Uncovering the nature of framing: The Big Four audit firms versus a competition regulator
运用框架理论分析四大审计事务所如何通过框架包（frame packages）反对监管提案，构建框架过程模型帮助监管者预见被监管方的回应策略。
This research applies framing theory to examine and model how powerful global entities such as the Big Four audit firms oppose regulatory proposals. To examine Big Four framing, an under-researched phenomenon, we conduct a frame-package analysis, a methodological innovation hitherto not deployed in the accounting or auditing literatures. Specifically, we analyze the Big Four’s consultation responses to a UK regulator. We conceptualize the Big Four’s frames as ‘frame packages’ comprising reasoning devices and framing devices and contextualize our findings by examining the regulator’s reports. We find that the Big Four deploy mimetic frames, which mirror the regulator’s priorities, and conditioned frames, which map to institutional logics. Our frame-package analysis, the longitudinal nature of the data, and the resultant frame-process model, illuminate how the Big Four’s frames originate, escalate, and expire. Our novel frame-process model can help regulators foresee how those under scrutiny may construct and adapt their responses to regulatory projects.