International Accounting Research Research Articles

On the Hegemony of Accounting Research: A Survey of Accounting Research seen from a Global Perspective

This paper surveys accounting research as seen through the eyes of international accounting researchers. Several studies have been published by researchers across the globe in both American and non-American accounting research journals critical of not only the dominant accounting research construct, but also of university affiliation of editors and peer-reviewers, editorial control of “elite” accounting journals, and the peer-review process. There is remarkable similarity and substantial agreement in the conclusions reached. The hegemony of the accounting research construct has stifled innovative accounting research and research methods, suppressed the diversity of accounting research, and dampened the importance and impact of authentic international accounting research.

Twenty-one years of publishing Meditari Accountancy Research: a coming of age

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the performance and current position of the Meditari Accountancy Research Journal by building a profile of the articles published over the 21 years since its inception. Design/methodology/approach – A descriptive meta-analysis of 293 articles published in 30 issues was conducted and comparable South African and international studies to structure the research were drawn upon. Contributors, research fields, research methods, citations and jurisdictions were examined and emerging trends assessed. Findings – Meditari Accountancy Research Journal has a strong relationship with the South African accounting community. All dimensions of this article indicate that Meditari Accountancy Research has evolved over the 21 years since its inception and has made progress towards an international research journal. Research limitations/implications – Given that this study relates to one accounting research journal only, there is no specific benchmark against to which to assess its progress. However, the literature offers a basis for comparison. Practical implications – The challenge is to maintain the traditional South African links while meeting the needs of a changing international accounting research environment. Originality/value – The current study provides a comprehensive basis for an evaluation of the journal and its future potential by reviewing the full history of Meditari Accountancy Research Journal, which presents insights into the articles published within it, including the range and predominance of contributing authors, research methods, research fields, nature of research, citation rates and jurisdictions.

Developing corporate accounting regulation in Libya past and future challenges

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature and development of corporate accounting regulation in Libya. Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaire survey and semi-structured interview methods were used to collect data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with external auditors, financial managers, accounting academics and regulators. Findings – This paper found general agreement that the accounting regulation of public corporations and banks is strongly influenced by the Libyan Commercial Code and the Income Tax Law. Although listed companies and the banking sector in Libya are required to comply with International Accounting Standards (IASs), the majority of them still comply with the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP). Moreover, the conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that the enforcement of IASs through the Libyan Accountants and Auditors Association (LAAA), local auditors and the Libyan Stock Market has not achieved its purpose. The results also indicate that the accounting profession in Libya is still in its infancy and still lacks clear structure in order to develop corporate accounting practice and it appears to play only an important role in retaining external influences on the accounting practice. The empirical results of this research show that the Salter and Niswander (1995) criteria (longevity, setting exam and auditors’ opinion on companies’ financial reports) found that the level of professionalism in Libya is below the required standard. Originality/value – This paper focuses on corporate accounting regulation and practices and the role of the LAAA in the development of corporate accounting in Libya. This paper, therefore, aims to contribute to the literature by examining the corporate accounting regulation in Libya and fills a gap in international accounting research.

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Challenges and Opportunities in Cross-Country Accounting Research

SYNOPSIS: A concurrent session at the 2011 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting featured the panel discussion “Results, Challenges, and Opportunities in Cross-Country Accounting Research.” The panelists summarized major contributions from prior research in international settings, factors a researcher should consider when motivating and designing cross-country studies, and topical areas that could potentially contribute to future international accounting research. This paper summarizes the panelists' prepared remarks, develops a framework for designing cross-country research projects, and provides illustrations of the framework.

