Beyond Conventional Boundaries : Corporate Governance as Inspiration for Critical Accounting Research

Drawing on my research (with colleagues) in the corporate governance area, I reflect on the development of intellectual trajectories within the critical accounting research project. Recognizing that the boundaries surrounding critical research are quite hazy and fluctuating, the role of epistemological guidance, methodological flexibility, chance encounters and theoretical bricolage in the production of critical accounting inquiries is underlined. Importantly, the studies that I review demonstrate that corporate governance settings constitute privileged sites to investigate power and marginalization processes. Focused on the backstage of corporate governance, these studies bring to the fore two key processes through which power and marginalization operate at the board level. The first relates to the constitution and propagation of myths. The second consists of board members whose reflective skills are kept underdeveloped. From a forward looking perspective, I especially seek to encourage the future development of critical research on corporate governance in ways that break the mold of gap-spotting research. In particular, I maintain that critical academics may benefit significantly, when elaborating their research endeavors, from considering further two central questions: corporate governance for whom; and corporate governance for what?