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The purpose of this study is to discuss the most relevant literature related to the adoption of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) in the public sector in developed and developing countries, identifying the constraints and stimuli they represent in the implementation of the public accounting reform. It also presents future research proposals on the factors identified.

The methodology is based on a systematic review of the literature described by Moher et al. (2009). The final sample includes 90 academic papers published from 2000 to 2022.

The main findings indicate that there are differences between constraints and stimuli in the implementation of accounting standards between developed and developing countries. In terms of constraints, the main factor in developed countries is the lack of training, whereas in developing countries it is the limitation on financial resources. In addition, the results demonstrate that in developed countries the factors that most encourage the implementation of accounting standards are modernization and improvement of accounting, while in developing countries, encouragement comes mainly from external and internal pressure.

This study helps countries and institutions to learn from experience and better prepare for the accounting reforms of public administration that they will undertake. Managers of public organizations may be willing to make decisions in the adoption of IPSAS if they take into account the factors established herein.

This study helps countries and institutions to learn from the experience, better prepare for the public administration accounting reforms that they will undertake and add greater transparency in the accountability of public accounts to citizens.

In addition to previous studies, this study addresses a number of factors perceived by those involved in the implementation of IPSAS in developed and developing countries and provides a robust research agenda to pursue during the coming years, as there are several important unexplored questions that invite further research.

This paper aims at understanding the action of pilot entities, in order to ultimately infer about their role to the overall reform process of public sector accounting (PSA).

Taking the Portuguese case as a reference, the new institutional theory (isomorphism perspective) and institutional logics are used to explain the action and stance of pilot entities in the implementation process of reforms.

Pilot experiments are expected to provide feedback on the main difficulties felt in the implementation of a new PSA system, helping to define a global strategy to overcome those problems and to improve the system to be generally and finally put into practice. Nevertheless, entities seem to find it important to be pilots, more for individual advantages than for the common benefit of the reform as a whole. Therefore, in order for them to actually be important actors in the reform process, pilots need to be included in the decision process, better realizing the benefits of the new IPSAS-based system and be provided with the proper technical, human and financial support.

This research suffers from some limitations, namely concerning the use of questionnaires. The findings may, in some points, reflect the perceptions of the respondents and not the actual reality. Additionally, the respondents were not asked about any personal background factors, which may influence their answers. Also, they did not allow relating the new PSA system features with the way pilot entities (re)acted. In regard to the implications for practice, the study points to a need for decision-makers and external support bodies to work more closely with pilot entities in the overall design and implementation of PSA reforms. Pilot entities need to understand the importance and usefulness of changes, and reform authorities need to better recognize their institutional reality and the support they require. Only in this way, the use of pilots can make a difference in the implementation of PSA innovations.

This paper contributes to theory by adding to a better understanding of the role of the ones acting in the development and implementation of PSA innovations, enlightening on how pilot entities can act/react. Despite several studies on PSA reforms, very few so far have addressed pilot entities in particular, their attitude and actual contribution toward PSA reforms, and why. The case of Portugal as a frontrunner in adopting an IPSAS-based system within the EU helps contribute to that understanding in the setting of European countries.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a global overview of the adoption status of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) in the different contexts of developed and developing countries on central government level, particularly delineating key reform issues and attempts to overcome these.

Drawing on an analytical framework that combines neo-institutional theory with diffusion theory, prior research and official documents were re-analysed.

There are substantial differences regarding whether countries acknowledge having experienced large implementation challenges and the extent to which the reform benefits have been achieved. The study sheds light on the (institutional) underpinnings of these differences.

First, the analysis could be extended to regional and local governments, as well as social funds. Both qualitative and quantitative strategies are suggested. Second, the implementation of the conceptual framework deserves further attention. Third, further research should more thoroughly scrutinise cost-benefit analyses used for justifying the (non)implementation of IPSASs, and in particular the assumptions that are being made in such analyses.

The paper informs policymakers and standard setters by delineating the areas and issues complicating the widespread adoption of IPSASs across countries, including pointing out directions to overcome these.

Substantial amounts of public money are invested internationally to converge accounting standards and translate them into native languages. A close(r) monitoring is needed to ensure that these efforts obtain sufficient value for money.

