The Effect of accounting education and national culture on accounting judgments

Countries adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) need to educate and train their professional accountants so that they are able to interpret and apply IFRSs in a consistent manner. This study examines the effect of national culture and education on the judgments of Australian and Chinese final year undergraduate accounting students in Australia. It seeks to understand whether culture influences student interpretation and application of uncertainty expressions, which are used as recognition and disclosure thresholds in IFRSs. The results obtained on the cultural dimensions of Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism, Power Distance, Masculinity and Long-term Orientation provide evidence that Chinese students exhibit stronger conservatism and secrecy when compared to Australian students. The consequent results of the study indicate that national culture has a significant effect on the judgments of accounting students when interpreting and applying selected IFRSs that contain uncertainty expressions. An important implication of the study is that regulators and standard setters involved in the international convergence of accounting standards need to pay greater attention to cultural factors that may cause a difference in the interpretation and application of IFRSs.