Identification and Inferences in International Accounting Research

Identification and Inferences in International Accounting Research

Contabilidade internacional: Uma análise da produção científica nos principais periódicos internacionais da área - 2000 a 2009

Given the rise in the amount of international accounting research, the causes of international differences in financial reporting, their level of influence, the classification and measurement of convergence, and considering the role of the convergence of accounting standards itself, this study identified the main topics focused on scientific production related to financial reporting in major international journals between 2000 and 2009. The survey used the qualitative method and has an exploratory and documentary nature. In order to do this survey, we used the following databases CAPES.periodicos, Factiva.com and JSTOR. The analysis is based on a total of 75 scientific papers, grouped into different themes: measurement of convergence; international differences and financial reporting implications; classification; impacts of the adoption of IAS / IFRS; country studies; the process of adopting IFRS and the current situation; and international accounting research. The main theme identified was “international differences and financial reporting implications”, 42.67% of the total articles. The “measurement of convergence” (13.33%) and the “impacts of the adoption of IAS / IFRS” (13.33%) also stood out, whereas the other themes did not vary significantly. The increase of the theme “country studies” in recent years may be related to the recent interest of the academic community in evaluating the effectiveness of the convergence process. The highest concentration of articles in the years 2006 and 2007 may be related to the rise of databases resulting from the mandatory adoption of IFRS by the European Union in 2005. It is shown that there may be gaps in the literature and research opportunities.

Challenges and Opportunities in Cross-Country Accounting Research

A concurrent session at the 2011 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting featured the panel discussion “Results, Challenges, and Opportunities in Cross-country Accounting Research.” The panelists summarized major contributions from prior research in international settings, factors a researcher should consider when motivating and designing cross-country studies, and topical areas that could potentially contribute to future international accounting research. This paper summarizes the panelists’ prepared remarks, develops a framework for designing cross-country research projects, and provides illustrations of the framework.

The development of budgets and their use for purposes of control in Japanese aviation, 1928‐1945

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the role of the Japanese state in the development of budgets within “special companies” in the transportation sector between 1928 and 1945.Design/methodology/approachUsing evidence contained in the archives of “closedown institutions” this paper examines the role of the state in determining the use of budgets within Japan Air Transport (1928‐1938) and Japan Airways (1938‐1945). The paper adopts the lens of new institutional sociology to examine the changes in the use of budgets effected when Japan Airways succeeded Japan Air Transport.FindingsPrior to 1938, although subject to the need to provide budget statements to the government, the budget systems operated by special companies within the Japanese transportation sector were largely utilised for the purpose of legitimising receipt of government subsidies. Following the establishment of Japan Airways in 1938, however, an increasing use of the budget system as a control mechanism is observed. It is found that a key role in this coercive process was played by the Aviation Bureau of the Ministry of Communications, reflecting changes not only in its own status but also the financial pressures exerted on the Japanese government during the Second Sino‐Japanese War from 1937 and the Pacific War from 1941.Originality/valueThis paper examines the development of the use of budgets at a time, the interwar period, which is considered critical to the development of budgets for purposes of control. By doing this within a context (special companies) and within a geographical space (Japan) which has not previously been analyzed by accounting historians, this study helps to add to the material available for conducting comparative international accounting research. Furthermore, by using the lens of new institutional sociology, this study provides an in‐depth insight into how, and under what conditions, the degree of decoupling between formal policies and actual practices can vary over time depending on the extent of coercive pressures.

DISCUSSION OF Dominant Owners and Performance of Continental European Firms

K rivogorsky and Burton (2012) examine the association between dominant shareholders and firm performance for 1,533 firms from seven Continental European countries using ownership data from 2005 to 2007. The primary analysis in the paper tests the effects of four separate types of dominant owners (institutions, blockholders, banks, and individuals and families) on two measures of accounting performance (return on assets and return on shareholder funds) and a measure of firm value (market-to-book ratio). Supplemental tests examine cross-sectional differences in the effects of each type of dominant owner across individual countries. The main results indicate that banks and individual and family owners have a positive effect on firm performance, while institutions and blockholders have a negative effect on firm performance. The evidence from the within-country tests shows that the relation between particular shareholder types and firm performance varies across different jurisdictions, with dominant owners generally having a positive effect. Dominant shareholders have incentives and the ability to influence the firms in which they own a controlling interest. Dominant owners are motivated to utilize their control to monitor managerial actions because of their claims to the residual profits of the firm (Shleifer and Vishny 1997). Dominant shareholders also have the ability to monitor managerial actions because of their access to inside information and their ability to control internal forces designed to curb managerial actions that are not consistent with maximization of firm value. Thus, monitoring by dominant owners can serve to address the classic agency conflicts between shareholders and investors (Jensen and Meckling 1976), thereby having a positive effect on firm value. In an international context, however, country-level institutions, laws, and other regulatory features can interfere with dominant shareholders’ typical incentives and ability to monitor managerial behavior. Depending on a country’s institutional environment, dominant shareholders could be motivated by a different set of factors, perhaps leading them to take advantage of their ownership status to extract personal benefits from the firm. This type of situation would result in a negative relation between dominant ownership and firm value. Given the potential for either

