| In the 1980s, competition among CPA firms increased. Auditing revenues, long the primary source of a CPA firm's revenue, began to shrink due to the increased levels of competition. To compensate for the declines in auditing revenues, CPA firms began to provide business advisory services (BAS) to their clients. Business advisory services are services that extend beyond the traditional accounting services (i.e., that of the audit and tax return preparation). Business advisory services include services such as personal financial planning, financial projections, litigation support services, etc.;Results of the study indicated that business advisory services (BAS) accountants were not perceived as more assertive than traditional accounting services (TAS) accountants. BAS accountants were, however, perceived as more responsive and more versatile than TAS accountants, perhaps explaining their propensity toward the successful provision of business advisory services to clients.;In addition to the Social Style Profile analysis described above, interviews were conducted with both BAS and TAS accountants to identify state-of-the-art practices in public accounting and to lend insight into the Social Style Profile results.;Because profitability was shifting away from traditional accounting services toward business advisory services, the purpose of this study was to compare the perceived characteristics of a provider of business advisory services to the perceived characteristics of a provider of traditional accounting services. This comparison was made through use of Wilson Learning Corporation's Social Style Profile. (The Social Style Profile is a copyrighted instrument of Wilson Learning Corporation, Eden Prairie, Minnesota.) The Social Style Profile measures an individual's perceived level of assertiveness, responsiveness, and versatility. |
