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The purpose of this study is to provide a harmonisation framework for the diverse accounting practices by extractive industries.

The study takes a three-stage approach. The first involves a comprehensive literature review of the historical evolution of accounting regulations by extractive industries. The second involves constructing an accounting practice index for extractive industries. The third involves constructing a harmonisation framework.

The accounting practice index provides empirical evidence of the wide diversity of accounting practices by extractive industries. Analysis of the literature review addresses the several attempts by accounting and regulatory bodies to standardise the diverse practices of accounting by extractive industries and reasons for the lack of successful standardisations. The authors extract lessons from these previous attempts and propose a harmonisation framework.

The proposed harmonisation framework can be used to align together the diverse accounting practices by extractive industries and enhance comparability and consistency of accounting figures and statements produced by these industries. Harmonising the diverse accounting practices is crucial for investment decision-making.

The harmonisation framework is the first of its kind that could enhance the comparability of accounts of extractive industries’ firms and be used to harmonise diverse accounting practices by other industries.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of harmonization of auditors’ reports issued by independent auditors of Islamic banks.

The homogenization of the auditors’ reports of Islamic banks has been statistically measured. Supranational auditing standards on auditors’ reports (ISA 700 and AAOIFI standard) are used as the control.

The results show lack of harmonization in several elements related to the form of the auditor’s report and in all elements related to the content of the auditor’s report among the Islamic banks.

This paper provides new empirical evidence about the measurement of harmonization in the form and content of the auditors’ reports of Islamic banks. It discusses the level of compliance with the elements enumerated by the standards issued by the International Federation of Accountants and the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions.

This paper aims to explore why harmonisation, given its potential, is so difficult to achieve. It analyses the issues and challenges in achieving harmonisation of training and development across an industry.

The approach was a meta-analysis of six research projects undertaken in the Australian rail industry. These projects varied in duration from 12-24 months. Between 2009 and 2013, rail employees in varying roles and levels of seniority, including middle managers, front-line supervisors, rail incident investigators, track workers and drivers, were interviewed (n = 176) and surveyed (n = 341).

The meta-analysis identified a range of characteristics associated with harmonisation. It uncovered three categories of harmonisation, seven types of risk modelled in a layered risk pyramid and analysed key structural, environmental and organisational barriers to harmonisation. The paper concludes that harmonisation struggles to gain strategic significance and is hampered by operational pragmatism.

There are few published papers examining harmonisation across companies or based on meta-analyses, especially qualitatively. Despite limitations of insufficient detail to allow close analysis, potentially variable quality data across projects from which to develop a meta-analysis and the danger of comparing apples with oranges, more attempts using this approach would be helpful in gaining nuanced insights into an industry.

Achieving industry harmonisation requires significant change in the mindset of executives. To enhance the chances of harmonisation, there is need for a strong national entity with overview of the entire industry, high-quality training and development resources and activities and cost-benefit analyses and active campaigns. A major outcome of this research is the risk pyramid, which can be used by managers as a strategic evaluation tool. By using such tools based on sound research, leaders can be equipped to make informed decisions and reduce downstream risks.

This research has value in extending the literature in two main ways: through examining the notion of harmonisation across an industry as distinct from within organisations that has been the focus of most studies and through using qualitative meta-analysis in a field dominated by quantitative approaches. It analyses the grey areas between rhetoric about its potential and difficulties in its achievement.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the changes of accounting policy choices and the harmonisation of accounting practices for two important financial reporting items within and between three IFRS adopting countries. Furthermore, it aims to address methodological shortcomings in the prior harmonisation literature through the introduction of two newly developed significance assessment methodologies.

The influence of the mandatory IFRS adoption in Australia (AUS), Hong Kong (HK) and the UK on deferred taxation (DT) and goodwill (GW) accounting practices as well as the within and between country harmonisation of accounting practices is investigated through an event type study. These investigations are conducted using a McNemar test with Bowker extension as well as the Split C‐Index with a newly developed bootstrapping significance testing methodology.

This study demonstrates that the mandatory IFRS adoption in the analysed countries is linked to a significant harmonisation of DT and GW accounting practices between AUS, HK and the UK. Furthermore, the increase of adequate accounting policy information in the financial reporting documents of UK firms over the period of this study is identified as an important harmonisation accelerator.

This study adds to the prior literature due to its focus on the mandatory IFRS adoption within the analysed countries. Furthermore, the introduction of two newly developed methodologies to evaluate the significance of accounting policy choice changes and harmonisation over time addresses an important methodological shortcoming in the prior literature.

This paper aims to examine whether the level of harmonization of accounting measurement practices in three South Asian countries – Bangladesh, India and Pakistan – has improved since 1998 as a result of the changes, in recent years, globally in accounting measurement practices due to the substantial efforts of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). South Asian countries have taken a number of steps and made changes in accounting regulations to support the IASB’s harmonization programme.

