Daniela Artemisa Calu

A story about IAS/IFRS implementation in Romania

Purpose – This study aims to investigate in-depth, and explain the issues related to, the implementation of IAS/IFRS in an emergent country that recently adhered to the European Union, i.e. Romania.Design/Methodology/Approach – An institutional and structuration theory perspective is used to discuss two stages of IAS/IFRS implementation in Romania. Both primary (11 in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with key actors involved in financial reporting) and secondary data (accounting regulations after the fall of communism, with respect to the implementation of IAS/IFRS) were collected for the purpose of the paper.Findings – It was found that the two stages of IAS/IFRS implementation had different outcomes, with a more profound and qualitative impact of the second phase. The first step was a result of coercive external forces, that is, the influence of the World Bank. Given the lack of other factors to favor the change process, it is argued that the actual implementation of IAS in that period was very limited. Even though the second step meant a reduction in scope to only listed companies in consolidated accounts and financial institutions, it is argued that it was accompanied by a change process more significant than in the previous period.Originality/Value – The paper investigates the inter-play between institutions, routines and politics in the Romanian context and highlights the complexity of accounting change in an emerging country.

An analysis of thanatogenesis in Romanian accounting

Our paper borrows from pathophysiology the concept of thanatogenesis and applies it to accounting concepts and practices. We define accounting thanatogenesis as the study of the causes and processes that lead to the disappearance of an accounting concept or practice. We choose a number of concepts and practices and we survey the opinions of academics teaching in a Bucharest university. Similarly to the clinical indices used by physicians to monitor the evolution of a patient, accounting thanatogenesis indices represent rates of rejection of concepts and practices, as measured by surveys of accountants. The ideological influence of IAS/IFRS is assumed to modify the opinions of the respondents that have been exposed to a decade of harmonisation with both European Accounting Directives and IAS/IFRS.