Abstract
Focuses on large, international public accounting firms and the manner in which these firms attempt to manage a changing environment and defend against threats to the self‐regulation of public accounting. Investigates the strategies and responses of these large firms to the challenges of a changing environment, and questions whether such strategies and responses will be effective in the future in maintaining the self‐regulation of public accounting. In addition, discusses why traditional accounting and auditing research methods have been unable to reveal and investigate the complexities of the environment in which the large firms operate. Suggests the use of alternative research methods (i.e. qualitative methods) in order to address relevant research questions more effectively. Comprises four sections. The first section discusses the significance of the large accounting firms as an area of critical inquiry and summarizes threats to continued self‐regulation. The second section discusses the concept of structure and the investigation of structure through qualitative research methods. The second section also discusses the strategies that the large firms have developed to achieve success. The third section discusses why the strategies may not be successful in the future. The fourth section provides a summary and discusses implications for research in accounting and auditing.