An empirical investigation of the culture-IFRS mutual relationship in Jordan

Abstract

This paper investigates the mutual relationship between Jordanian practitioners’ individualistic/collectivistic cultural orientation and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). It explores Jordanian accountants’ perception of the importance of IFRS, the IFRS-embedded cultural values attributed to those accountants, and whether adopting IFRS has contributed to change their cultural orientation. A three-part questionnaire distributed to 81 Jordanian accountants reveals that their cultural orientation is more collectivistic than individualistic. Moreover, accountants who have practiced only IFRS have a more individualistic orientation than those with long experience with the pre-IFRS standards. As the paper analyses only one cultural dimension (i.e., collectivistic versus individualistic), further research should explore other cultural dimensions, such as power distance, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance, religion and language, and their interrelationships with IFRS. Our findings should be relevant to other countries, especially those with developing or emerging economies, as they strive to improve the effectiveness of their corporate financial information.