In all, 370 non-financial companies for the financial years 1997-1998 and 2007-2008 were used, and consistent with Ali et al. (2006), Van der Tas’s (1988) I index and Archer et al.’s (1995) modified C index were used to measure the extent of harmonization.

It was found that the level of measurement harmonization has significantly improved over the years in selected South Asian countries.

The results suggest that the harmonization of accounting will most likely ensure a greater level of transparency and uniformity in corporate reporting practices (measurement) in South Asian countries and throughout the world as promoted by the IASB.

This article concerns itself with one personnel management policy and explores its indirect link with the introduction of new technology. The implications of new manufacturing processes for harmonisation policies are discussed under two broad headings. The article will consider firstly how the introduction of new technology disturbs the social ecology of the organisation so that harmonisation is seen as a cure for this disturbance. Secondly new technology can be seen as indirectly enabling personnel managers to pursue harmonisation and single status policies.

This study aims to analyze IFIs’ stakeholders’ perception on Shariah harmonization for financial reporting standards inIndonesia as a part of the development effort of linking the emerging global Islamic banking to Indonesian financial and industrial markets.

A sample of 160 respondents, who were stakeholders of Islamic banks, was taken from Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia and its surrounding major districts to examine the stakeholders’ perception on Shariah harmonization effort toward the implementation of a uniformed financial reporting standard for Islamic financial institutions. Data for this study were collected using a structured questionnaire.

Through this study, the authors found several measures to be taken to ensure Shariah harmonization efforts in Indonesia such as deep understanding on the fatawā brought into practices and strict monitoring on the Islamic banks in applying the financial reporting standards that imply practicing the fatawā, both de jure and de facto. However, the respondents differ in their opinion on the possibility of Shariah harmonization, both de jure and de facto. The role of various actors involved in the financial reporting standardization may impede Shariah harmonization to take place.

The study is only looking at one case study, which is Indonesia. Therefore, future studies should consider more countries and significant number of respondents. Different research instruments to measure the perception can also be an interesting research exploration. In addition, adopting deep Islamic political economy of accounting theory may support better analysis on the issue of financial reporting standardization for Islamic financial institutions.

This paper has practical significance for financial reporting standard setters for Islamic banks and policy-makers to understand the key behavioral and demographical dimensions of their stakeholders and using these dimensions to effectively position important aspects in financial reporting standards setting.

The stated goal of the IASC is to facilitate the harmonisation of financial reporting practices by encouraging nations to adopt its accounting standards. Whilst some views of harmonisation are based upon the assumption that identical accounting standards are needed to achieve harmony, it is not certain, however, that the mere harmonisation of accounting standards will necessarily lead to high levels of harmony between financial reporting practices. Further, the continuity of harmony, once achieved, is not guaranteed. Environmental determinism theories suggest that where environmental factors are similar, there will be a strong level of correlation between financial reporting practices. Singapore and Malaysia are two countries where considerable levels of harmonisation are expected to exist and, therefore, they provide useful ground to examine questions about the achievability of harmonisation. The absence of harmony between the financial reporting practices of two such nations would raise concerns as to the achievablity of harmonisation across broader regional and international environments. This paper addresses the extent of harmonisation achieved between the financial reporting practices of Singapore and Malaysia whilst issuing standards under the IASC framework.

Post-merger integration (PMI) has received much attention in recent years due to an increasing number of merger and acquisitions (M&As). Process harmonization plays an important role during the PMI. The purpose of this paper is to find out if there is any methodology available for process harmonization in the PMI phase. From a PMI/M&A perspective, business process management (BPM)/quality management perspective and change management perspective, the existing literature is analyzed.

A structured literature review covering a wide field of publications in the interface of BPM, quality management and PMI-related publications is used to identify process harmonization methodologies after M&A and disclosing interrogations for future research.

There is hardly any connection found between PMI and business process harmonization in literature. While information technology/systems integration in PMI is researched in various publications, a special methodology or integration approach tailored for business processes and management systems is not available despite numerous literatures on PMI, BPM, quality management and change management. Nonetheless, these articles contain relevant recommendations as a part of the big picture. So here lies the optimal starting point for future research.

Although this literature review has regarded publications of numerous databases, limitations might follow the selective citation due to thousands of articles in the field of M&A, PMI, BPM and quality management. Further, process harmonization and standardization have been regarded in largely as synonyms.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no systematic literature review in this interface has been previously published.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of harmonization of consolidated auditors’ reports issued by the independent auditors of Islamic banks.

A statistical measurement of the homogenization of the consolidated auditors’ reports of Islamic banks. International and Islamic auditing standards on consolidated auditors’ reports are used as the control (ISA 700 and AAOIFI standard-IAS2).

The results show a lack of harmonization among the Islamic bank’s groups in several elements related to the form of the consolidated auditor’s report and in all elements related to the independent auditor’s report.

This paper provides new empirical evidence about the measurement of harmonization in the form and content of the consolidated auditors’ reports of Islamic banks groups. It discusses the level of compliance with the consolidated elements enumerated by the standards issued by the International Federation of Accountants and the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions.