International Accounting Research

Author: Chang Xun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: This book is divided into 12 topics, organized by Professor Chang Xun, who has gathered renowned scholars and mid-to-young experts in the field to contribute individually. Each topic forms an independent unit, fully expressing the authors' respective insights and viewpoints while remaining mutually complementary. Topic One serves as the introduction to the entire book, deriving the strong trend of accounting international harmonization since the 1990s from a historical examination of the formation and development of international accounting. This sets the main thread for the entire book.
Topic Two and Topic Three conduct international comparative studies of accounting practices and financial reporting, respectively, analyzing the evolution of international differences and harmonization, paving the way for a deeper discussion of international accounting harmonization.
Topic Four, titled "International Accounting Harmonization and International Accounting Standards," provides an in-depth exploration of the relationships and distinctions between concepts such as "harmonization," "standardization," "comparability," "uniformity," and "convergence." It emphasizes that international accounting harmonization is a "development perspective" that seeks common ground while preserving diversity, and that it exhibits "flexibility" at different stages of development. The topic analyzes both the external environmental factors that drive and hinder international accounting harmonization and the subjective efforts of international organizations to promote it. It also outlines the developmental trajectory of achieving convergence through standardization (). The topic further provides a detailed review of the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC) and its history in developing international accounting standards, acknowledging its strategic adaptability at each stage, particularly its strategic restructuring and new operational mechanisms at the turn of the century.
Following this, Topic Five discusses the harmonization activities of major international organizations, while Topic Six offers a special review of the history of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) in developing international auditing standards and the development of international accounting firms.
Topics Seven, Eight, and Nine focus on the study of national accounting models. Topic Seven, "General Overview of Accounting Models," provides a comprehensive review of the conceptual classification of accounting development models and the national-level categorization of global accounting models by various scholars. Building on this foundation, Topics Eight and Nine conduct comparative studies of "national accounting," with Topic Eight reviewing the main characteristics of the four major accounting models in the world that have the greatest impact on global accounting—namely, the U.S., French, German, and Japanese models. Subsequently, Topic Nine compares the differences and harmonization trends between the Anglo-American accounting model on one side and the European accounting model (represented by France and Germany) on the other. It then reviews the main features of the accounting practices of developed countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, and Sweden, which are influenced by their intersection, as well as the accounting practices of higher-developed emerging economies heavily influenced by the U.S. accounting model. Furthermore, it selects the Czech Republic as a representative of transition economies, outlining the main features of accounting practices in such countries. Finally, it summarizes the common characteristics of accounting practices in emerging economies.
All of the above belong to the field of international financial accounting. Topics Ten, Eleven, and Twelve, however, pertain to international management accounting, covering "The Organizational Structure and Planning Systems of Multinational Corporations," "Performance Evaluation of Multinational Corporations," and "International Taxation and Transfer Pricing."
In summary, this book is a work that covers both international financial accounting (including auditing) and international management accounting, with a stronger emphasis on the former.