Between individual and society level analysis of African countries: the contribution of social representation to accounting research

Abstract

In this study, we discuss how social representation methodologies can help to fill the gap in the understanding of what lies between individual and societal behaviour. We draw on the complex concept of globalisation and its impact on accounting professions in emerging countries, specifically in Tunisia. Our main contribution was to understand the way such a polymorphic concept as globalisation is reformulated by Tunisian accountants, distorting it from its original form. While the results show a large variation in words associated with the concept of “globalisation”, the context revealed weak social representation, mainly because of poor inter-individual interactions with regard to globalisation.