetical-deductive mainstream within their discipline.
Findings
This paper intends to stimulate a dialog among marketing scholars about expanding paradigms so that stale debates disappear, and marketing disciplines proves their scientific status by better contributing to the functioning of markets and the welfare of society. As an evolving social science, marketing requires new theory, new concepts and new research methods.
Originality/value
The intellectual contribution of this paper lies in its intention to alert marketing researchers about the danger we are exposing our discipline to by promoting imperialist traditions and standardization of thinking.