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At the end of this chapter, learners should be able to:

• Define accounting.

• Explain the objectives of financial accounting/reporting.

• Explain regulatory framework for financial reporting.

• Appreciate why human resource managers should care about accounting.

Define accounting.

Explain the objectives of financial accounting/reporting.

Explain regulatory framework for financial reporting.

Appreciate why human resource managers should care about accounting.

The purpose of this study is to explore the area of accounting in traditional market. There are two areas of accounting: management and financial accounting. Some of traditional market traders have prepared financial notes, whereas some of them do not. Their financial notes usually consist of receivables, payables, customer orders, inventories, sales and cost price, and salary expenses. The purpose of these financial notes is usually for decision making. It is very rare for the traditional market traders to prepare financial notes for external users, such as vendors, creditors, and customers. This is because their transactions with vendors, creditors, and customers are very simple. This study used interpretive paradigm. Data was collected using in-depth interview and direct interaction with four informants from three traditional markets. Data is analyzed by organizing them, breaking them into manageable units, coding them, synthesizing them, and searching for patterns. Based on the analysis, this study found that the accounting area of traditional market activities is management accounting rather than financial accounting.

Purpose: This chapter discusses how pandemics affect the nature of financial reporting especially for financial and non-financial institutions that were deeply affected by the 2020 coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

Method: This chapter presents a reflective discussion of the accounting practices and financial reporting options for firms during a pandemic, ­focusing on the interface between financial reporting and pandemics.

Findings: Accounting practices or techniques such as fair value accounting, big-bath accounting, loss avoidance, and income smoothing t­echniques can help to dampen the effect of a pandemic on firm performance.

Practical Implications and Significance: Some implications about the merits and risks of accounting during pandemics are highlighted and discussed.

Originality: Although the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis is, to some extent, still unfolding, there is limited empirical evidence on the implication for accounting.

This study aims to present a model for detecting and predicting creative accounting in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE).

The authors conduct this research in three stages. First, the authors review the literature to determine the dimensions, components, indicators and techniques of creative accounting. Second, the authors conduct semi-structured interviews with experts using the fuzzy Delphi technique to obtain screening and reach a consensus. Finally, the authors develop a model to predict creative accounting by classifying the financial statements of the sample companies into two groups based on the use or non-use of creative accounting techniques, measuring the indicators determined in the previous stage, running various machine learning algorithms and choosing the superior algorithm.

The results indicate the usefulness of accounting information for detecting and predicting creative accounting and the relevance of several financial attributes as important predictors. The results also indicate the superiority of extremely randomized trees over other algorithms in predicting creative accounting and suggest that the primary purpose of creative accounting in Iran is earnings management. Contrary to the political cost hypothesis, large Iranian companies use creative accounting to inflate profits.

The present research also has several limitations that must be considered, and caution must be exercised in interpreting and generalizing the findings as specified in the revised manuscript.

This study’s implications are significant for policymakers, standard-setters and practitioners. By recognizing the detrimental effects of creative accounting on financial transparency within companies, policymakers can address existing gaps in accounting standards to minimize the potential for earnings manipulation. Consequently, strengthening internal and external mechanisms related to a firm’s financial performance becomes achievable. The study provides evidence of the need for audit firms to recognize the importance of creative accounting and consider creative accounting in their audit plans to prevent insufficient or even misleading disclosure by companies that extensively use creative accounting practices in their financial reporting. Moreover, knowledge of creative accounting techniques can help auditors assess audit and detection risks and serve as a valuable guide for reducing audit costs and improving audit quality.

Given that creative accounting practices distort the true or real accounting results, curbing creative accounting practices reduces corporate failures and could lead to the reduction of job losses and other social consequences.

This study uses a unique database in Iran to determine a model for predicting creative accounting using a mixed-method methodology, qualitative and quantitative, to identify creative accounting techniques and run various machine learning algorithms.

