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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate transition road map problems encountered by the Nigerian authorities in moving from local Statements of Accounting Standards (SAS) to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

Design/methodology/approach – A postal questionnaire survey of 50 accounting professionals which includes Nigeria's Financial Reporting Council and other industrial specialists was undertaken. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the most common problems. Independent t-tests were employed to determine whether there were any significant differences in the perception of the problems according to job type, experience, sector and gender.

Findings – The questionnaire findings suggest that many problems have been encountered in the as yet unfinished transition from SAS to IFRs. These include lack of training on IFRS at tertiary institutions and the fact that Nigerian regulators do not have sufficient capacity to drive the transition process. The results also show that there are some significant differences in the perception of the transition road map implementation problems according to job type, experience, sector and gender.

Research limitations/implications – The study's results are based on responses from 50 out of a possible 500 accounting professionals surveyed and therefore cannot be generalised. The problems documented in the results should therefore be regarded as indicative rather than exhaustive.

Practical implications – This paper has practical implications for the Nigeria's Financial Reporting Council as it may want to review why the road map was not achieved and assess whether any lessons could be learnt for the future. The results are also important especially for those listed companies that failed to meet the January 2012 deadline for IFRS reporting.

Originality/value – This paper identifies Nigeria transition problems that are peculiar to Nigeria in its bid to be IFRS compliant some of which have not been documented by existing literature. Second, it is the first study to document accounting standards transitional problems in the African context.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the provision of voluntary International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) disclosures in the pre‐adoption period has affected the IFRS transition process of UK listed firms. The study also seeks to identify the motivation of firms with financing needs to provide voluntary IFRS disclosures and determines whether the provision of voluntary IFRS disclosures in the pre‐adoption period leads to more value relevant numbers.

The study utilises logistic and linear regressions to test the hypothetical relations set up in the study. The categorisation of firms into voluntary and non‐voluntary IFRS disclosers is based on the (non‐mandatory) provision of material IFRS information prior to adoption about the upcoming adoption of IFRSs in 2005. Company categorization is particularly based on the construction of an index similar to the disclosure index formulated by the Center for International Financial Analysis and Research.

With regard to IFRS transition, firms that provided voluntary IFRS disclosures prior to adoption display a greater positive change in equity and earnings. Non‐voluntary IFRS disclosers exhibit a greater positive change in leverage and a decrease in liquidity. Voluntary IFRS disclosers exhibit higher equity and debt financing needs and tend to be audited by a big auditor and be cross‐listed.

The study implies that the need to obtain financing on better terms would motivate managers to provide voluntary (IFRS) disclosures to show that they are familiar with the upcoming regulatory change and ready to implement it when it becomes effective. The provision of voluntary IFRS disclosures leads to more value relevant accounting measures, suggesting that less information asymmetry would lead to the disclosure of informative and higher quality accounting information assisting investors in making informed judgements.

Knowing about different firms' transition experience would assist accounting standard setters in issuing explanatory IFRS guidance in order to lead to an efficient transition to IFRSs for countries that intend to adopt IFRSs or perform an accounting change. The examination of IFRS transition for firms that have experienced the change is important and would provide insight to firms considering this option. The findings further assist accounting academics and students, accountants and investors in their effort to study the motivation for providing voluntary disclosures as well as the magnitude and materiality of IFRS transition on companies' financial accounts.

This study examines how International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are applied, disaggregates the cumulative effect of the IFRS transition into magnitude measurements of the standard-to-standard differences (by standard) and management discretionary choices (by choice) and tests which transitory effects at every level of disaggregation alter investor behavior.

Using hand-collected data from the IFRS 1 disclosures, the research design consists of eight regression models which test fluctuations in investment behavior as a function of varying measures of IFRS adjustments at aggregated and disaggregated levels including magnitude measurements of pronouncements and management choices.

Findings from the study identify specific standards and management discretionary choices associated with market reaction. Evidence from this study demonstrates the value of disaggregated measures to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of market reaction and associations with transitory effects of IFRS. Findings from the study suggest that the market favors management discretionary choices that decrease retained earnings and potentially increase future net income. Overall, model results suggest that a more comprehensive understanding of the specific standards is obtained that alters market behavior and how the market responds to positive and negative equity adjustments.

This study contributes to the literature examining the capital market effects of IFRS by decomposing the generally accepted accounting principle (GAAP) transition into magnitude measurements of specific standard-to-standard differences (by standard) and management discretionary choices (by choice) to understand how the market responds to the transitory effects of a GAAP change. This is important because it puts regulators, standard setters, investors and researchers on notice that the way in which the authors analyze and measure equity components could be consequential to the authors ability to assess a GAAP change. This study informs all jurisdictions which have adopted or are deliberating the adoption of IFRS how IFRS is being implemented and which areas of application are relevant to investors. Further, market reactions to accounting information pertaining to a GAAP change may only be revealed at the disaggregated and decomposed levels of the retrospective application of the GAAP implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to encourage accounting regulators to address diversity in practice in the reporting of environmental liabilities. When Canada changed to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2011, Canadian regulators asked the IFRS Interpretations Committee to interpret whether the discount rate to value environmental liabilities should be a risk-free discount rate. Old Canadian GAAP, and current US GAAP, allow for a higher discount rate, resulting in commensurately lower liabilities. International regulators refused to address this issue expecting no diversity in practice in Canada.

