The adoption of US GAAP by French firms before the creation of the International Accounting Standard Committee: an institutional explanation

Abstract

This article is about the emergence of consolidated financial statements in France at the beginning of the 1970s. French firms were already using US GAAP and not the recommendations of French standard-setters as they used to do. The article has two aims: to document the choice of American Generally Accepted Accounting Practices by French firms before 1973 and to use institutional theory in order to explain why US GAAP was adopted. The cases studied are those of Saint-Gobain (adopted GAAP in 1970), Pechiney (adopted GAAP in 1972) and Rhône-Poulenc (adopted GAAP in 1973) using archival materials, annual reports and internal documentation. We also provide a financial statement analysis. Most studies about accounting choice have been conducted under the agency theory. More recently, alternative theories like the new institutionalism in organizational theory have also been used by researchers. We feel it could be productive to explain the phenomena in the lens of institutional theory. We document the decisive role of auditors such as Price Waterhouse in the emergence of accounting practices. We also insist on the use of accounting in the transformation of corporations into conglomerates. In conclusion, our data show that the use of internationally accepted standards is not an innovation, simply an imitation. Furthermore, our cases suggest that the mimesis theory of Rene Girard subsumes institutional theory.