اثرات فرهنگ قومی و فرهنگ سازمانی بر قضاوت حسابداران

This study extends prior cross-cultural research by examining the effects of ethnic culture and organizational culture (Big 4 and non-Big 4 accounting firm affiliations) on the judgments of accountants in Fiji. The study also examines how interaction between ethnic culture and organizational culture influences the judgments of accountants. It examines the extent and the cause of differences between the judgments of Ethnic Fijian and Indo-Fijian accountants when interpreting and applying selected International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). Consistent with their ethnic cultural values, the results show that Indo-Fijian accountants are generally more conservative in their judgments than their Ethnic Fijian counterparts. This study provides empirical evidence to support the view that both ethnic culture and organizational culture have a significant effect on the manner in which accountants within a country interpret uncertainty expressions contained in the IFRSs. The results also show that organizational culture has a greater effect on the judgments of accountants than ethnic culture. The results of this study provide important insights into the factors affecting the judgments of accountants within a country and raise interesting theoretical issues.

The primary goal of international accounting convergence is to enhance the comparability of financial statements across countries. The adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) is seen as a means to achieve this objective (Doupnik & Riccio, 2006: 238). Collaboration by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the US's Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on further development of IFRSs and the US accounting standards has effectively abated the last major obstacle to the convergence of financial reporting. There is no doubt that adopting IFRSs is a necessary step towards comparable financial reporting. However, this adoption needs to be accompanied by the active involvement of all the stakeholders to enforce these standards. If countries do not drastically alter their enforcement mechanisms and other political, legal and economic institutions that affect reporting incentives (Ball, Robin, & Wu, 2003: 260), comparable financial reporting may not result. Furthermore, adoption of the IFRSs in a similar manner across nations does not ensure consistent understanding and application of these standards (Bagranoff, Houghton, & Hronsky, 1994: 35). This study questions the implicit assumption that accounting convergence will automatically lead to comparability in financial reporting (Doupnik and Riccio, 2006, Doupnik and Richter, 2004, Rahman et al., 2002, Schultz and Lopez, 2001 and Tsakumis, 2007). With several countries striving for accounting convergence, this study examines whether culture impacts on the interpretation and application of IFRSs. Many prior studies have considered the influence of national culture on the development of accounting and financial reporting practices, and on the judgments of accountants in applying principles-based standards (e.g. Bagranoff et al., 1994, Doupnik and Richter, 2003, Doupnik and Salter, 1995, Gray, 1988, Holmes and Marsden, 1996, Hronsky and Houghton, 2001, Nobes, 1998, Schultz and Lopez, 2001, Soeters and Schreuder, 1988 and Zarzeski, 1996). Most of the studies assessing the impact of culture on shaping appropriate accounting practices and judgments have implicitly assumed that national and cultural identities are synonymous (see Baskerville, 2003). It is essential to consider the different cultures within nations, as cultures do not equate with nations.1 Given that most contemporary societies are multicultural in nature, ethnic culture has to be addressed as an important dimension in international accounting research, especially for researchers working with culture as a variable. The current study empirically investigates the influence of culture on the judgments of accountants from two different ethnic groups in Fiji (Ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians) while interpreting and applying certain Fijian equivalents of IFRSs. The existence of two dominant and distinct cultures (Fijians and Indo-Fijians) in Fiji provides a valuable research opportunity for this study. Hofstede's (1994) Values Survey Module (VSM) questionnaire was administered to subjects to verify the cultural differences between the two groups of accountants. This study uses questionnaire surveys to empirically test the extent and the cause of differences between the judgments of Ethnic Fijian and Indo-Fijian accountants when interpreting and applying certain IFRSs which contain uncertainty expressions. First, this study investigates the influence of ethnic culture on professional accountants' application of accounting rules within Fiji, in the context of Gray's (1988) accounting value of conservatism.2 It is expected that the interpretation of uncertainty expressions contained in the IFRSs might be affected by the degree of conservatism shared by Ethnic Fijian and Indo-Fijian accountants. Second, the study examines the influence of organizational culture on the judgments of accountants in Fiji. It is expected that the accountants in the Big 4 firms may interpret and apply accounting standards that require the exercise of professional judgments differently from those in the non-Big 4 firms. Third, this study also examines the interaction between ethnic culture and organizational culture in influencing the judgments of accountants. It is expected that the similarities in the organizational culture, particularly of the Big 4 firms, will moderate the effects of the ethnic culture of its accountants. Fourth, the influence of other variables including professional accountants' gender, age, level of formal education, years of work experience, level of familiarity with the Fijian equivalents of the IFRSs and the perceived level of complexity associated with the practical scenarios used in this study are also examined. Cross-cultural accounting researchers (such as Baskerville, 2003, Chow et al., 2002 and Harrison and McKinnon, 1999) have stressed the need to go beyond the aggregate cross-national level of analysis and explore cultural differences at organizational levels and within-national level. In response to this call, the findings of this study provide insights on the impact of both ethnic culture and organizational culture on the judgments of accountants within a country. Countries adopting the IFRSs should consider whether the IFRSs that have been adopted are applied in a consistent manner within their respective jurisdictions. The empirical results of this study will also provide evidence to assist in understanding the cultural and non-cultural factors that cause differences in the judgments of accountants when interpreting and applying a set of accounting standards within a country. An understanding of these factors should facilitate the move towards the convergence of accounting practices, thereby improving the quality and comparability of international accounting information, systems and procedures. The ultimate aim of convergence is to ensure that the financial reports of companies in different countries are comparable, but if IFRSs are not applied in a consistent manner, then comparable financial reports will not result even if countries have adopted the IFRSs.

