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This paper investigates the financial disclosure practices of corporate annual reports published in Asian countries including Bangladesh, Indonesian, Malaysia and the Middle East countries including Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The purpose of the study is to measure the financial disclosure diversity in these countries, with a view to developing a classification of their similarities and differences in respect to their compliance with International Accounting Standards (IAS). Annual reports of 126 public companies liisted on the countries' stock exchanges are the central data source, supplemented with other relevant information about financial disclosure practices in each country. A disclosure checklist adopted from all IASs and summarised in 306 individual items of financial disclosures is used as a means of extending an understanding of financial reporting in these countries. Results show the relative degree of conformity with IASs for each of the countries included in this study.

This paper seeks to understand the role of financial accounting regulations in a less developed country in transition, Egypt. It explores the social, political as well as economic contexts that underlie the processes of setting the Egyptian Financial Accounting Regulations (EFAR) in a harmony with International Accounting Standards (IASs).

The paper is based on in‐depth interviews and an analysis of documents. It relies on Habermas' notions of society's lifeworld, institutional steering mechanisms and systems in order to link the changes in EFAR to the changes in the wider social, political and economic contexts wherein organizations operate. The paper also explores the role of EFAR, as “regulative” or “constitutive” steering mechanisms, throughout two longitudinal episodes; starting with the beginning of socialism and extending to liberalism.

The paper finds that the EFAR have had a constitutive tendency during the Egyptian transformation towards a market‐based economy. Although there are remarkable changes in political philosophy in Egypt, the regulators' motivations and the processes of the accountancy profession that mobilized the formulation of EFAR in harmony with IASs, those regulations were acted upon to constitute organizational members' values, norms and knowledge in order to overcome the persistence of the socialist accounting practices. The regulations were also aimed at enhancing professional conduct and, at same time, increasing organizational members' adherence to the processes of privatization as a part of a wider movement towards transparency, democracy, full disclosure and liberalisation.

The paper emphasises the interface between a macro social transformation and micro organizational responses in order to understand the role of EFAR. However, it does not stress how the actual implementation of those regulations is implicated at a micro organizational change level. Furthermore, the paper covers a timeframe – 1952 to 2000 – that extends from the start of socialism extending to liberalism. Although the IASs are now known as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the paper covers a period in which such IFRS were not applicable in Egypt.

The paper contributes to the understanding of the social, political as well as economic role(s) of financial accounting regulations in a transitional country during that country's transformation towards the market economy.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the need of Islamic Accounting Standards – a review of the literature – for Islamic financial institutions (IFIs).

The basis of the paper was stakeholder theory to analyse the need of accounting standards and to design the conceptual framework as evidenced from Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI). The evidence reviewed suggests the need for Islamic accounting standards to fill the gap in accounting practice among Islamic financial institutions.

The AAOIFI accounting standards serve as a guideline that may reflect the unique characteristics of IFIs and become a useful tool to meet the various needs of IFIs. Currently, one of the major challenges facing IFIs lies in the preparation of the financial statements under different accounting standards and which may lead to problems of comparability, reliability and compliance level measurement. This has resulted in a heated debate among scholars which has hitherto translated to the evolving existing literature surrounding the interpretation of the level of compliance with the Islamic accounting standards. The paper concludes with various recommendations for future research, the most important of which is the need for future studies on how AAOIFI accounting standards can be made mandatory in all Muslim countries.

This paper contributes towards a better understanding and acceptability of the need of Islamic Accounting Standards.

By 2005 the group financial statements of companies listed on a stock exchange in an EU member state must be prepared in accordance with International Accounting Standards (IASs). The adoption of IASs should, inter alia: facilitate the movement of capital; remove barriers to cross‐border trading; permit comparison of company results; and assist the evaluation of managerial and corporate performance. The introduction of IASs will impact, in varying degrees, on companies in all member states. However, the affect of IASs on corporate reporting will be more limited in the UK. The UK's existing corporate reporting framework already has significant similarities with many of the IASs' objectives. But for most other EU countries, the adoption of IASs will cause a significant upheaval in accounting policies and in the preparation of annual financial statements. To be implemented successfully, a significant gulf needs to be bridged between the new reporting policies in the IASs and the high degree of state regulation and legalistically‐driven reporting systems already established in these countries. Overall, the introduction of IASs should bring longer‐term benefits but a number of reporting challenges and even confusion will result in the short‐term.

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.

Arguments prevail in Bahrain over whether to establish a body for setting local accounting standards or to continue to encourage the application of international accounting standards (IASs). This debate is driven by the opinions and attitudes of various concerned groups, including auditors, corporate accountants, and public accountants. This study examines the perceptions of accountants regarding whether or not local accounting standards should be set in Bahrain and, if so, which would be the most appropriate agency to achieve this aim. In addition, the study examines whether organizations in Bahrain should continue to comply with IASs. It provides empirical findings on these issues based on a questionnaire of 52 accountants. The study concludes that organizations in Bahrain should continue to comply with IASs, but that the application of these standards needs to be regulated. Differences in the socio‐political environment do not make IASs of less significance to users in Bahrain. Further, it is found that the need for compliance with IASs will better enhance users' understanding of accounting concepts and financial statements. The study recommends the establishment of a body of professional accountants who will act as the interpreters of IASs in Bahrain's environment.

The objective of this study is to compare the costs to financial statement prepares of making the transition to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) relative to the benefits to financial statement users from receiving “higher quality” IFRS‐based information (measured as incremental value‐relevance for listed companies in the UK, Hong Kong and Singapore). These countries had different approaches to harmonization leading up to IFRS adoption.

This study is based on secondary data from financial statements and share market databases for a sample of 150 randomly selected listed companies in three countries for the year of first‐time adoption of IFRSs.

Results show that the extent and cost of adjustments to financial statements of UK companies at first‐time adoption of IFRSs is greater than companies in Hong Kong and, in turn, Singapore. But, in each of the three countries, financial statements prepared under IFRSs generate insignificant benefits to users in terms of providing incrementally more value‐relevant information than financial statements prepared under local generally accepted reporting practices. The self‐develop‐then‐harmonize strategy of the UK's Accounting Standards Board caused companies to incur higher costs‐to‐benefits on adoption of IFRSs than the selective‐importing‐of International Accounting Standards strategy in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The evidence enables a retrospective evaluation of historically different national standards setting strategies in terms of the cost‐benefit outcomes at time of adoption of IFRSs.

This paper seeks to evaluate the recent decision of the Bangladeshi Government and accounting profession to adopt international accounting standards (IASs).

The paper uses a variety of archival data and interviews with key actors, including preparers and users of annual reports, members of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and members of the professional accounting bodies: ICAB and ICMAB.

The paper finds that institutional legitimisation is a major factor that drives the decision to adopt IASs because of the pressure exerted by key international donor/lending institutions on the Bangladeshi Government and professional accounting bodies. Such pressure results from not only the need to provide credibility to foreign investors but also the need for strong accountability arrangements with lending/donor agencies. However, the perceived undemocratic nature of the adoption process appears to be creating and enhancing conflict among various constituencies, resulting in very low compliance with these standards.

The paper contributes to the understanding of the diffusion of International Accounting Standards and the role of global agencies, such as the World Bank, within this process.

This study examines the perceptions of 41 corporate chief accountants from Bahrain on the issues relating to the relative importance of international accounting topics in Bahrain. The study indicates a significant interest of the respondents in internationalizing the accounting curriculum. The topics which received importance rating of over 80% were: foreign investment and decision making, international accounting standards, financial reporting and disclosure, foreign currency transactions and translation, management information system (MIS) for multinational enterprises (MNEs), and consolidations. Results were also compared to a recent study from United States (US) and significant differences were found to exist in respect of several topics. The reasons for the major differences in the perceptions are explained in this paper, some of which may be attributed to cultural as well as environmental differences. The study also found that there is a strong support for adoption of the International Accounting Standards (IASs) because international markets are becoming increasingly important and there exists major differences in accounting principles among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries themselves. Furthermore, the study also suggests that in view of the similarity in social, economic, and business practices in GCC countries, the highly ranked accounting topics reported in this study should perhaps be incorporated by the accounting departments of universities operating in the GCC region. This will facilitate the process of harmonization of the accounting curriculum in this region.

This paper investigates the factors influencing the future of the IASB, using as the point of departure, a review of its historical progression towards becoming the global accounting standard‐setting authority. It concludes that the IASB is an organisation vulnerable to (1) political lobbying of influential institutions, (2) US accounting authorities decision makers, (3) potential accounting scandals, and (4) cultural differences resulting in the misapplication of its standards around the world. Such factors should be borne in mind when charting the next steps for the IASB and in evaluating the comparability and quality of accounts produced under IFRSs around the world.