IFRS for SMEs: the IASB’S due process

This study explores the role of the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) due process in developing its International Financial Reporting Standards for Small and Medium-sized Entities (IFRS or SMEs)standard. There were tensions between the IASB’s desire to minimise divergence from full IFRS and preserve recognition and measurement principles, and the primary reasons for undertaking the project – to meet the needs of users of financial statements of SMEs and to reduce the financial reporting burden on SMEs. Examination of events during the development of the project reveals much that was not apparent from material in the public domain. Most significantly, the IASB recognised that the final title of the standard, IFRS for SMEs, does not necessarily describe the scope of the standard. This paper also shows that the due process followed in the case of the IFRS for SMEs project barely reflected the ‘will of people’ but was more inclined towards acting as a communicative function for the IASB without any commitment to change its stance on the SME standard

Accounting education, socialisation and the ethics of business

This study provides empirical evidence in relation to a growing body of literature concerned with the 'socialization' effects of accounting and business education. A prevalent criticism within this literature is that accounting and business education in the UK and US, by assuming a 'value-neutral' appearance, ignores the implicit ethical and moral assumptions by which it is underpinned. In particular, it has been noted that accounting and business education tends to prioritise the interests of shareholders above all other stakeholder groups. The paper reports on the results of a set of focus group interviews with both undergraduate accounting students and students commencing their training with a professional accounting body. The research explores their perceptions about the purpose of accounting and the objectives of business. Findings suggest that both university and professional students' views on these issues tend to be informed by an Anglo-American shareholder discourse, whereby the needs of shareholders are prioritised. Moreover, this shareholder orientation appeared more pronounced for professional accounting students

World Politics and Organizational Fields: The Case of Transnational Sustainability Governance

Transnational rule-making organizations have proliferated in the area of sustainability politics. In this article, we explore why these organizations share a set of core features that appear overly costly at first sight. We argue that norms that evolved out of the social interaction among transnational rule-making organizations account for this phenomenon. Thus, in the early 1990s, an organizational field of transnational rule-making has gradually developed in the field of environmental politics. Responding to a broader social discourse about global governance that stressed a need for innovative forms of cooperation among different societal sectors, this organizational field gained in legitimacy and strength. A set of commonly accepted core norms, the increasing density of interaction among the field's members, and the success and legitimacy ascribed to the field's key players by the outside world helped to solidify the organizational field until it eventually developed a 'life of its own'. © The Author(s) 2009