Tomo, Andrea. "‘Angry accountants’: Making sense of professional identity crisis on online communities." Critical Perspectives on Accounting 95 (2023): 102483.

This study delves into how Italian accountants navigate their professional identity amidst a crisis of de-professionalization, using netnography to analyze their discussions within an online community. It leverages Guo’s identity sense-making framework to understand the collective emotional and intellectual response to the challenges facing their profession. These challenges include increased regulatory interventions transforming the profession and a professional body perceived as failing to protect its members. The findings highlight the emergence of a "bureaucrat accountant" identity, signaling a shift in how accountants see their roles and status. This research not only adds to the discourse on the identity crisis among accounting professionals but also showcases the value of netnography in exploring professional identities in flux.