The Transnationalization of Financial Reporting Standards

Abstract

2The School of Management Working Paper Series is published to circulate the results of on-going research to a wider audience and to facilitate intellectual exchange and debate. The papers have been through a refereeing process and will subsequently be published in a revised form. Requested for permission to reproduce any article or part of Working paper should be sent to the publisher of this series. Specifically it considers how the status of International Financial Reporting Standardsconstructed and issued by a private organization: the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) -changed from being highly marginal to almost global adoption. A range of explanations (rather than just one) for the transformation are examined and contrary (or rather disruptive) evidence, not just supportive, is considered. Having examined a variety of explanations, the paper then considers whether or not the now extensive transnationalisation of financial reporting can be regarded as evidence that the period of national or regional varieties of capitalism (or business systems) is ending. The