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The purpose of this study is to delve into the complex interplay between earnings management (EM), the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation and the reporting lag (RL) within the specific context of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, with a particular emphasis on the Saudi context, offering insights into their influence on financial reporting practices.

Using a panel data set of 135 Saudi companies over an eight-year period, covering four years before and after the mandatory adoption of IFRS in 2017, this study investigates the Saudi financial reporting landscape. It uses interaction moderation analysis to explore variable effects and includes robustness analyses to validate the findings.

The findings reveal three key outcomes. First, they challenge conventional expectations by showing no significant impact of discretionary accruals (DACC) on RL, contrary to established accounting theories. This deviation is attributed to unique market characteristics within the GCC region, including family-owned businesses, government involvement and distinct regulations, with specific insights relevant to Saudi Arabia. Second, an unexpected positive association between IFRS adoption and RL in Saudi Arabia emerged. Several contextual factors contribute, including transition costs, compliance expenses, institutional dynamics and reconciling IFRS with local Shariah principles. Most importantly, IFRS adoption significantly reduced RL, especially for companies with high DACC levels. This highlights IFRS’s transformative role, emphasizes aligning EM with international standards for investor confidence and mitigating nonconformity risks in the GCC region’s business landscape.

The research findings carry significant practical implications for companies operating within the GCC region, accentuating the strategic imperative of timely financial reporting to bolster credibility, align with international standards and fortify investor confidence. Moreover, regulators and policymakers are urged to consider tailoring accounting regulations to accommodate the distinctive GCC context, thereby adeptly addressing the intricacies stemming from the interplay of EM, IFRS adoption and RL dynamics in the region.

This study adds to the current body of literature by highlighting the significant moderating influence of IFRS transition on the nexus between DACC and RL. It underscores the crucial role of this global accounting framework in reshaping financial reporting practices.

This study examines how bilateral international trade among mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adopter countries moderates the relation between IFRS adoption and firms’ financial reporting quality.

The authors use data from 2007 to 2015 and focus on publicly listed firms from non-European Union countries that adopted IFRS on a mandatory basis.

The authors find that the interaction between mandatory IFRS adoption and a country’s bilateral trade with other countries using IFRS is negatively and significantly related to accruals-based earnings management, which is an inverse measure of financial reporting quality. This result is driven by firms in less developed countries. The improvement in accounting quality is for firms located in countries that both fully and partially adopt IFRS. The authors also find a significant and negative coefficient for the relation between real earnings management and the interaction between mandatory IFRS adoption and a country’s bilateral trade with other IFRS countries in the post-global financial crisis period.

Overall, the authors’ results are consistent with the notion that the mandatory adoption of IFRS creates a positive externality where firms improve their accounting quality because increased financial statement comparability means that foreign customers and suppliers can monitor the quality of earnings more easily.

The study critically evaluates the theory of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation in an attempt to provide directions for future research. Using the extensive structured review of literature using the Scopus database tool, the study reviewed 79 articles, and in particular the topic-related 57 articles were analysed. Nine journals contribute to 51% of articles (29 of 57 articles). In particular, the three journals published 15 articles: Critical Perspectives on Accounting (7), Accounting, Organizations and Society (4), and Journal of Applied Accounting Research (4). In total, 83% (47 of 57) of the articles were published 2009–2018. A total of 1,168 citations were found from 45 articles since 12 articles were without citations. The highest cited authors were Ball (2006) – 410 citations, Kothari, Ramanna, and Skinner (2010) – 135 citations, and Napier (1989) – 85 citations. In particular, five theories have been used widely: institutional theory (13), accounting theory (6), agency theory (3), positive accounting theory (3), and process theory (2). Future studies’ focus could be on theory implications in IFRS adoption/implementation studies in a country or a group of countries’ experience. Future studies could also focus on various theories rather depending on a single theory (i.e. institutional theory).

This article aims to identify and review existing studies on the adoption and compliance of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in Africa.

The methodology involves a sole focus on studies conducted with an African sample, using a bibliometric method and data from the Web of Science (WoS) database. Visualizations from VOSViewer and Biblioshiny software are employed to identify the dominant authors, journals and countries contributing to research in the region.

The findings reveal existing collaborations among authors in the field. However, the study emphasizes the need for additional research to enhance the intellectual structure of the research domain, as the majority of related documents are concentrated within twenty articles with at least one citation.

