Without `Reinventing the Wheel‘: Business Accounting Applied to the Public Sector

This article considers why a business accounting model was applied in an early adoption of public‐sector accrual accounting. The history of that change shows that large private‐sector consulting firms were active in the promotion and implementation of a commercial model of public‐sector accrual accounting. It is argued here that the consulting firms' actions are best understood using concepts of mimetic isomorphism and the interplay between self‐interest and perceived public interest. They formed an epistemic community in which self‐interest was present but with a zealous belief that private‐sector accounting was an inherently righteous objective for the public sector.