Balancing Past and Present : The Impact of Accounting Internationalisation on German Accounting Regulations

Titelangaben

Fülbier, Rolf Uwe ; Klein, Malte:
Balancing Past and Present : The Impact of Accounting Internationalisation on German Accounting Regulations.
In: Accounting History. Bd. 20 (2015) Heft 3 . - S. 342-374.
ISSN 1032-3732
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1032373215595300

Volltext

Link zum Volltext (externe URL):

Abstract

Accounting plays a distinct role in a firm’s governance system and has evolved in a specific institutional setting over time to meet the contractual demands of various stakeholders. Against this backdrop, we argue that accounting internationalisation affects the contracting system when formal rules from other settings are introduced. To support our argument and to substantiate the interplay of accounting as a contractual device and country-specific institutions, we provide an in-depth case study of one European code-law country, Germany. Here, we place the recent phenomenon of accounting internationalisation into historical-institutional perspective and illustrate how accounting internationalisation has triggered a balancing act between a path-dependent preservation of the traditional contracting role and a moderate move towards valuation-based international benchmarks.