Finally, in non-EU countries, we expect that supranational forces are less prevalent. Voluntary
adoption of IFRS for SMEs has three main advantages compared to mandatory adoption: First,
voluntary adoption leaves it up to the individual firm to decide whether IFRS for SMEs is the set
of accounting standards that best fits its specific needs. This is particularly important within the heterogeneous
group of private firms where cost-benefit trade-offs of applying international accounting
standards are likely to differ across firms. Second, as a consequence, economic and political
costs are likely to be lower when permitting rather than mandating IFRS for SMEs. Third, voluntary
adoption would lead to a more balanced situation in the universe of accounting standards. Prior literature
argues that competition among accounting standards gives standard setters incentives to
develop accounting standards that can adequately reflect the changing economic environment
(Sunder 2002, 2011, Ball 2006, Kothari et al. 2010, Kaya and Pillhofer 2013). However, an opposing
argument is that under a voluntary regime, fewer firms will report under IFRS for SMEs,
suggesting that a voluntary regime may have adverse effects on the comparability of financial statements.
In addition, a single set of accounting standards is likely to create cost savings.