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IFRS Convergence and Adoption: Challenges and Opportunities

IFRS Convergence and Adoption: Challenges and Opportunities

The rise and coming fall of international accounting research

► International accounting research (IAR) as a historically constituted discursive formation. ► The post-colonial moment (comprising decolonization, the Cold War, and the development doctrine) as its condition of possibility. ► IAR as a policy science in the service of Development. ► Conjectures the likely end of IAR. This paper examines international accounting research (IAR) as a historically constituted discursive formation and argues for the post-colonial moment as its condition of possibility. The post-colonial moment is specified as comprising three aspects: decolonization, the Cold War and the Development doctrine. The latter entailed a political program to fashion a commodity-intensive world, subtended by the economic subject. The post-colonial moment also triggers a reorganization of the social sciences into policy sciences to which IAR belongs. By examining key topics in IAR such as economic development, culture, corporate capitalism, and harmonization in the context of its conditions of production, the paper conjectures the likely end of IAR.

A critique of Gray's framework on accounting values using Germany as a case study

Abstract In the move towards globalisation and convergence, the influence of culture on accounting has been increasingly recognised as an important and controversial topic. However, quantified and narrowly focused approaches such as Gray's (1988) and various extensions of Gray's framework of accounting values have largely dominated and strongly influenced cross-cultural accounting research and education without a critical evaluation of their theoretical and methodological limitations. Indeed, a significant number of studies, curricula and textbooks in international accounting have uncritically adopted Gray's exploratory framework. As such, the objective of this paper is to show the limitations of Gray's proposed hypotheses and the issues associated with the framework's largely uncritical adoption in international accounting literature. We provide evidence that Gray's framework gained authority and prominence in international accounting research largely because of subsequent researchers’ unquestioning acceptance and application of this methodology. Importantly, we propose that international accounting research may be further enhanced by taking into account contextual factors such as political, legal, social and historical environments of countries. Using Germany as a case study, we apply this more holistic approach to provide additional insights into the factors differentiating German accounting from other accounting models. We recommend that accounting research will be enhanced by a critical examination of contextual environments of countries rather than a focus on measurement, quantification, simplification and categorisation.

A review and analysis of international accounting research in JIAAT: 2002–2010

During the period 2002–2010, authors whose research was published in the Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation extended the international accounting literature by 82 articles and six special studies. The purpose of this paper is to summarize these additions and analyze the types of topics and methodologies the authors used to enhance our understanding of the international accounting issues facing the accountancy profession. The analysis also will help international accounting researchers identify areas for future investigation.

Globalization, US foreign investments and accounting standards

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the relation between the proportion of direct investment to US total – direct and portfolio – investment abroad and their country‐specific determinants in developed and developing countries between 1997 and 2005, emphasizing the role of high‐quality accounting standards and corporate governance.Design/methodology/approachThe study covers 46 developed and emerging market countries that are classified into four groups: Advanced, Asian, Central and Eastern European and Latin American. In order to eliminate the adverse effects of possible outliers in some observations on regression results, fixed effect robust regression (RR) techniques were conducted, in addition to fixed effect ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation using panel data.FindingsIt was found that the proportion of direct investment to US total investment abroad is strongly and negatively related to both high‐quality accounting standards and effective corporate governance, even after controlling for a number of variables found in previous research to be important: inflation, stock market capitalization, per capita gross domestic product, openness of destination countries’ economies and tax rates.Research limitations/implicationsOne major problem in international accounting research is the difficulty in obtaining of data. This problem was encountered in this study, too. Therefore, some emerging market countries are necessarily excluded from the sample.Originality/valueThe main focus is the contributions of accounting standards and corporate governance to explaining tradeoffs between US direct and portfolio investment in developed and developing countries. In this sense, this is – to the authors’ knowledge – the first study in this area.

