International accounting and the accounting curriculum: A survey of the perceptions of corporate chief accountants from Bahrain

Abstract

This study examines the perceptions of 41 corporate chief accountants from Bahrain on the issues relating to the relative importance of international accounting topics in Bahrain. The study indicates a significant interest of the respondents in internationalizing the accounting curriculum. The topics which received importance rating of over 80% were: foreign investment and decision making, international accounting standards, financial reporting and disclosure, foreign currency transactions and translation, management information system (MIS) for multinational enterprises (MNEs), and consolidations. Results were also compared to a recent study from United States (US) and significant differences were found to exist in respect of several topics. The reasons for the major differences in the perceptions are explained in this paper, some of which may be attributed to cultural as well as environmental differences. The study also found that there is a strong support for adoption of the International Accounting Standards (IASs) because international markets are becoming increasingly important and there exists major differences in accounting principles among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries themselves. Furthermore, the study also suggests that in view of the similarity in social, economic, and business practices in GCC countries, the highly ranked accounting topics reported in this study should perhaps be incorporated by the accounting departments of universities operating in the GCC region. This will facilitate the process of harmonization of the accounting curriculum in this region.