A Reputational Framework for Analyzing Supreme Audit Institutions: the Case of the French Court of Auditors

The literature on supreme audit institutions (SAIs) has grown in the three past decades. However, few contributions describe how SAIs are concretely embedded in an organizational environment, and may therefore hold powers that are not formally encompassed in their remit. This article provides an analytical framework based on the concept of organizational reputation to describe the positioning of SAIs derived from their institutional trajectory, as well as the informal powers that SAIs may hold. The article claims that the study of the reputation of SAIs requires an analysis of the nature of the interactions between organizations and three types of audiences over time: auditees, competitors, and recipients of reports. Based on the empirical study of the French Court of Auditors (Cour des comptes), the article shows how reputation is both an asset and a constraint for SAIs: reputation increases the chances of power of SAIs, but forces them to manage their organizational image.