Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Enron, WorldCom, Andersen et al.
T2 - A challenge to modernity
AU - Unerman, J.
AU - O'Dwyer, B.
PY - 2004/8
Y1 - 2004/8
N2 - This paper uses the lens of Anthony Giddens' theories regarding the mechanisms which sustain late-modernist societies [The Consequences of Modernity, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1990; Modernity and Self-Identity, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1991] to analyse the 2001 and 2002 accounting and audit failures at Enron, WorldCom and Andersen. Assessments of risk and trust play a central role in Giddens' model, and this paper traces an escalating withdrawal of trust in systems of audit and accounting, and related increased perceptions of risk in corporate investment instruments. It also analyses regulatory responses aimed at sustaining or regaining public trust, and argues that failure to sustain such trust risks compromising the continued momentum of late modernity and the interests of people who benefit from institutions of late modernity. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
AB - This paper uses the lens of Anthony Giddens' theories regarding the mechanisms which sustain late-modernist societies [The Consequences of Modernity, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1990; Modernity and Self-Identity, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1991] to analyse the 2001 and 2002 accounting and audit failures at Enron, WorldCom and Andersen. Assessments of risk and trust play a central role in Giddens' model, and this paper traces an escalating withdrawal of trust in systems of audit and accounting, and related increased perceptions of risk in corporate investment instruments. It also analyses regulatory responses aimed at sustaining or regaining public trust, and argues that failure to sustain such trust risks compromising the continued momentum of late modernity and the interests of people who benefit from institutions of late modernity. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
KW - Andersen
KW - Enron
KW - Giddens' mechanisms of modernity
KW - Trust in accounting and audit
KW - WorldCom
U2 - 10.1016/j.cpa.2003.04.002
DO - 10.1016/j.cpa.2003.04.002
M3 - Journal article
VL - 15
SP - 971
EP - 993
JO - Critical Perspectives on Accounting
JF - Critical Perspectives on Accounting
SN - 1045-2354
IS - 6-7
ER -