IFRS Adoption and Accounting Quality: A Review

Abstract

Literature on IFRS adoption by countries concerning high quality, understandable and applicable IFRS in order to be worldwide accepted has generated a pertinent discussion, since the results presented in the literature are not unanimous on the adoption of IFRS and accounting quality. Soderstrom and Sun (2007) analyzed a research published in leading accounting journals selected from 1990’s on the consequences of IFRS adoption and found that the determinants of accounting quality after the adoption of these standards are articulated in: quality of the standards; political and judicial system in the country; financial reporting incentives. Based on Soderstrom and Sun (2007) study, this work aims to analyze literature on IFRS adoption and the accounting quality from 2006. In order to achieve this goal, a systematic search of the literature focused on a "Web of Science" database associated with a bibliometric analysis was done, aiming to understand the discussion on IFRS adoption and accounting quality in literature. As a result, it was found that the adoption of IFRS related to the accounting standard factors, political and judicial systems of the countries and the financial reporting incentives discussed by Soderstrom and Sun (2007) to determine the quality of accounting remains persistent. Overall, this analysis concludes that the quality of accounting cannot be evaluated only in terms of IFRS adoption, either on a voluntary or mandatory basis. The results of this study present at least two limitations: The studies on IFRS adoption researched, despite tackling institutional issues, do not show the real complexity of the reality, due to reduce the quality of the social context to the quality of economic rationality; and the alleged quality of standards based on principles is not enough to determine the quality of accounting.