IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/medarp/v24y2016i4p545-573.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in accounting research: a review

Author

Listed:
  • Hichem Khlif

Abstract

Purpose - This paper aims to review the use of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in accounting research over the period 1995-2015. Design/methodology/approach - The author combines electronic and manual searches to identify relevant studies using key words like “national culture” or “Hofstede’s cultural dimensions” and “accounting” or “auditing” or “taxation”. The search yields a total number of 35 published studies. For each reviewed stream of research, the author presents its theoretical underpinning and summarises its main results. Findings - The paper identifies four main accounting research topics being reporting policy, auditing, taxation and miscellaneous accounting. These studies use three main methodologies including empirical, experiment and meta-analysis. The review reveals that individualism is positively related to corporate reporting policy, while it is associated with low levels of tax evasion. High levels of masculinity are generally associated with low disclosure environments and aggressive accounting manipulations. Finally, long-term orientation has been examined with respect to social environmental disclosure, and findings are supportive of a positive association between both variables. Originality/value - This literature review represents a historical record, an introduction and a guidance for researchers who aim to examine whether Hofstede’s cultural dimensions may be useful in explaining other accounting phenomena. It also presents the main criticisms addressed to Hofstede’s framework. Finally, it conducts a critical analysis for reviewed studies and highlights their reductionist approach in explaining accounting phenomena and methodological weaknesses.

Suggested Citation

  • Hichem Khlif, 2016. "Hofstede’s cultural dimensions in accounting research: a review," Meditari Accountancy Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(4), pages 545-573, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:medarp:v:24:y:2016:i:4:p:545-573
    DOI: 10.1108/MEDAR-02-2016-0041
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MEDAR-02-2016-0041/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/MEDAR-02-2016-0041/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/MEDAR-02-2016-0041?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Knowles, Robin L & Pacheco Paredes, Angel Arturo, 2023. "International culture and audit deficiencies: Evidence from inspection reports of non-US companies listed in the US," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    2. Antonio Somoza, 2023. "Voluntary sustainability assurance in small and medium‐sized entities: The role of country origin in Europe," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 462-483, January.
    3. Allam, Amir & Moussa, Tantawy & Abdelhady, Mona & Yamen, Ahmed, 2023. "National culture and tax evasion: The role of the institutional environment quality," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:medarp:v:24:y:2016:i:4:p:545-573. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.