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The Influence of Country, Industry, and Topic Factors on IFRS Policy Choice

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  • Christian Stadler
  • Christopher W. Nobes

Abstract

type="main"> This paper proposes a framework for understanding management's decision-making on observable accounting policy choices. The framework is used to hypothesize how country, industry, and topic factors influence policy choice under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The hypotheses are tested on the choices made by the largest firms from 10 jurisdictions on a comprehensive set of IFRS policy topics, which are hand-collected from the financial statements. The results are consistent with the framework: country factors are particularly influential when the choice does not affect an important accounting number; and industry and topic factors influence the choice on some topics. Overall, we find that country factors have the greatest influence on IFRS policy choice.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Stadler & Christopher W. Nobes, 2014. "The Influence of Country, Industry, and Topic Factors on IFRS Policy Choice," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 50(4), pages 386-421, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:abacus:v:50:y:2014:i:4:p:386-421
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    3. Silvia Rossetti & Roberto Verona, 2017. "International Differences in IFRS Policy Choice and the Persistence of Accounting Classification: The Case of China," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(2), pages 1-27, January.
    4. Nobes, Christopher & Stadler, Christian, 2018. "Investigating international differences in financial reporting: Data problems and some proposed solutions," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(6), pages 602-614.
    5. Yuqian Zhang, 2023. "Using Google Trends to track the global interest in International Financial Reporting Standards: Evidence from big data," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 87-100, April.
    6. Brad Potter & Matthew Pinnuck & George Tanewski & Sue Wright, 2019. "Keeping it private: financial reporting by large proprietary companies in Australia," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(1), pages 87-113, March.
    7. d'Arcy, Anne & Tarca, Ann, 2018. "Reviewing IFRS Goodwill Accounting Research: Implementation Effects and Cross-Country Differences," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 203-226.
    8. Greg Clinch & Ann Tarca & Marvin Wee, 2023. "Cross‐country diversity and non‐IFRS financial performance measures," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(2), pages 2473-2502, June.
    9. Klimczak Katarzyna, 2017. "Cross-country Differences in Reporting Practices – the Case of Provisions for Liabilities," Journal of Management and Business Administration. Central Europe, Sciendo, vol. 25(3), pages 20-33, September.
    10. Isabel Costa Lourenço & Raquel Sarquis & Manuel Castelo Branco & Nuno Magro, 2018. "International Differences in Accounting Practices Under IFRS and the Influence of the US," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(4), pages 468-481, December.
    11. Rajat Deb & Mukesh Nepal & Sourav Chakraborty, 2023. "IFRS and Audit Quality: A Systematic Literature Review," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 48(1), pages 118-138, February.

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