The practical implications underscore the importance of collaboration in practice, emphasizing the need for cooperation among corporations, experts and regulatory agencies involved in IFRS adoption and compliance in Africa. By fostering collaborative efforts and knowledge-sharing among corporations, experts and regulatory agencies, practitioners can enhance their understanding, streamline implementation processes and improve compliance methods.

This review is one of the few to explicitly conduct a bibliometric review of IFRS adoption and compliance studies in Africa, providing a foundation for future research to determine the current direction of IFRS studies in this region.

The study aims at reviewing a synthesis of disclosure, transparency, and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) implementation in an attempt to provide directions for future research. Prior research overwhelmingly supports that the IFRS adoption or effective implementation of IFRS will enhance high-quality financial reporting, transparency, enhance the country’s investment environment, and foreign direct investment (FDI) (Dayanandan, Donker, Ivanof, & Karahan, 2016; Gláserová, 2013; Muniandy & Ali, 2012). However, some researchers provide conflicting evidence that developing countries implementing IFRS are probably not going to encounter higher FDI inflows (Gheorghe, 2009; Lasmin, 2012). It has also been argued that the IFRS adoption decreases the management earnings in countries with high levels of financial disclosure. In general, the study indicates that the adoption of IFRS has improved the financial reporting quality. The common law countries have strong rules to protect investors, strict legal enforcement, and high levels of transparency of financial information. From the extensive structured review of literature using the Scopus database tool, the study reviewed 105 articles, and in particular, the topic-related 94 articles were analysed. All 94 articles were retrieved from a range of 59 journals. Most of the articles (77 of 94) were published 2010–2018. The top five journals based on the citations are Journal of Accounting Research (187 citations), Abacus (125 citations), European Accounting Review (107 citations), Journal of Accounting and Economics (78 citations), and Accounting and Business Research (66 citations). The most-cited authors are Daske, Hail, Leuz, and Verdi (2013); Daske and Gebhardt (2006); and Brüggemann, Hitz, and Sellhorn (2013). Surprisingly, 65 of 94 articles did not utilise the theory. In particular, four theories have been used frequently: agency theory (15), economic theory (5), signalling theory (2), and accounting theory (2). The study calls for future research on the theoretical implications and policy-related research on disclosure and transparency which may inform the local and international standard setters.

This study aims to examine the relationships among International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption, earnings management, and corporate efficiency.

First, the authors employ the epsilon-based measure (EBM) of the data envelopment analysis to measure the corporate performance of the Taiwanese electronics industry from 2011 to 2014. Second, the authors regress the IFRS adoption and earnings management on corporate efficiency.

The findings show that the corporate efficiency deteriorated after IFRS adoption. Although the regression analysis shows that the relationship between earnings management and corporate efficiency is significantly positive, the authors find that IFRS adoption is effective in unveiling earnings management. Moreover, IFRS adoption moderates the impact earnings management and corporate efficiency.

This study provides reference for decision-makers in the application of accounting principles and in the understanding of the IFRS impact adoption.

IFRS adoption can either facilitate or limit the earnings management that would affect corporate efficiency significantly and help the electronics industry as well as investors to know the changes in accounting principles and their effects on corporate efficiency.

The authors use the EBM of efficiency model to measure corporate efficiency and employ the modified Jones model to measure earnings management.

This paper aims to examine the theoretical underpinnings of international financial reporting standards (IFRS)-related studies and offers directions for theoretical and empirical research. Specifically, this study examines the main theories in IFRS adoption research (i.e. adoption, compliance and effects).

The sample contains 67 empirical papers that have used theories and was collected from Web of Science database. This study uses a systematic review technique.

Generally, the review shows the prevalent and pervasive use of institutional theories of isomorphism across all the three areas of IFRS adoption. Particularly, regarding IFRS adoption stream, this study finds the institutional theory as a dominant theory used to explain IFRS diffusion around the globe. For IFRS compliance, this study finds that the agency and the capital need theories are widely used. For IFRS adoption effects stream, this study finds a few studies using the contingency and neo-institutional theories. Overall, the review provides theoretical lens for IFRS adoption, IFRS compliance and IFRS adoption effects.

