How arbitrary are international accounting classifications? Lessons from centuries of classifying in many disciplines, and experiments with IFRS data

Nobes, Christopher; Stadler, Christian

doi:10.1016/j.aos.2013.10.001

Cited by 51 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…This finding is corroborated by a historical review of accounting in China, a country where most companies are owned by the State, where accounting is tax oriented and have still has immature capital markets (as of this date). The outcome differs from that of the analysis conducted by Nobes & Stadler in 2013, which looked into the accounting reports of Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and found the Chinese system to be closer to the UK area. As also mentioned by those authors, until 1997, British influence was still deeply felt in Hong Kong.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 47%

“…Such differences occur because despite the international standards, the preparers are still local and therefore influenced by local accounting practices. Such differences can be empirically found in the choices made by preparers regarding IFRS policy options (Kvaal & Nobes, 2010;Nobes, 2011;Nobes & Stadler, 2013;Stadler & Nobes, 2014). These differences, which are based on classes drawn up since the 1960s, lead us, once again, to find two separate groups: the Anglo and the Continental European.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such classification has never been addressed by the literature except for Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (Nobes & Stadler 2013). …”

Section: Relevant Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite being in class B, as mentioned by Nobes (1998Nobes ( , 2011, China is making efforts, at least with its listed companies, to move to class A. These efforts were empirically substantiated by Nobes and Stadler (2013) when they reviewed the policy options of Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Multidimensional scaling found a remarkable similarity between companies from Hong Kong, the UK and China.…”

Section: Relevant Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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International Differences in IFRS Policy Choice and the Persistence of Accounting Classification: The Case of China

Rossetti¹,

Verona²

2017

IJBM

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This paper focuses on the application of IFRS standards in China. The research is mainly conducted on the basis of Kvaal and Nobes's studies (2010) regarding the different ways that various countries apply IFRS and Nobes's IFRS accounting classification system (2011). For companies that issued B shares, the use of IFRS in China lasted only until the 2006 ASBE (Accounting Standards for Business Enterprises) reform. The present study examines IFRS overt options in an attempt to 1) review the choices made by Chinese companies to discover -in light of the applicable PRC GAAP (Chinese Local Standards) requirement of that time -whether they were more or less likely to choose an option than the other countries analysed by Nobes & Kvaal; 2) rank China's place within Nobes's accounting classification system; and 3) rank China' place, again in the Nobes's model but also in light of a recent study based on BRICS (Note 1)countries (Sarquis, et al. 2014). The results of the statistical analysis confirm that Chinese financial statements display a "local" nature in their use of IFRS and that in its accounting tendencies, China belongs to the Continental European group rather than with the other BRICS countries.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 47%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such classification has never been addressed by the literature except for Chinese companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (Nobes & Stadler 2013). …”

Section: Relevant Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Relevant Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

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International Differences in IFRS Policy Choice and the Persistence of Accounting Classification: The Case of China

Rossetti¹,

Verona²

2017

IJBM

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“…Following the implementation of IFRS, the issue of harmonization has moved in two different directions: 1) to assess the differences between IFRS and local GAAP, conducting empirical research to demonstrate the benefits arising from the use of IFRS in terms of improved quality and transparency of information in the financial statements (Prather-Kinsey & Shelton 2005;Soderstrom & Sun 2007;Barth, Landsman, & Lang, 2008;Beattie, Fearnely, & Hines, 2008;Daske, Hail, Leuz, & Verdi, 2008;Rahaman, Yammeesri, & Perera, 2010;Phillips, Drake, & Luehlfing, 2010;Armstrong, Guay, & Weber, 2010;De Franco et al, 2011), 2) to investigate the possible continued existence of differences in accounting policies or choices despite respecting the same accounting rules (Nobes, 2006;Kvaal & Nobes, 2010;Nobes, 2011;Jones & Finley, 2011;Kvaal & Nobes, 2012;Nobes & Stadler, 2013;Cairns, Massoudi, Taplin, & Tarca, 2011). …”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparability of Company Accounts Using IFRS and US GAAP: Empirical Evidence of European and US Financial Statements

Taplin¹,

Verona²

2016

IJBM

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Purpose-The main objective of this study is to provide a judgment on the comparability of financial statements prepared under IFRS and US-GAAP. We developed two research questions for evaluating comparability within Europe (IFRS) and within the US (US GAAP) and for testing whether comparability is higher or lower when the US companies are included with the European countries.Design/Methodology/Approach-The T index framework was used to summarize the level of comparability for 13 accounting items using data from 250 companies.Findings-Empirical results are mixed. Of 13 accounting items considered, international comparability is significantly lower for 7 items and significantly higher for 4 items when the US companies are included. Furthermore, comparability amongst companies using IFRS is not consistently higher or lower than comparability amongst companies using US GAAP.Practical implications-Answers to the research questions may provide useful suggestions for IASB's current policy direction towards global accounting standards convergence, and in particular for the IASB-FASB convergence project. The results also have implications for companies or countries considering shifting to IFRS or US GAAP.Research limitations/implications-Lack of comparability within countries, rather than between countries, suggests a need to focus on reducing options within standards rather than on differences between standards or countries.Originality value-Our empirical results show that in most cases lack of comparability may be driven by options within a standard rather than by explicit differences between standards.

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Using Google Trends to track the global interest in International Financial Reporting Standards: Evidence from big data

Zhang

2023

Intell Sys Acc Fin Mgmt

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This study proposes a novel method for identifying international accounting differences under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Using Google Trends data extracted between January 2014 and August 2022, it creates an index, the Global IFRS/IAS Search Index (GISI), which comprises the search activities of 121 jurisdictions for 45 IFRS accounting standards. To assess its relative validity, I classify Nobes ' (1983) 14 jurisdictions in addition to 20 OECD countries. The cluster analysis demonstrates that the GISI is a viable alternative for analyzing international differences under IFRS. The results indicate that incorporating big data could be beneficial for examining global accounting issues.

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How arbitrary are international accounting classifications? Lessons from centuries of classifying in many disciplines, and experiments with IFRS data

Cited by 51 publications

References 54 publications

International Differences in IFRS Policy Choice and the Persistence of Accounting Classification: The Case of China

International Differences in IFRS Policy Choice and the Persistence of Accounting Classification: The Case of China

Comparability of Company Accounts Using IFRS and US GAAP: Empirical Evidence of European and US Financial Statements

Using Google Trends to track the global interest in International Financial Reporting Standards: Evidence from big data

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