IFRS: On the Docility of Sophisticated Users in Preserving the Ideal of Comparability

This paper questions the ideal of comparability, which is often mobilized by standard setters when justifying new - or 'improvement' to existing - accounting standards. The target of our analysis is constituted by the thoughts of sophisticated users of financial statements when reflecting...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The European accounting review 2011-06, Vol.20 (2), p.233-262
Main Authors:	Durocher, Sylvain, Gendron, Yves
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Accounting Accounting standards Comparative analysis Economic theory Europe Financial reporting Financial statements International Financial Reporting Standards Studies
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	This paper questions the ideal of comparability, which is often mobilized by standard setters when justifying new - or 'improvement' to existing - accounting standards. The target of our analysis is constituted by the thoughts of sophisticated users of financial statements when reflecting about International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation in Europe. Drawing on the work of Mary Douglas on purity and Michel Foucault on docility, it is argued and shown that sophisticated users tend to interpret aberrations - that is to say indications of incomparability which confront users in the flow of their professional lives - in ways that allow the ideal of comparability to be preserved. Important consequences ensuing from the docility of users in purifying aberrations are discussed.
ISSN:	0963-8180 1468-4497