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Cultural impact on the harmonisation of Russian Accounting Standards with the International Financial Reporting Standards

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore cultural impact on the harmonisation of Russian
Accounting Standards with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical review established that differences still exist
between the two sets of accounting standards. For decades, Russia was a socialist state of planned
economy. Accounting was a tool of centralised control, and accountants had a job of gathering
information for statistical purposes of the government and tax authorities. This led to the development
of a “Soviet culture” mindset. Accountants saw their jobs as following prescribed rules. Accounting
is seen by Hofstede as a field in which historically developed practices are more important than
laws of nature. It is therefore expected that accounting rules and the way they are applied will vary
among different national cultures. Hence, Gray tried to explore how Hofstede’s national cultural
dimensions may explain international differences in accounting. With respect to past research in this
area, Nobes argued that “national accounting traditions are likely to continue into consolidated
reporting where scope for this exists within IFRS rules”. Ding et al. investigated the role of a country’s
culture and legal origin as an explanation for the differences between local Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles (GAAP) and IAS as they were in 2001. The study gathered 53 Russian
accountants’ attitudes towards reporting under harmonised Russian Accounting Standards through
semi structured interviews.
Findings – The findings supported the theoretical view of a “Soviet culture” which has an impact on
harmonisation of Russian Accounting Standards with the IFRS. Russia’s high rankings in such
cultural dimensions as power distance, uncertainty avoidance and collectivism have contributed to the
development of certain preferences among Russian accountants. Those preferences were for statutory
control, uniformity, conservatism and secrecy. Further findings indicate that accountants in Russia
display reluctance to disclose financial information to the external users. One of the main reasons was
found to be fear of disclosing too much information to competitors. Based on these findings,
accountants in Russia display clear signs of preference for secrecy as opposed to transparency, as
identified by Gray.
Originality/value – One of the contributions of this study is to examine current perceptions of
Russian accountants towards financial reporting under new harmonised Russian Accounting
Standards based on Rozhnova’s study.

Keywords Culture and accounting, Accounting and politics, Accounting regulation, IFRS,Socio-cultural analysis of accounting systems, Accounting, Politics

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Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change

No. Panggil

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Penerbit

: Emerald Group., 2013

Deskripsi Fisik

Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change Vol. 9 No. 1, 2013 pp. 26-49

Bahasa

English

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Tipe Isi

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Tipe Media

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Tipe Pembawa

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Edisi

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Subjek

AKUNTANSI

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

Asmawati/Syahrial

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