Literature examining dynamics between the state and self-styled professional fields is well established and points towards the crucial interrelations between the two. However, this literature evinces an occidental orientation, largely privileging the notion of a state characterised by self-limiting, liberal ideology and that is captured by dominant interests. More recent work on Asia describes a different context within which to understand how the state influences both the structure of accounting fields and the behaviour of actors therein. We build upon this literature here by reporting the results of a detailed empirical study on the dynamics of the accounting field in China. Drawing on archival analysis and interviews with 63 regulators, state actors and accounting practitioners, we show that the state successfully exercises symbolic power in the implementation of state strategies. Conceptually, we argue that the state is a deep-rooted cultural phenomenon existing in the cognitive structures of key actors in the accounting field in China, thereby drawing attention to further reaching forms of state influence than have hitherto been recognised in extant literature on accounting fields. Specifically, we point towards the importance of doxa (Bourdieu, 1977, 1992, 2014), exemplified by the taken-for-granted principles of classification and ranking produced by the state, in the form of firms and individuals ‘thinking like the state’ as the basis of symbolic power in the accounting field in China. We also reflect on the limits of such power.

Research on professional service firms describes these organizations as having been increasingly colonized by commercial imperatives over the last 30 years. Extant studies contrast this now dominant ‘commercial logic’ – which privileges revenue generation - with a ‘professional logic’ – which privileges public service. There are two problems with this commercialization thesis. Firstly, it focuses almost exclusively on Western European and North American empirical contexts in order to draw conclusions about ostensibly ‘global’ firms, thereby universalizing a particular. Secondly, professionalism and commercialism are conceived of in essentialized fashion, with meanings ascribed to each a priori. In the present study, we seek to move beyond these problems by drawing on a comparative empirical study of partners in professional service firms in China and Japan. The results show that firms in each context demand quite different forms of capital and dispositions from firm members. This implies that literature on global professional service firms need to take cognizance of the extent to which certain ‘rules of the game’ are applicable beyond Western countries. Conceptually, the study both outlines a framework for understanding professional service firms in comparative perspective, and proffers a theorization of professionalism as a de-essentialized form of symbolic capital whose meaning is culturally contingent.