Habitus and harmony: between the global and the local

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to add to existing literature on the nature of what is valued in the Big-4 accounting firms within their operations in non-Western settings, and how and why this relates to and reflects global and local influences, by investigating the situation in Lebanon within an Asian and Middle Eastern context. The paper demonstrates that the alignment of Big-4 practices with global practices is explained by the “internally constituted” historical and contextual circumstances which reflect the habitus of both locals generally, and actors who hold senior positions within the Big-4 firms. The extent of the tension or harmony between the global and the local helps explain why certain capitals are more valued in Big-4 firms within the context of emerging economies.

KEYWORDS:

• Globalisation
• global professional service firms (GPSF)
• field theory
• habitus

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Editors and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback throughout the review process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 In order to maintain anonymity of participants it is not possible to provide a breakdown between the firms or to indicate proportions in each firm. The aggregate numbers here are numbers in 2021/22, not at the time of the interviews, but we understand aggregate numbers and therefore proportions are similar. Data are not provided on the backgrounds are not provided by the firms.

2 This quotation is from interviews conducted as part of a different project interview [details deleted to maintain anonymity in review]

3 IFAC raised the issue of peer review in 2008, by 2017 little was evident in terms of real progress on the ground, though bylaws had been put in place and some training had commenced. See the 2016/7 LACPA IFAC Action Plan, the latest available, https://www.ifac.org/system/files/compliance-assessment/part_3/201706_Lebanon_LACPA_SMO-AP.pdf, link from https://www.ifac.org/about-ifac/membership/country/lebanon-19/7/2021. IFAC (2021) from https://www.ifac.org/about-ifac/membership/members/lebanese-association-certified-public-accountants.