A discussion on new cultural and accounting variables and IFRSs’ implementation[:] Empirical study on a sample of Central and Eastern European countries

In the context of a growing literature addressing the connection between cultural variables and accounting regulations, the general objective of this paper is to provide a theoretical discussion and empirical evidence on the recent trends in financial reporting on a sample of CEE countries. Thus, the specific objectives of the paper are: 1) to provide an operational definition of culture; 2) to advance a set of cultural variables that we consider relevant for the interactions between culture and the implementation of accounting regulations; (3) to “translate” these variables into a set of specific accounting variables built from a “functional” perspective; 4) to test four hypotheses based on the empirical pool data. The dependent variable is a dummy aiming to capture the specificity of IFRSs’ endorsement for unlisted entities in CEE countries and the explanatory variables are our own accounting variables based on a set of cultural ones derived from World Values Survey’s questions. The main output of the paper consists in the thesis that the culture in general and the specific accounting values in particular are relevant for the national characteristics of IFRSs’ implementation in the sample countries.