accounting firms – which generally reduce the frequency of interactions with peers as well as the individual’s reliance on core area knowledge. New entrants are therefore unlikely to be inculcated with deeply ingrained notions of auditor independence (Bailey, 1995).10 Today’s new entrants are also constantly exposed to commercial discourses sustained outside of their employing accounting firm – even in formal pronouncements of accounting institutes (Fogarty et al., 2005; Shafer and Gendron, 2005). Socialization is not constrained to periods of formal training; it continues throughout the life and career of the individual, although the context may change (Fogarty, 1992)