This study is about auditors’ role as regulatory intermediaries in the international accounting standard-setting process. Drawing from the socio-legal literature, we use a theoretical framework combining the Regulator-Intermediary-Target (RIT) model and the legal endogeneity theory that sheds light on auditors’ role in fostering the emergence of an agreed-upon meaning of a standard. While standards are open to different possible interpretations at implementation stage, we argue that standard-setting is a critical step at which a significant part of standard’s meaning is locked in. Hence the importance of discussions over the substance and wording of standards for parties involved in the due process. We investigate auditors’ support to their clients engaging in such discussions leading to the co-construction of the standard’s meaning and thus to the potential endogenization of the standard. For this purpose, the IASB due process is conceptualized as a regulatory conversation (Black, 2002). We use a single case study carried out in the office of one large accounting firm. Our examination focuses on discussions between the IASB and telecommunications industry representatives around the draft IFRS 15 on revenue recognition, as depicted by the latter’s auditors. We find that auditors from the firm’s in-house consulting network play a pivotal role in assisting field auditors and their clients engaging with the IASB while preserving the firm’s reputation. Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that auditors played a pivotal role as intermediaries between the IASB (the regulator) and the targets (Telco firms) and as such contributed to the partial endogenization of the draft IFRS 15. We discuss the implications of our findings for conceptualizing auditor’s role in accounting standard-setting.

本研究是关于审计师在国际会计准则制定过程中作为监管中介的作用。从社会法律文献中汲取经验，我们使用了一个将监管机构-中介目标（RIT）模型与法律内生性理论相结合的理论框架，从而揭示了审计师在促进达成共识的标准含义方面的作用。虽然标准在实施阶段对不同的可能解释持开放态度，但我们认为标准制定是锁定标准含义的重要部分的关键步骤。因此，参与各方就标准的实质和措辞进行讨论非常重要。正当程序。我们调查审计师对参与此类讨论的客户的支持，导致标准含义的共同构建，从而导致标准的潜在内生化。为此，IASB 正当程序被概念化为监管对话（Black，2002）。我们使用在一家大型会计师事务所的办公室进行的单一案例研究。我们的研究重点是 IASB 和电信行业代表围绕 IFRS 15 草案关于收入确认的讨论，正如后者的审计师所描述的那样。我们发现，公司内部咨询网络中的审计师在协助现场审计师及其客户与IASB接触，同时维护公司声誉方面起着关键作用。整体来看