Involving academics in the accounting standard setting process: an application of the Delphi methodology to the assessme
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Involving academics in the accounting standard setting process: an application of the Delphi methodology to the assessment of IASB proposals ´ lvarez • Jose´ Antonio Calvo • Araceli Mora Igor A
Springer Science+Business Media New York 2012
Abstract The aim of this paper is to highlight the relevance of academic input to the accounting standard setting process by way of both ex-ante research and direct participation. We propose the Delphi methodology as a rigorous scientific way to analyse the perception of a new IASB accounting regulation from an ‘‘ex-ante’’ constituency perspective. We argue that this tool can be used as a useful complementary analysis to introduce timely and comprehensive additional feedback to standard-setters’ deliberations regarding the potential effects of their proposals when some conditions are met, and that gaining academic input in the process could make a difference. We apply this to the specific case of the IASB Management Commentary project. The main contribution of this study is to show how this research yields different perceptions that can add to the analysis of comment letters in the deliberations of the IASB. The most remarkable findings are (1) that the introduction of academic opinions (practically absent in the formal consultation process) yields important and different inputs and (2) that the characteristics of this tool allow for additional arguments, which are not usually evident in the formal comment letters, to be obtained from constituents. This study attempts to respond to the recent standard-setter call for more academic contributions to the standardsetting process. Keywords
Management commentary Delphi method IASB due process
´ lvarez J. A. Calvo I. A Universidad del Paı´s Vasco, Bilbao, Spain A. Mora (&) Facultad de Economia, Avda de los Naranjos, Valencia, Spain e-mail: [email protected]
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´ lvarez et al. I. A
1 Introduction One of the key tenets of policy design is that policymakers should gather evidence and test their proposals prior to implementation and that they should subsequently assess the effectiveness of proposals after implementation. Evidence-based policymaking is now an accepted practice in many economic, financial and social policy areas, including accounting. This issue has become more prominent in recent years as a consequence of the changes in European accounting governance characterised by a broader interaction between transnational organisations and European public institutions, as well as the interaction between public and private governance. As pointed out by Katsikas (2011), these new modes of governance take a ‘soft law’ approach that is based on the inclusion of private stakeholders in a decision-making process characterised by deliberation, differences in regulatory preferences and imbalances in power. The need for an ex-ante analysis of the potential effects of a new International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) or a major amendment to an IFRS is now included in the ‘Due Process Handbook for the IASB’. Another remarka
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