Sylvain Durocher

University of Ottawa · Telfer School of Management

How to account for goodwill arising from business combinations has proven to be one the most controversial topics for the standardisation, preparation, and audit of financial reports. Given its contested nature, and recent debates about improper goodwill accounting by failing companies, standard setters are currently reconsidering existing recognit...

In this paper, we investigate what we call “financial statement users’ institutional logic,” defined as users’ expressed fundamental views and beliefs about accounting information. We analyze users’ comment letters to standard setters in response to the proposed standards on lease accounting to identify the dimensions of the institutional logic tha...

This paper examines how neoliberal governmentality is conveyed and promoted through office design technologies within professional service firms (PSFs). Our data, constituted through interviews with firm representatives and site visits, points to the pursuit by PSF management of a core principle of marketization, which is promoted through a range o...

In response to this special issue’s focus on new directions in auditing research, specifically its call for more analysis on the ‘real’ impact of inclusion discourses within the accounting profession, this paper critically interprets representations of gender and ethnic diversity in accounting firms’ recruitment photographs using a critical visual...

Purpose This paper investigates the strategic processes surrounding the development, in accounting firms, of office (re)design projects and their overarching objectives. Design/methodology/approach The authors’ investigation relies on a series of interviews with individuals from different accounting firms involved in the decision process related t...

Purpose This qualitative paper is about social reporting in response to an incident that involved the loss of human life. It examines Loblaw’s disclosures following the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed over 1,100 Bangladeshi workers. Design/methodology/approach This article draws on Suchman’s (1995) comprehensive legitimacy typology to int...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to longitudinally explore the symbolic and substantive ideological strategies located in ENGIE’s environmental discourse while considering the specific negative media context surrounding the company’s environmental activities. Design/methodology/approach Thompson’s (2007) and Eagleton’s (2007) theorizations a...

Although some authors highlight the benefits of journal rankings, previous research is often highly critical of them, insinuating that they can lead to desingularization of academic journals (i.e. their impoverishment and standardization) and dequalification of researchers (i.e. a weakening of researchers’ ability to evaluate academic research). Ho...

Normativity is assessed as we evaluate and compare the environmental reporting practices of a sample of French and Canadian companies through the lens of institutional legitimacy. More specifically, we examine how French and Canadian firms changed their reporting practices in reaction to the promulgation of laws and regulations in their respective...

en As part of the unification of the Canadian accounting profession, a lot of effort has been devoted to organizational structures and systems. In these times of change, recruitment of prospective professional accountants remains an important factor for the Canadian and international development of the profession. In this paper, we explore professi...

In this conceptual paper, we explore professional accountants’ identity formation and the roles played by various audiences in society, accounting associations, and accounting firms in shaping the identity of professional accountants. We integrate constructs from social identity theory and the sociology of professions literature with previous resea...

This paper highlights the colonization of public accounting firms by marketing expertise. Using data collected through interviews with auditors and marketing experts, complemented with data generated through documentary analysis, we examine the marketing-oriented transformations that took place in public accounting firms and the important outcomes...

Prospective accounting recruits are increasingly diverse. Drawing on a theoretical framework that combines legitimacy theory, impression management, and institutional logics, we use content analysis to examine how the eight largest Canadian accounting firms refer to diversity in their recruitment websites. Our analysis reveals accounting firms adop...

The competition to attract trainee accountants is fierce among accounting firms. Millennials seemingly have expectations in terms of work experiences and work environments that arguably cannot be ignored by accounting firms. This paper draws on a legitimacy framework to examine legitimacy management strategies utilized by large Canadian accounting...

We examine how small practitioners perceive and react to global standards of practice and the underlying mechanisms put in place by the accounting profession to ensure “appropriate” implementation. Interviews with practitioners, standard setters, and other informants indicate that small practitioners consider many features of global standards ill-a...