The focus is on a sample of Canadian oil and gas and mining firms. These domestic industries play a major role internationally and have significant environmental liabilities. The method is empirical archival, tracking firm characteristics and discount rate choice on transition to IFRS.

There is significant diversity in practice. About one-third of the sample firms choose a higher discount rate, avoiding a major increase in environmental liabilities on transition to IFRS. The evidence suggests that these firms have relatively larger environmental liabilities and that the discount rate decision is a strategic choice.

The sample is based on one country and may only be reflecting local anomalies that have no broader implications.

Diversity in practice in accounting for environmental liabilities is not acceptable. Accounting regulators should act to create consistent and comparable reporting practice.

Firms and managers facing larger environmental liabilities can choose to minimize environmental liabilities under IFRS, while it is the general public and society at large that bear the ultimate risk.

The paper pushes forward the debate on whether recognized environmental liabilities should reflect the interests of equity investors, or if other investors and stakeholders should be taken into account.

The paper aims to explore the impact of the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on Greek listed companies' financial statements with a focus on net profit, shareholders' equity, gearing and liquidity. It also seeks to examine any differences in the impact across the sub‐samples of companies with Big 4 and non‐Big 4 auditors.

In line with recent literature, the paper employs Gray's comparability index. The sample consists of 238 Greek companies, representing 75 per cent of the companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange at the end of March 2006.

Implementation of IFRS had a significant impact on financial position and reported performance as well as on gearing and liquidity ratios. On average, impact on shareholders' equity and net income was positive while impact on gearing and liquidity was negative. Only companies with non‐Big 4 auditors faced significant impact on net profit and liquidity. They also faced a significantly greater impact on gearing than companies with Big 4 auditors. A large number of companies with material negative changes is identified, suggesting that transition to IFRS and the fair value option does not necessarily result in higher shareholders' equity figures. Many companies provided inadequate transitional disclosures. This is significantly related to auditor size.

The findings suggest that reporting quality has improved under the new accounting regime, especially for companies with non‐Big 4 auditors.

Prior literature indicates that the impact revealed in companies' reconciliation statements can have significant effects on users' decision making. On that basis, the study can stimulate future research and is relevant to standard setters and regulators.

This paper aims to evaluate the relation between acquisition premiums and amounts recognised as identifiable intangible assets (IIAs) in business combination, in periods before and after transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

This is an empirical archival research using data from business acquisitions.

In the pre-IFRS period, there is evidence of firms recognising IIAs in business combinations having higher acquisition premiums. This association of acquisition premiums and IIAs ceased with transition to IFRS, notwithstanding the relative latitude provided in accounting standards for the recognition of IIAs.

This paper complements the study by Su and Wells (2015) which founds little association between IIAs and performance subsequent to business acquisitions prior to transition to IFRS. The results here suggest that it is attributable to overpayment. Problematically, the incentives for opportunism remain and an issue requiring address is whether alternative sources of accounting flexibility in relation to business combinations exist, such as goodwill which is no longer subject to mandatory amortisation.

The results are consistent with accounting opportunism and suggest “overpayment” and accounting flexibility having an economic consequence. This would be expected to result in asset impairments in subsequent periods; however, there is little evidence of this occurring.

These results have relevance for regulators concerned with the operation of regulation relating to business acquisitions (AASB 3) and intangible assets (AASB 138).

This paper complements a number of papers concerned with the recognition of IIAs in business combinations and confirms what many researchers in the area typically assume (triangulation).

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on financial statements of the largest Canadian firms (S&P/TSX 60) listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX).

This study investigates the financial statement effects of 46 companies from the S&P/TSX 60 index which report under IFRS in 2011 and switched to IFRS from CGAAP. This study used panel data analysis, which can be considered as more powerful when conducting cross-sectional and in time analysis among companies. Because of weakness of Cramer statistic on R-square, the authors used interaction terms as suggested by Hope (2007).

Consistent with the authors’ perceptions, this study finds that significant effects of adopting IFRS are associated with industry practices. The empirical results show that the adoption of IFRS in Canada created more relevant financial reporting for book value of equity and net income in the post-adoption periods.

This study should be of interest to the US regulators considering IFRS adoption by US publicly traded companies as well as to regulators, standard setters and listed companies in all countries worldwide that are in transition to IFRS.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the value relevance of accounting information between International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)-firms and non-IFRS-firms over five years before mandatory IFRS adoption from 2000 to 2004 and six years after IFRS adoption from 2006 to 2011.

