Reforming central government accounting in diverse contexts: a three-country comparison

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to unravel similarities and differences across countries approaching the accrual accounting model, yet being situated in diverse institutional contexts. We tackle this by conducting a comparative study of accounting developments in three heterogeneous settings, namely Nepal, Norway, and Russia. The selection of settings is designed in a way to observe commonalities and variations in approaching accounting reforms between one of the poorest countries on earth, one of the richest nations, and one of the world’s growing superpowers. This study draws on institutional theory, particularly the DiMaggio and Powell’s (1983) idea of how organisations comply with institutional requirements in framing rules and practices. Document search represents the major method of collecting data. As our evidence shows, the institutional forces identified across the three settings were not of one single kind, but rather from segmented institutional environments.