Perspectives from Mainland China, Hong Kong and the UK on the Potential Future Roles of China's Auditing Firms in the Global Profession.

Abstract

Some have predicted that the next ‘Big N’ international firm could be a Chinese CPA firm. Our primary research motivation has been to explore how far this view is shared and whether it is realistic to suppose that one or more Chinese firms, however large they may grow domestically, or even as ‘multinationals’ serving Chinese clients as they invest overseas, could now aim to occupy a position internationally alongside the current Big 4. ‘International’ means being accepted as the auditor of Chinese companies that obtain overseas listings and, at its fullest, also attracting overseas listed companies as clients either in China itself or by opening offices worldwide. We thereby also open up questions about how the ‘linked ecologies’ of international auditing firms and their roles and regulation (alongside other international professional service firms) may consequently be changed globally. During the last 35 years or so the Chinese economy has been transformed from wholly state-planned to becoming today’s ‘socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics’ (its unique combination of market autonomy and techno-scientific administrative regulation under the Communist Party’s overall direction), and it is already the second largest economy worldwide. We explore the changing relationships between the international firms, as they have themselves developed a changing identity, and the Chinese government’s initiatives to create, develop and regulate an indigenous profession of accountants holding the CICPA qualification, in the context of the translation into China of international accounting and auditing standards and the continuing rapid growth in China’s own stock-markets and in its international trade and investment. We have gained access to interview senior representatives of audit firms, regulatory bodies, universities and other organizations in mainland China, Hong Kong and the UK, to explore a range of informed views about the potential of the Chinese audit firms in the ‘2nd-tier’ international networks and among the larger ‘stand-alone’ firms to effectively rival the ‘Big 4’ in international reputation for quality; and about the hurdles they still face in overcoming that barrier. Our analysis problematizes the prevailing rhetorical stereotypes of ‘foreign’ Big 4 versus ‘indigenous’ firms. We thereby contribute new voices and alternative perspectives to the emerging literature on the globalization of large professional services firms.