The sample includes 1166 firm-year observations that cover firms from three Europeans countries. Different econometric tests, multivariate and panel regressions have been used to verify the hypotheses.

In the pre-IFRS period, voluntary IFRS adoption did not improve the value relevance of accounting information. The results indicate that the information contents of non-IFRS-firms in the post-adoption period have higher quality than in the pre-adoption period. The findings show a higher association between accounting information, stock prices and stock returns over both periods, however, the difference in results is not statistically significant.

This study was not generalized to other stock exchanges that have a significant weight in the European Union, such as the FTSE 100 companies or the SP/MIB.

This study has some implications for standards setters, firms and practitioners. The transition to IFRS reduces the diversity of accounting systems and institutional conditions (capital market structure, Taxation systems). In addition, mandatory IFRS adoption engendered changes in firms’ business and organizational models that led accountants to improve their educational and training programs.

This paper contributes to the value relevance as well as IFRS literature by using a sample from code-law origin countries that switched from a debt-oriented system to shareholder-oriented system. It offers a comparative approach between IFRS-firms and Non-IFRS-firms in the pre- and post-adoption periods. In contrast, prior studies focused on the comparison during only one period. This empirical evidence should be of interest to investors and policymakers in other markets.

This study aims to investigate the effects of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) adoption and firm size on auditors’ fees determination in the Ghanaian financial industry.

The authors use the annual report of 52 listed and non-listed firms spanning from 2003 to 2014. Guided by the hypotheses, the authors conditioned audit fees on IFRS adoption and firm size and execute robust fixed effects panel regression.

The results show that IFRS adoption has a positive coefficient with audit fees suggesting that the adoption of IFRS, indeed, increases the audit fees paid by banks and insurance firms, as well as the industry as a whole. The results are consistent with the idea that IFRS adoption increases auditor efforts with respect to time and complex nature of some aspect of the standards. Again, as expected, the coefficient of size is positively and significantly related to audit fees. This indicates that the size of the auditee plays a vital role in determining audit fees.

The study is limited by industry (i.e. the financial services industry) and geography (i.e. Ghana). The authors propose further research that will widely consider other sectors and countries to improve the current scanty literature in this area. Besides, theoretically, the study is limited to the lending credibility theory and feels compelled to reiterate the importance of considering alternative theoretical perspective(s) in future research.

This study is significant to practitioners as it demonstrates the importance of the determinants of the auditors’ fees. It helps auditors to apply the relevant charging formula when determining audit fees, while it helps managers to improve upon the quality of reporting to control audit bill and forecasting their audit expenditure.

The results of the study extend the literature on the cost side of IFRS adoption by investigating the financial services industry and non-listed firms in a new context, i.e. a developing country where this research is uncharted. The existing studies based their analysis on either cross-section or pooled analysis and shorter post-adoption period (Cameran and Perotti, 2014). However, using an extended post-adoption period data, the authors base the study on analytical panel model, which directly examine the cost side of IFRS adoption with size as joint key explanatory variables with emphasis on financial institutions and external auditors.

The Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA) requires that International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as endorsed in Saudi Arabia, be used by all listed and unlisted companies. This study aims to provide insight into IFRS implementation problems, based on a survey sent to Saudi Arabian companies listed on Tadawul, the Saudi stock market (i.e. financial hub in the Middle East).

The survey focused on the impact that IFRS conversion has had on companies, their accounting and their finance strategies. The benefits and challenges of the adoption of IFRS are analyzed, including matters pertaining to the level of understanding and experience with IFRS, perceptions about the quality of IFRS and the impact of adoption of IFRS on consolidated equity and net income.

The survey had a response rate of 72 per cent. The results indicate a majority of respondents support conversion to IFRS as it results in higher quality financial reporting; the most important expected benefits of adopting IFRS include greater reporting transparency and improved comparability with other businesses; other expected benefits include harmonization of internal and external reporting, and increased cross-border investment opportunities; the IFRS process is costly and ties up resources because of its complexity and training needed and companies expect increased volatility in reported financial results that will impact share option plans and/or other incentive plans tied to profits. However, the authors find strong support among preparers of the financial statements for IFRS, as evidenced by higher agreement among respondents to the survey on the benefits of adopting IFRS, rather than on the costs of its adoption. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the likelihood of Saudi Arabian firms that are in favor of adopting IFRS decreases if the audit firm is one of the Big 4. The reason for this negative relationship could be that the cost of transition toward IFRS will be high. Therefore, Saudi Arabian firms will not favor a transition toward IFRS when their audit firm belongs to the Big 4. Most difficult to implement IFRS, as listed by respondents, include those on financial instruments, revenue, leases and employee benefits.

The authors show how economic and environmental factors play a critical role in the IFRS implementation process. This study should be important to all countries worldwide that are in the process of adopting IFRS.