We examine use of the term ‘diversity’ in the recruitment websites of Canada’s eight largest public accounting firms. We find a range of distinct uses of the term. We note differences in the use of ‘diversity’ between Big Four accounting firms and the next four largest firms. The Big Four vary in their approaches to diversity, with Deloitte’s and K...

This case is designed to help students enhance their analytical skills and link accounting policy choices with corporate strategy. Written initially for MBA students and senior analysts attending executive education sessions, it provides participants with 1) industry background for the Canadian airline sector, and 2) historical and selected financi...

Prior research into the adoption timing decision of organisations in relation to newly promulgated accounting standards has focused exclusively on public enterprises and used economic cost–benefit frameworks as a main method of analysis. The current study examines the impact of a broader range of factors, including cost–benefit considerations, on t...

This paper critically explores knowledge/professionalization relationships in a jurisdictional context characterized by shifting standards of practice. Focusing on the growing movement toward fair value within accounting standards, we examine practitioners' reactions to the growing compulsory application of fair-value accounting standards. To make...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relative cultural shift from professionalism to commercialism in the accounting profession, based on an analysis of the promotional brochures used by the Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec (Institute of Chartered Accountants of Québec), over the last 40 years, to attract new members. Design/...

This case is designed to help students “see through the numbers”. Written initially for MBA students and senior analysts attending executive education sessions, it provides participants with (1) a common-size balance sheet and selected financial ratios for ten anonymous Canadian public companies, and (2) a list of ten diverse industry sectors. Part...

In recent years, accounting standards worldwide have been modified so as to render them more heavily based on fair or market value. This paper explores the behavioural and jurisdictional consequences of the normative drift towards fair value. Being informed by Giddens’ work on late modernity, trust and expertise and drawing on a series of interview...

Prior research into the adoption timing decision of organisations in relation to newly promulgated accounting standards has focused exclusively on public enterprises and used economic cost-benefit frameworks as their main method of analysis. The current study draws on the theories of organisational diffusion of innovation and reasoned action to ide...

Purpose The objective of this paper is to critically examine the Canadian Accounting Standards Board's (AcSB) legitimacy management strategies directed toward financial statement users. Design/methodology/approach Suchman's legitimacy typology is used as a lens through which the AcSB's legitimacy management strategies directed toward users are ana...

Constituents’ participation in standard-setting processes is seen as a key indicator of a standard setter’s legitimacy. While previous research has mainly examined corporate economic determinants of participation, limited evidence exists on practitioners’ motivations to become involved in developing accounting standards. This study uses expectancy...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the polyphonic debate on the future of interpretive accounting research (IAR) by addressing the issues of cumulative knowledge and embedment of IAR in wider literatures. Design/methodology/approach McCracken's method of inquiry, adapted to incorporate meso‐level considerations, can be used to h...

This study contributes to the debate on lease accounting currently ongoing at the international level and to future discussions at the Canadian level for private enterprise standards following a potential revision of lease accounting in international financial reporting standards (IFRS). A user perspective is adopted to examine private business ban...

This paper questions the ideal of comparability, which is often mobilized by standard setters when justifying new - or 'improvement' to existing - accounting standards. The target of our analysis is constituted by the thoughts of sophisticated users of financial statements when reflecting about International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) imp...

One type of relevant ex ante research supporting the accounting standard-setting process is the study of a proposed standard's impact on reported figures. The International Accounting Standards Board recently decided to review the lease accounting standard, which will naturally involve consideration of the G4 + 1 recommendation to capitalize all no...

The authors develop an explanatory theory using a meso-level approach and qualitative methodology to describe the participation of financial statement users in the standard-setting process (e.g. financial analysts and institutional investors). The theory links the characteristics of the standard-setting process to the individual determinants of use...

This study concerns the impact of debt ratios of Canadian enterprises on their net exposure arising from the operation of defined benefit pension plans. A significant and similar impact is found throughout the reference period, 19881993. When assessed in comparison with financial statement indicators proposed by the Audit Normalisation Committee of...