Evaluating international accounting harmonization in an emerging country

Citation

(2011), "Evaluating international accounting harmonization in an emerging country", International Journal of Accounting & Information Management, Vol. 19 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijaim.2011.36619baa.017

Evaluating international accounting harmonization in an emerging country

Article Type: Abstracts From: International Journal of Accounting and Information Management, Volume 19, Issue 2

This research is an exploratory study of the financial and accounting context of an emerging country, Tunisia, in order to analyze qualitatively both de jure and de facto international accounting harmonization, in this country basically used to a continental accounting tradition. Our target is to find out how straightforward it is for such a country to switch to the Anglo-Saxon accounting culture and get into the international accounting harmonization. A review of some related work in the literature was examined. Then, a qualitative study based on semi-directive interviews with Tunisian CPAs was pursued in order to evaluate the accounting harmonization de jure and de facto in Tunisia, 13 years after the switch in 1997 from a general accounting plan to the new accounting system. The results show that, in the present, in spite of de jure harmonization efforts, particularly shown by the Tunisian accounting system, widely inspired by the international one, professionals maintain that those efforts are insufficient. In fact, on one hand, the new system includes lacunas in comparison with international standards, and on the other hand even when Tunisian accounting standards are perfectly harmonized with the international ones, accounting practices do not follow. This is due to numerous pressures, notably cultural and juridical, that prevent the success in Tunisia of de facto harmonization.

Keywords: De facto harmonization, De jure harmonization, Tunisia, Culture, IFRS

Raoudha TrabelsiERFI – ISEM – Montpellier I University, Montpellier, France