The effect of national culture, acculturation, and education on accounting judgments: A comparative study of Australian and Chinese culture

Ceelsan Hu, Parmod Chand, Elaine Evans

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We examine the influence of national culture on the judgments of Australian and Chinese tertiary accounting students when they are interpreting selected International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) that contain uncertainty expressions. To extend prior cross-cultural research, we also examine whether cultural values of individuals can change because of acculturation and accounting education, and measure their potential impact on accounting judgment. The results provide strong support for the notion that Chinese accounting students are more conservative than Australian accounting students in assigning probabilities to in-context uncertainty expressions contained in IFRSs. A unique finding of this study is that the cultural values of individuals can change because of acculturation and accounting education, and this could potentially improve the comparability of financial reports by moderating differences in the interpretation of accounting standards caused by cultural differences between accountants.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)51-77
Number of pages27
JournalJournal of International Accounting Research
Volume12
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

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