A key question that remains to be addressed is the
cause of such lapses in professional ethics. Many
critics have pointed to the growing influence of
commercial greed over professional objectivity as a
key reason for the ethical lapses in accounting.
Macey and Sale (2003, p. 1167), for example, argue
that the internal governance structures of large
accounting firms made the ‘‘modern accounting
industry […] more like a business than a profession.’’