IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/acceur/v12y2015i1p107-125.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are We Lost in Translation? The Impact of Using Translated IFRS on Decision-Making

Author

Listed:
  • Gero Holthoff
  • Florian Hoos
  • Barbara E. Weissenberger

Abstract

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are issued in English and subsequently translated into a multitude of languages to make them accessible to non-English-speaking IFRS users. In an international work context, IFRS users apply either the original English version or a translated version of an IFRS standard to input information presented in different languages. While research has reported numerous challenges inherent in IFRS translation, we know very little about the actual impact of using different languages on decision-making. Based on a series of 2 × 2 between-subjects experiments with German students who possessed different levels of accounting knowledge, we investigate the influence of language on decision-making. Our experimental manipulations entail the language of the accounting standard used (English vs. German) and the language of the input case information (English vs. German). Our German participants made decisions about a series of cases relating to IAS 24 Related Party Disclosures . Based on an expert benchmark solution for the cases, we determine the quality of participants' decisions. We find that the use of IAS 24 in the participants' mother tongue (German) has a positive impact on decision-making quality. We also find some support for a positive influence of the native language of the input case information relative to English input case information. Moreover, participants' accounting knowledge and English language skill are positively associated with decision-making quality.

Suggested Citation

  • Gero Holthoff & Florian Hoos & Barbara E. Weissenberger, 2015. "Are We Lost in Translation? The Impact of Using Translated IFRS on Decision-Making," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 107-125, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acceur:v:12:y:2015:i:1:p:107-125
    DOI: 10.1080/17449480.2015.1052824
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17449480.2015.1052824
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/17449480.2015.1052824?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. Hellmann, Andreas & Patel, Chris, 2021. "Translation of International Financial Reporting Standards and implications for judgments and decision-making," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(C).
    2. Marius Gros & Daniel Worret, 2016. "Lobbying and Audit Regulation in the EU," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 381-403, September.
    3. Peipei Pan & Chris Patel, 2018. "The Influence of Native Versus Foreign Language on Chinese Subjects’ Aggressive Financial Reporting Judgments," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 863-878, July.
    4. Kettunen, Jaana, 2017. "Interlingual translation of the International Financial Reporting Standards as institutional work," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 38-54.
    5. Peipei Pan & Chris Patel, 2024. "Do Internal Auditors Make Consistent Ethical Judgments in English and Chinese in Reporting Wrongdoing?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(2), pages 433-453, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:acceur:v:12:y:2015:i:1:p:107-125. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAIE20 .

    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.