Professional bodies and professional closure strategies: The field of auditing for small and medium-sized enterprises in Italy☆

Abstract

Professional bodies usually pursue domination objectives in their contexts of reference, by activating political, cultural, relational, and symbolic instruments to acquire and ensure economic or social benefits for their members. The current paper examines the role played by the national accounting professional body (Consiglio Nazionale dei Dottori Commercialisti e degli Esperti Contabili) in the field of statutory auditing for small and medium-sized enterprises in Italy.

This paper is based on interviews held with the presidents of the Consiglio Nazionale dei Dottori Commercialisti e degli Esperti Contabili and a selection of presidents of the local branches, as well as on several primary and secondary documentary sources. It combines ‘closure theory’ with a Bourdieusian approach, by interpreting the profession as a field in which various forms of capital are arranged and a habitus is consolidated at the level of individual professionals. This study shows the strategy followed by the Consiglio Nazionale dei Dottori Commercialisti e degli Esperti Contabili in the period 2009–2021, through the accumulation of symbolic and social capital and the production of objectified and then institutionalised cultural capital, to achieve a condition of professional closure.