ACCOUNTING VALUES AND CULTURE AREA CLASSIFICATIONS
Having formulated hypotheses relating societal values to accounting values
internationally, it is evident that the most important societal values at the level of
the accounting subculture would seem to be uncertainty avoidance and individualism.
While power distance and masculinity are also significant to some extent, masculinity
appears to be of somewhat lesser importance in the system of accounting values.
It is now proposed to hypothesize culture area classifications in the context of
combinations of accounting values. For this purpose it is argued here that a useful
distinction can be made between the authority for accounting systems, that is, the
extent to which they are determined and enforced hy statutory control or professiona means on the one hand, and the measurement and disclosure characteristics of
accounting systems on the other.
Accounting values most relevant to the professional or statutory authority for
accounting systems and their enforcement would seem to be the professionalism and
uniformity dimensions in that they eire concerned with regulation and the extent of
enforcement or conformity. Accordingly, these can be combined and the classification
of culture areas hypothesized on a judgmental basis. In making these judgments reference has been made to the relevant correlations between value dimensions and the resultant clusters of countries identified from the statistical analysis carried out by Hofstede. From this classification it seems clear that the Anglo and Nordic culture areas may be contrasted with the Germanic and more developed Latin culture areas on the one hand, and the Japanese, Near Eastern, less developed Latin, less developed Asian and African culture areas on the other. The Colonial Asian countries are separately classified, representing a mixture of influences. Accounting values most relevant to the measurement practices used and the extent of information disclosed are self-evidently the conservatism and secrecy dimensions.
Accordingly, these can be combined and the classification of culture areas hypothesized on a judgmental basis. In making judgments in respect of these classifications reference has also been made to the relevant correlations between value dimensions and the resultant clusters of countries identified from the statistical analysis carried out by Hofstede. Here there would appear to be a sharper division of culture area groupings with the Colonial Asian group relating more closely with the Anglo and Nordic groupings in contrast with the Germanic and more developed Latin groupings.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
While prior research has shown that there are different patterns of accounting and
that the development of national systems of corporate financial reporting is related
to environmental factors, identification of the patterns and the influential factors
involved remains controversial. The significance of culture in this context is far from
clear and has been a relatively neglected issue in the development of ideas about
international classification.
In this paper, a framework for analysing the impact of culture on the development of accounting systems internationally has been proposed. Value dimensions at the
accounting subculture level have been identified, that is, professionalism,, uniformity,
conservatism and secrecy. These have been linked to cultural value dimensions at
the societal level and hypotheses have been formulated for testing. Classifications
of country groupings by culture area have also been hypothesized as a basis for testing
the relationship between culture and accounting systems in the context of systems
authority and enforcement characteristics on the one hand, and measurement and
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