Beyond the audit expectations gap

In seeking to encourage a broader, European dimension to research on auditing and audit expectations, this paper examines the recent history of auditing and its regulation in Spain within the context of international developments in the accounting profession. The more expansive role being assigned to the audit function in Spain following the implementation of the Fourth and Eighth European Company Law Directives is generally viewed by Spanish writers as a progressive step, with largely positive effects. Such views stand in some contrast to the history of auditing in Britain, where the prevalence of an 'audit expectations gap' suggests a rather more problematic state of affairs. In exploring both the Spanish context and the nature of the audit expectations gap in Britain, however, the paper reveals a common underlying belief in the potential of auditing. Through this comparative analysis, and by drawing on recent audit research challenging certain long-held assumptions about auditing, a number of questions are asked of the current form and status of auditing and auditing expectations in Britain and Spain. In so doing, the paper raises issues that go beyond the current confines of the audit expectations gap debate, stressing, in particular, the need for greater consideration to be given, through less Anglo-centric analyses, to the varying nature and capabilities of European audit practice.

A definição de activos nas estruturas conceptuais da informação financeira

As estruturas conceptuais da informação financeira têm procurado definir, nomeadamente, os objectivos subjacentes à preparação e apresentação da informação financeira, as características qualitativas dessa informação, os elementos das demonstrações financeiras e os critérios para o seu reconhecimento e mensuração. Neste trabalho, procura-se mostrar quais são as questões mais importantes a serem resolvidas na definição dos elementos das demonstrações financeiras e a forma como as principais estruturas conceptuais lidaram com elas, designadamente no que diz respeito à definição de activos. Identifica-se uma evolução na definição de activos, argumentando-se que a definição apresentada pelo Accounting Standards Board do Reino Unido é a mais adequada das apresentadas até ao momento.<br>Conceptual framework documents deal with the objectives of financial reporting, the qualitative characteristics of financial information, the definitions of the elements of financial statements and the criteria for their recognition and measurement. This paper addresses the most important issues to be dealt with when defining the elements of financial statements and the way in which the main conceptual frameworks resolves such issues, namely in terms of the definition of assets. An evolution in the definition of assets is identified, and the definition presented by the UK Accounting Standards Board is considered to be the most appropriate among those presented thus far

Accounting and Business Economics in Spain

Economia de la Empresa (Business Economics) emerged in Spain as a distinct academic discipline in the second half of the twentieth century. In its early years, Business Economics shared common influences with Accounting, particularly ideas and theories acquired from the translation of Italian and German works on Economia Aziendale and Betriebswirtschaftslehre. However, partly because of the institutional structure of Spanish universities, the two disciplines moved apart. During the Franco regime, Spanish accounting research was quite isolated, and with the return of democracy and the move towards greater European involvement much research was devoted to issues of financial accounting harmonization and standardization. This normative research was of little interest to Business Economics researchers, who were developing analytical approaches grounded in economic theory. More recently, academics working in the two disciplines have drawn on a wider range of theoretical approaches, from empirical studies to behavioural and organizational theory and institutional economics based on agency theory and transaction cost analysis. At present, the disciplines 'walk separately down the same road', but the new generation of researchers has the opportunity to bring Accounting and Business Economics closer together from an intellectual and scientific point of view.