This study is original as it applies an analytical framework that combines neo-institutional theory and diffusion theory to examine public sector accounting convergence issues internationally. Such an approach explicitly puts a focus on decoupling between reform “talk” (decision) and “walk” (implementation) and helps to analyse the reasons for this decoupling.

In this study, we use neoinstitutional sociology to explore how institutional pressures exerted on Ghana influenced the government’s decision to adopt, implement and use integrated financial management information systems (IFMIS) for the management of public financial resources.

Based on a case study of Ghana’s Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD), the study uses a qualitative interpretive case approach as the methodological stance, and some key officials involved in the implementation of the IFMIS project were interviewed and documentary evidence was also analyzed to achieve triangulation of data and results.

The results show that the IFMIS reform was instigated by two main forces. One is the pressure from external stakeholders like the World Bank related to funding relationships. The other is the indigenous pressures coming from internal stakeholders who felt dissatisfied with the outcomes of previous reforms. The findings also suggest that many contingencies for successful reforms to IFMIS were present in Ghana, such as the commitment of internal stakeholders, the training programs for improving the needed skills of employees, and the will to get inspired by best practices abroad. Nevertheless, ultimate users mostly were hesitant to use IFMIS due to fears of losing their jobs because of institutionalized practices and a lack of IT skills. The study further revealed that, even if many conditions for a successful reform, especially regarding adoption and implementation, are in place, the reform may ultimately fail due to the impact of other factors that particularly regard the use of the newly developed accounting repertoire.

The findings of this study can be considered as a blueprint to emerging economies yet to adopt and implement similar IT-based Public Financial Management Information System (PFMIS). Moreover, given that some ultimate users exhibited resistance to the use of the new system, the results will prompt emerging economies that have not yet implemented IT-based PFMIS to recognize that cultural change management is an inevitable condition for successful implementation and use of IT-based PFMIS.

This study contributes to studies on public sector accounting reform in emerging economies by highlighting how the adoption of public sector accounting reform was instigated by both development partners and indigenous institutions responsible for ensuring effective and transparent management of public funds. Furthermore, unlike previous studies, the implementation team imported business case ideas from the private sector to augment the IFMIS implementation.

Despite the growing volume of European Union (EU) investments into reforms and public administration, how EU support contributes to administrative reform and capacity building at domestic level is still unclear. The article explains the EU's influence, domestic politicisation and previous administrative capacity on organisational change whilst implementing European Social Fund-financed projects during the programming period 2014–2020.

By going beyond the EU-centred approach and based on different strands of the new institutionalism, the authors offer three explanations on the influence of EU support. The authors performed the qualitative content analysis of 29 case studies and matched the implementation of the projects with the authors' explanations.

The authors' research results indicate that progress in the implementation of the projects was determined by domestic factors rather than EU conditionalities. The influence of domestic politicisation was found to be mixed, but higher levels of initial administrative capacity proved to be most important to achieving organisational change.

The authors' judgement of the project implementation and their success was based on the information provided in the case studies at the time of implementation.

The authors' research points to the essential need for the initial and gradual development of administrative capacity to achieve good reform results.

Based on the different logics of the new institutionalism, we developed specific mechanisms for organisational change. The authors' research results deepen the understanding of how politicisation positively or negatively shapes reform implementation, as well as how pre-existing administrative capacity and further development of pre-existing administrative capacity dynamically occurs through a process of socialisation and learning.

As a consequence of changes in the steering of the public sector in Norway during the 1990s, evaluation has, as in other European countries, become a standard element in the governing of the sector. However, evaluation procedures also seem to be an important instrument in the implementation of public sector reforms in this country. Provides an “inside” report on how evaluation may function in this respect. By analysing the role evaluation played in the implementation of an educational reform in Norway, discusses to what extent this way of organising implementation processes represent a change in public sector steering.

The aim of this paper is to examine how internal communication of reform objectives to health workforces and stakeholders has influenced the implementation of Ghana's health sector decentralisation at district level.

Data collection involved in‐depth interviews with district public health officials, private health providers, local government officials and health‐related non‐government organisations which had been working in the district for at least two years.