Look who's talking: a postcolonial critique of the discourse on international accounting

This paper discusses trends in international accounting research through a qualitative study of two refereed accounting journals, Advances in International Accounting and The International Journal of Accounting Education and Research, from 1987 to 1996. A multidimensional approach is used to provide the reader with a general descriptive background, pertinent characteristics such as the international breadth of the research, the authorship concentration, the institutional affiliation concentration and the extent of foreign authorship. This paper applies a critical perspective to the extant international accounting literature using a postcolonial lens to determine how the concept of 'international accounting' is constructed. The paper answers the following questions: Who is doing international accounting? Whose interest is being served by the particular way in which 'international accounting' is constructed? Who is absent from this conversation? What is the role of international accounting literature in mediating unequal social relations and constructing the 'other'?

Tylor's Legacy in International Accounting Research

When Hofstede published the book Culture's Consequences - International Differences in Work-Related Values in 1980, he established indices of culture; culture was to be a measurable variable in international business studies. Hofstede's theoretical basis is traced to a comparative approach established by George Murdock. The lack of use of Hofstede's dimensions in mainstream social sciences is described. This is sourced to the nineteenth-century scholarship of Edward Tylor, and the debate concerning Galton's problem. Murdock took the occasion of the 1971 Huxley Memorial Lecture Anthropology's Mythology to renounce his own adherence to this method, and to plead for a new association between anthropology and psychology. Such a shift was paralleled by Hofstede in 1991. It is suggested that there are other methods which may better advance international comparative accounting research.

Comparison of two methods for measuring compliance with IFRS mandatory disclosure requirements

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to highlight the differences, and implications of any differences, between two approaches to measuring compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) mandatory disclosure requirements: the commonly used “dichotomous” approach; and the alternative, but rarely used, partial compliance unweighted approach. The former gives equal weight to the individual items required to be disclosed by all standards. The latter assumes that each standard is of equal importance and consequently gives equal weight to each standard.Design/methodology/approachThe paper employs both methods on a sample of companies. We then compare the results deriving from the application of the two methods and statistically test their differences.FindingsIt is found that the two methods produce significantly different overall and relative (i.e. ranking order) compliance scores.Practical implicationsThis paper should alert researchers to the implications of using either method. Additionally, it highlights the need for academics and/or practitioners to be cautious when interpreting the findings of prior studies on compliance with IFRS mandatory disclosure requirements. Since the two methods produce significantly different compliance scores, findings regarding the variables associated with compliance may differ, depending on the disclosure index method followed. The paper suggests that simultaneous application of both methods would result in more robust findings in future research.Originality/valueThis is the first study to compare the results produced by applying both methods and statistically test their differences. The research methods explored are in particular relevant for policy‐oriented, international accounting research.

“Controlling” as an academic discipline: the development of management accounting and management control research in German-speaking countries between 1970 and 2003

This article aims to contribute to a better understanding of the structures and the development of management accounting and management control research in German-speaking countries between 1970 and 2003 as well as to the literature on “Comparative International Accounting History". It is mainly set in the “archive", using published articles and an empirical survey to describe and explain the development of controlling as an academic discipline in German-speaking countries. Eight explorative research questions on the development of the discipline are answered. The analysis covers three perspectives that complement each other: relevant chairs at German-speaking universities (input), German-language publications (output) and citations (outcome) on the subject. The results indicate that controlling has become an established discipline of business administration (Betriebswirtschaftslehre ) in German-speaking countries and can be considered a comparatively young field that has traditionally been highly practice-oriented, but also self-referential and for the most part not integrated into the international community. While publishing and citation patterns have changed over time in German-speaking countries they remain at variance with international management accounting research.