Given the lack of a well-defined set of theories in the domain of accounting, the findings provide further guidance on theory building within the field. Further, accounting regulators, academics and practitioners may benefit from the findings when explaining various changes in the world of accounting.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the indirect effect of the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) adoption in increasing the foreign investors’ ownership through the improvement of comparability of financial statements.

This study employs listed companies in 18 countries across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia with an observation period from 2003 to 2012. Unlike previous studies, this study uses a continuous variable to measure the level of IFRS adoption which is measured at the country level. This study includes countries that do not fully adopt the IFRS, partially adopt, make some delays in adoption or some modifications to IFRS.

The results show that the level of IFRS adoption has a positive effect on the comparability of financial statements. The level of IFRS adoption indirectly increases the foreign investors’ ownership through the comparability of financial statements. These results are consistent with proponents for IFRS adoption which argue that the adoption improves the comparability of financial statements that in turn attracts greater cross-border investment.

The findings of this study need to be interpreted with caution due to limitations. Although this research provides a detail measurement on the IFRS adoption, this study only looks at three general items of difference in adopting the IFRS. “Differences in text” used in this research has not quantified detail differences for each adopted standards. Therefore, future research can use a more in-depth measurement of the IFRS adoption level that considers differences or exceptions of accounting treatment.

The results suggest that the standards setting bodies’ (IASB) strategy on promoting the IFRS and objectives to develop a standard that leads to increase the financial statement comparability have been achieved. This research shows that the IFRS adoption plays a role in ensuring the financial statement quality in terms of its comparability. It implies that the standard-setting bodies in every country, as one of the responsible institutions regulating the business environment, can be entrusted with a greater role in order to ensure better financial information quality.

This study introduces novel measurement that is more detailed in measuring the IFRS adoption level instead of applying the discrete variable approach (“adopt” and “not adopt”) performed by previous studies (DeFond et al., 2011; Tan et al., 2011; Lee and Fargher, 2010). This study does not only cover some EU countries but also covers some countries in Asia, Africa, and Australia, so it can be better at capturing the variation of the IFRS adoption outside the EU. This broader coverage will show the consistency of the benefits of IFRS adoption. This study is most closely related to that of DeFond et al. (2011). This research extends DeFond’s study with some important differences as follows: it uses output-based and firm-specific measurement of the comparability from DeFranco et al. (2011), which is deemed to be more appropriate because it represents the qualitative characteristics of financial statements from a user’s perspective, i.e., investors, who evaluate historical performance and predict future performance in their investment decisions; it uses a broader scope of institutional investors; and it covers IFRS adoption in countries outside the EU for a longer observation period.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically review extant studies on what makes a country fully, partially or not adopt international financial reporting standards (IFRS) and categorize these factors into meaningful categories. In so doing, this study facilitates policy-making for accounting and economic standard setters and also points out conflicting viewpoints in the current literature, thus, opportunities for future research.

This paper is a literature review on academic studies that examine factors influencing national adoption of IFRS. The reviewed articles are limited to published, peer-reviewed papers only.

Overall, the review suggests that although a wide range of determinants on national adoption of IFRS has been identified, prior literature consists of conflicting viewpoints on what influence national accounting policies toward IFRS, thus, highlighting areas in which there are needs for future research.

First, this study focuses only on the de jure adoption of IFRS. Second, the study focuses mainly on research findings, not theory use in the extant literature.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study, which provides a comprehensive review of studies on de jure IFRS adoption.

This study aims to investigate the differences in earnings quality of Malaysian companies after the adoption of IFRS‐based accounting standards named FRS.

It is hypothesize that under the new set of accounting standards, the quality of earnings reported by these companies is relatively higher. Specifically, the study tests whether the level of earnings management is significantly lower after the adoption of IFRS, and reported earnings is more value relevant during the IFRS period. This study uses a large sample of 4,010 observations over a three‐year period before and a three‐year period after the adoption of the new set of accounting standards.

The results show that IFRS adoption is associated with higher quality of reported earnings. It is found that earnings reported during the period after the adoption of IFRS is associated with lower earnings management and higher value relevant.

The results of this study contribute additional evidence to the literature on earnings quality and the impact of IFRS adoption. As most of the existing studies on earnings quality and IFRS have been conducted on data from the U.S and European countries, this study fills a gap in the existing literature by studying the effect of adoption of IFRS on earnings quality in an emerging market.