Title:
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The emergence of the US accounting profession 1880-1900 : a new institutionalism perspective.
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l'his dissertation explores the emergence of the U.S. accounting profession, from
1880 to 1900. This historical study of the professionalization of U.S. accountants
investigates the institutional environment out of which the profession emerged. The
organizational and sociological perspectives of New Institutionalism provide a
methodological basis to study the institutional environment. Six chapters demonstrate the
existence of six rational institutional myths, which provided an institutional structure for
the U.S. accountants prior to the passage of the first C.P.A. law in 1896. The six social
ideals are: the science of accounts, the community of the competent, efficient accounting
systems, theoretical education, the gentleman professional, and the audit-auditor
relationship. Another chapter investigates the manner in which each of these six
institutional myths contributed to the passage of that first law and how they contributed to
the institutional structures for the new C.P.A. certification. Included in this study is a
cross-cultural perspective. The importation of British institutional perspectives into a
significantly different institutional and cultural environment is explored. The major
historical archives used were the contemporary professional journals in New York City
and London. These reveal the professional discourse, in which the rational institutional
myths may be perceived through their being used to legitimize the profession.
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