Stakeholder and jurisdictional influence in IFRS standard setting: the case of IFRS 10
Date
2019
Authors
De Freitas, Monica Teixeira
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The purpose of this paper explores the due process of accounting standard-setting by determining whether a stakeholder group and/or jurisdiction is more influential than other stakeholders/jurisdictions based on their acceptance/rejection rates relative to other stakeholders/jurisdictions. The legitimacy theory explains the findings and asks what consequences any bias may have for the IASB. This study expands the standard-setting literature by making use of the Bamber and McMeeking (2016) weighted method to IFRS 10. This study uses content analysis to analyse public comment letters and adopts Bamber & McMeeking’s (2016) methodology to control for the equal treatment of comments in answering the research questions. This paper answers the call to investigate allegations that the IASB standard-setting due process is influenced by specific stakeholders and jurisdictions, in this way, threatening their legitimacy. The limitation of this study is that the researcher considers IFRS 10 in isolation. As in prior work, the researcher concludes that although no single stakeholder/jurisdiction has a much greater influence over the IASB, there is some evidence of bias. Accounting firms appear to have significantly less influence than other stakeholders have. The IASB reacts less favourably to UK proposals than to those of the US. A lack of fairness (real or perceived) may jeopardise perceptions of the procedural legitimacy of the due process and, ultimately, impair the IASB's cognitive legitimacy.
Description
A research project submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of commerce.
October 2019
Keywords
UCTD, Weighted method, Content analysis, Due process, legitimacy, Standard-setting, Influential
Citation
De Freitas, Monica Teixeira (2019) Stakeholders and jurisdictional influence in IFRS standard setting: the case of IFRS 10, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, <http://hdl.handle.net/10539/29671>