The study's findings showed that communication (the sharing of information) about reform objectives were centralised among the top hierarchy of the District Health Management Teams; and the process of transferring reform information to district health workforces and stakeholders was through a top‐downward approach. This vertical style of communication resulted in limited information getting through to district health workforces tasked with the implementation. This impacted negatively on reform implementation.

The paper reveals that there is a connection between the level of comprehension of the objectives for decentralisation reform both by the health workforce and stakeholders, particularly the expected new roles they are supposed to play. A lack of effective transfer of information affects commitment and ownership of the decentralisation reform at district level; contributing significantly to the poor implementation of the reform programme.

Most comparative education research has included investigation of dimensions of educational reform but not all research in the field has focused concertedly on reform in relation to the realities in practice. In the latter half of the 20th century comparativists underscored the need to investigate implementation issues, not just reform policies, as had often been the case in earlier comparative research, since time had shown that political processes did not always equate with educational outcomes. Reforms can be thwarted altogether, significantly modified or mediated in practice, embraced with qualification, or differentially implemented across regions or levels within a given country. Reform implementation might produce intended and unintended change (for better or for worse); or no change at all might be the outcome; or change might occur ahead of reform. Some of the most fascinating findings in comparative research are dichotomous considerations of change such as policy versus practice, ideal versus real, de facto change versus de jure change, intended and unintended outcomes of reform, grass-roots (bottom–up) versus centralized (top–down) reforms, and de facto change legitimized-after-the-fact through reform or new policy.

The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of how national board administrators, more precisely, officials at the Finnish National Board of Education (FNBE) have perceived the primary influencing factors, or “regulators”, of the national core curriculum reform and the success of the implementation. The alignment between the identified regulators was also explored.

Altogether, 23 FNBE officials participated in this mixed methods study.

The results showed that the officials perceived the core curriculum reform as a systemic entity: the reform was implemented using a top-down and bottom-up strategy, and several regulators were identified at different levels of the education system. The officials also viewed the implementation as successful, and identified more promoting than hindering factors in it. However, they emphasised regulators at the administrative level, whereas regulators at the district or national levels were less often identified. They also highlighted the importance of orchestrating collaboration in comparison with the other regulators.

The results imply that in addition to considering separate determinants of reform success, it is important to pay attention to sufficient alignment between the regulators at different levels of the education system in order to better understand and promote the implementation of a large-scale reform.

This study provides new knowledge on national board administrators’ perspectives on what regulates the implementation of a large-scale curriculum reform.

Inter-organisational cooperation in revenue collection has received limited attention in the tax administration literature. Recent experiences from Tanzania offer a unique opportunity to examine opportunities and challenges facing such cooperation between central and local government agencies in a developing country context. The administration of property taxes (PT) in Tanzania has been oscillating between decentralised and centralised collection regimes. This paper aims to examine how inter-organisational cooperation affected implementation of the reforms.

The study draws on data from a variety of sources of information collected during a series of fieldworks over the past decade. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior managers and operational staff of the national and municipal tax administrations. The interviews focused on the background and objectives of the property tax reforms, working relations between the central and local government revenue administrations, technical and administrative challenges and innovations, and changes over time with respect to revenue enhancement and implementation of the reforms. Relevant tax legislation and regulations, budget speeches and reports were reviewed.

Two lessons of broader relevance for policy implementation and PT administration are highlighted. First, institutional trust matters. Top-down reform processes, ambiguity related to the rationale behind the reforms and lack of consultations on their respective roles and expectations have acted as barriers to constructive working relationships between the local and central government revenue agencies. Second, administrative constraints, reflected in poor preparation, outdated property registers and valuation rolls and inadequate incentives for the involved agencies to cooperate hampered the implementation of the reforms.

This paper contributes to the literature on inter-organisational cooperation in revenue collection through a detailed case study of property tax reforms in a developing country context. It also contributes to the literature on policy implementation by identifying political and administrative factors challenging the reform process. In line with this literature, the study shows that policy implementation is not necessarily a coherent process. Instead, it is frequently fragmented and disrupted by changes in policy formulation and access to adequate resources.