By focusing on the perspective of politicians, this paper aims to question the change brought about by local government financial statements for accountability. It applies the Burns and Scapens’ (2000) framework of accounting change to explore politicians’ routines when using the accrual accounting information and which type of change was induced by financial statements on financial accountability to politicians and citizens.

Considering that accounting reforms take time to unfold their effects, this paper studies two countries that have 11 years of difference in the reform implementation and thus a different accounting maturity. A qualitative research approach was used based on 55 semistructured interviews in five Finnish and six German municipalities with 25 councilors from Finland and 30 from Germany.

Councilors with a longer period of time to adjust to the accounting reforms seem to have developed more routines in using financial statements to assess the financial situation and performance. The change induced in accountability to politicians is partly formal and more evolutionary than revolutionary. The complexity of financial statements can lead to regressive change, especially in financially distressed local governments. As for accountability to citizens, a real change is not observed, reflecting a regressive type of change.

The study contributes to the empirical studies on financial accountability in the public sector context by analyzing the use of financial statements in two-way accountability relations from the perspective of politicians. Thereby, the paper adopts a transnational comparative approach and draws on old institutional economics.

This paper aims to compare the Islamic financial accounting standards (IFAS) prevailing in Pakistan declared by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) with accounting standards of Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI).

Both standards related to Islamic financial accounting have been thoroughly reviewed, compared and discussed to find out the differences and similarities, along with the depth needed to meet the needs of Islamic finance. 

AAOIFI accounting standards provide a comprehensive view of complex transactions, whereas SECP standards have limitations. The proposed recommendations aim to bridge the gap by conducting periodic reviews and revisions of IFAS prevailing in Pakistan to keep up with the dynamic nature of the Islamic finance industry.

The regulators should establish institutional arrangements for adapting AAOIFI accounting standards, enabling efficient and effective upgrading of existing accounting standards for Islamic financial institutions and alignment with international best practices.

There is a dearth of studies related to Islamic financial accounting in the context of Pakistan; this is one that contributes to this area.

This paper explores the relationship between foreign direct investments and financial reporting changes via financial development in 12 Latin American countries during the period from 1997 to 2010.

In order to control the possible endogeneity problem, the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation technique has been conducted using country-level panel data obtained from the World Development Indicators website.

The empirical analyses provide evidence that international accounting standards have a significant effect on foreign direct investments. However, financial development associated with such standards reduces this positive effect. This is an important finding, suggesting that investors are likely to prefer portfolio to direct investments in Latin American financial markets that require or permit the use of international accounting standards.

The conclusions that have been drawn from this study are important for investors, creditors, and regulators. Although international accounting standards appear to affect foreign investments, there could be a lack of adaptation of these standards to specific economic environments due to cultural, educational, and economic factors. Therefore, firms, regulators, professional organizations, and accounting firms should make necessary arrangements so that the benefits of using these standards increase their costs.

The study contributes to the international accounting literature by examining the effects of international accounting standards and financial development on foreign direct investments in Latin America.

The study critically evaluates the theory of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation in an attempt to provide directions for future research. Using the extensive structured review of literature using the Scopus database tool, the study reviewed 79 articles, and in particular the topic-related 57 articles were analysed. Nine journals contribute to 51% of articles (29 of 57 articles). In particular, the three journals published 15 articles: Critical Perspectives on Accounting (7), Accounting, Organizations and Society (4), and Journal of Applied Accounting Research (4). In total, 83% (47 of 57) of the articles were published 2009–2018. A total of 1,168 citations were found from 45 articles since 12 articles were without citations. The highest cited authors were Ball (2006) – 410 citations, Kothari, Ramanna, and Skinner (2010) – 135 citations, and Napier (1989) – 85 citations. In particular, five theories have been used widely: institutional theory (13), accounting theory (6), agency theory (3), positive accounting theory (3), and process theory (2). Future studies’ focus could be on theory implications in IFRS adoption/implementation studies in a country or a group of countries’ experience. Future studies could also focus on various theories rather depending on a single theory (i.e. institutional theory).