Professional repositioning during times of institutional change: The case of tax practitioners and changing moral boundaries

Abstract

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Earning the “Write to Speak”: Sell‐Side Analysts and Their Struggle to Be Heard

“…SS analysts have therefore been struggling to reposition themselves in the field of investment advice, eclipsing their previous functions as suppliers and distributors of essential information by performing a more contingent role of trusted consigliere-advisors who have access to privileged information and use it to co-construct interpretative knowledge along with actors on the BS. Previous research has shown how financial professionals can successfully employ social skill in order to transform existential threats into opportunities (Radcliffe et al 2018). However, given the nature of changes in the field of investment advice that have disrupted established positions in recent years, the consigliere role coveted by SS analysts has effectively been a mitigation strategy that has provided economic and interorganizational justification, perhaps temporarily, for the continued existence of SS analysts.…”

“…These findings challenge existing notions in the literature about the informational value of analyst reports in investment decision making and shed new light on sources of analysts' value in the field of investment advice as well as the development and use of reports as relational devices. Finally, we show that professionals employing social skill (Fligstein 2013) do not always succeed in advancing their professional projects (Radcliffe et al 2018;Suddaby and Viale 2011) but can be restricted to strategies of mitigation instead.…”

“…Our second research question proposes the hypothesis that their current existence is related to their ability to recalibrate expertise in the field. Exploring the changing importance accorded to different types of expertise is important because expertise is linked closely to positional struggles within professional fields (Radcliffe et al 2018). Paying attention to expertise can therefore reveal something of the roles that fluctuating status and reputation play in financial markets.…”

Practicing Capitals Across Fields: Extending Bourdieu to Study Inter-Field Dynamics

“…In doing so, they inevitably update their habitus and also, because they occupy a social position within the field, shape the nuances of how a field values particular capitals. For example, reputational risk awareness becomes more valued than pure compliance in current tax knowledge (Radcliffe, Spence, Stein, & Wilkinson, 2018), so updating both cultural capital and, given their entanglement, the combination of capitals valued by the field. These recursive dynamics elaborate on Cardinale's framework, by showing how capitals orient the pre-reflexive everyday work of corporate executives, that in turn reinforces the institutionalization of tax strategies that lie within a certain band of the tax minimization spectrum.…”

Locating moral boundaries in the early accountancy profession

“…Chandler (2017, 190) reminds us that while some issues of professional etiquette and ethical conduct endure (such as 'low balling'), others, such as advertising, once perceived as a serious offence, are now deemed acceptable: 'while some components of the model of the ethical accountant remain immutable and the problems of clarifying appropriate behaviour insoluble, other issues disappear as society evolves and notions of ethics change'. Studies in more modern-day settings also point to the way in which shifting moral boundaries in wider society result in the renegotiation of moral imperatives by professionals (Radcliffe et al 2018). This phenomenon is deemed much more discernible at the level of individual actors.…”