The primary objective of this study was to identify the extent and the cause of differences between the judgments of Ethnic Fijian and Indo-Fijian accountants when interpreting and applying selected IFRSs that contain uncertainty expressions. Three hypotheses were formulated predicting the influence of ethnic culture and organizational culture on the interpretation and application of uncertainty expressions contained in the accounting standards. Judgments of accountants were considered in practical situations (how a particular issue should be accounted for in an entity's financial report). It was expected that the level of conservatism shared by accountants within an ethnic group in a country would affect their interpretation of uncertainty expressions used to establish the threshold for recognition of various accounting elements. To extend the literature on judgments of professional accountants, this study also examined the interaction between the effects of ethnic culture and organizational culture in influencing the judgments of accountants. Additionally, adopting a holistic approach, the effects of a number of non-cultural variables were also examined. The results obtained on the cultural dimensions of Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism, Masculinity and Long-term Orientation provides tentative evidence that Indo-Fijian accountants may exhibit greater conservatism in their judgments than Ethnic Fijian accountants. Consistent with their cultural indices, the results show that Indo-Fijian accountants are generally more conservative in their judgments while recognizing the elements of financial statements than their Ethnic Fijian counterparts. Furthermore, the results of this study also indicate that there is a significant difference between the judgments of the Big 4 and non-Big 4 accountants in Fiji when interpreting and applying selected IFRSs that contain uncertainty expressions in practical situations. The results indicate that the non-Big 4 accountants are more conservative in their judgments in recognizing the elements of financial statements than their Big 4 counterparts. The results do not support the argument that an interaction exists between ethnic culture and organizational culture that influences the judgments of accountants within a country. However, they do show that organizational culture has a greater effect on the judgments of accountants than ethnic culture. The additional analyses carried out to identify the influence of other non-cultural factors on the judgments of Ethnic Fijian and Indo-Fijian accountants showed interesting results. The results indicate that the perceived level of task complexity in each of the three scenarios used in this study had a significant effect on the judgments of accountants. Accountants were generally more conservative in their judgments when the scenarios were perceived to be more complex. The results of this study provide important insights into the factors affecting the judgments of professional accountants within a country and raise interesting theoretical issues. They provide evidence for the fact that both cultural and non-cultural factors affect how accountants interpret and apply accounting standards which contain uncertainty expressions. By including a wider spectrum of variables than has been considered individually by prior researchers, this study provides a better explanation of the factors causing differences in the judgments of accountants while interpreting and applying a set of accounting standards within a country. An important implication of this study is that international regulators involved in the international convergence of accounting standards need to pay greater attention to the cultural and non-cultural factors that may cause differences in the interpretation and application of IFRSs. Some limitations of this study need to be recognized. First, this study relies on prior research to support the supposition that organizational cultures of big multinational accounting firms are homogeneous. This was also the assumption relied on by others, including Chow et al. (2002), for example, and is defensible, as numerous studies have shown empirical evidence of this. Nonetheless, research on this issue, especially in the context of emerging economies, would be useful for future research. Second, this study has applied the Hofstede–Gray model at the individual level rather than the country level. However, prior studies including Schultz and Lopez (2001), Doupnik and Richter (2004), and Tsakumis (2007) have also examined Hofstede's (1980) and Gray's (1988) model at the individual level rather than the country level. Third, while the scenarios used in this study are developed by depicting real world examples and are representative of the types of decisions professional accountants encounter in practice, they cannot represent all possible cases. Future studies may investigate the judgments required in the interpretation and application of uncertainty expressions contained in other IFRSs. Further research on the impact of the differences related to national and ethnic culture and organizational culture in professional accountants' cognitive processes with respect to their judgment could also be an important contribution towards the uniform application of IFRSs across different countries.