Make China great again: the strategies of Confucian accountants

Wang, Y. and Ahn, P. D. (2024) Make China great again: the strategies of Confucian accountants. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, (doi: 10.1108/AAAJ-07-2023-6572) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Purpose: This paper aims to offer insight into how strategies within the accounting profession, which has been becoming more global, might be changed by the recent outbreak of the Second Cold War between the West and the Rest of the World. Design/methodology/approach: We explore the strategies of those who called themselves “Confucian accountants” in China, a country which has recently discouraged its state-owned enterprises from using the services of the Big 4. We do this by employing qualitative research methods, including reflexive photo interviews, in which Big-4 accountants, recognised as the most Westernised accounting actors in China, and Confucian accountants are asked to take and explain photographs representing their professional lives. Bourdieu’s notions of “economy of practices” and “vision-of-division strategy” are drawn upon to understand who the Confucian accountants are and what they do strategically in their pursuit of a higher revenue stream and improved social standing in the Chinese social space. Findings: The homegrown Confucian accountants share cultural-cognitive characteristics with neighbouring social actors, such as their clients and government officials, who have been inculcated with Confucianism and the state’s cultural confidence policy in pursuit of a “socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics”. Those accountants try to enhance their social standing and revenue stream by strategically demonstrating their difference from Big-4 accountants. For this purpose, they wear Confucian clothes, have Confucian props in their office, employ Confucian phrases in their everyday conversations, use Confucian business cards and construct and maintain guanxi with government officials and clients. Originality/value: This paper is the first attempt to explore Confucian accountants’ strategies for increasing their revenue and social standing at the start of the Second Cold War.

• Item Type: Articles
• Keywords: Accounting profession, Confucian accountants, Bourdieu, Confucianism, China.
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Ahn, Dr Paul
• Authors: Wang, Y., and Ahn, P. D.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Accounting and Finance
• Journal Name: Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
• Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• ISSN: 0951-3574
• Published Online: 08 April 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 Emerald Publishing Limited
• First Published: First published in Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal 2024
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher