An Empirical investigation of the influence of translation and context on judgments: evidence from China

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the related materials have been translated into more than forty languages, with the implicit assumption that worldwide adoption of (the translated) IFRS can enhance the comparability of financial information. However, increasing the number of languages in which accounting standards are issued may increase the likelihood that users of the translated standards will disagree on the meanings of the accounting concepts used. The objective of this paper is to examine the influence of translation and context on judgments of Chinese accounting students. A within-subject experimental instrument was designed, which contained a case of consolidated financial reporting. Subjects were required to exercise their judgments on the essential consolidation criterion, namely, one entity's control over another entity in English and Simplified Chinese language settings. This study has significant implications for the ongoing international accounting convergence with particular reference to enhancing the comparability of consolidated financial reporting across countries.