Accounting for resilience: the role of the accounting professions in promoting resilience

Abstract

The rising incidence, variety and severity of extreme events that threaten both business and society has increased interest in promoting resilience to such threats. However, relatively little research has explored the potential contributions of the accounting profession to resilience at multiple scales and levels of analysis. To address the need for additional research, in this study we explore the contributions of the accounting profession to resilience during COVID-19. Drawing on a unique database of over 26,000 social media posts by the two principal professional accounting bodies in the UK context (ICAEW, ACCA) and UK-based accounts of the ‘Big 4’ professional services firms (PwC, Deloitte, EY, and KPMG), as well as user-engagement with those posts, we highlight processes by which the accounting profession encouraged resilience among individuals, organisations, and wider society. Our findings illuminate how the accounting profession contributed to resilience by supporting more effective crisis responses (by sharing trusted advice and shaping policy responses), better crisis adaptation (by crafting post-crisis futures and empowering the profession), and improved future crisis anticipation (by challenging complacency and being good citizens). We build on our analysis to propose a new framework characterising pathways for professions contributing to resilience.