Accounting professionals' ethical judgment and the institutional disciplinary context: a French-US comparison

Loréa Baïada-Hirèche () and Ghislaine Garmilis ()
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Loréa Baïada-Hirèche: IMT-BS - MMS - Département Management, Marketing et Stratégie - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management
Ghislaine Garmilis: IMT-BS - DEFI - Département Droit, Économie et Finances - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management

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Abstract: This paper investigates whether accounting professionals' ethical judgment (EJ) is influenced by the disciplinary system established by the accounting profession in France and the United States. Our study first attempts to determine whether there is a link between the EJ of accounting professionals and the disciplinary context, in each country. It then performs a comparative analysis of the two nations. Our findings indicate that the judgment of American accounting professionals is correlated with the disciplinary decisions of the accountancy board. By contrast, the judgment of French accounting professionals is independent of the disciplinary context. Whereas cross-national studies have thus far attributed differences among nations mainly to cultural distance, current research shows that non-cultural national factors should also be considered. In line with this perspective, our study suggests that institutional factors, in particular the disciplinary system, may also account for the differences between French and American accounting professionals' ethical perceptions. We support these results by highlighting some characteristics of the countries' respective legal systems (such as the ease of the procedure, the publication and the impact of sanctions and the format of the rules), which may explain the divergences observed. We conclude by identifying implications for the independence of accounting professionals' EJ and the risks associated with dissuasive disciplinary systems.

Keywords: Ethical judgment; Accounting ethics; Cross-national study; Accounting professionals; Disciplinary system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-12
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published in Journal of Business Ethics, 2016, 139 (4), pp.639 - 659. ⟨10.1007/s10551-015-2876-x⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01404040

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2876-x

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