The primary contribution of this research lies in the development of
a classification of the accounting systems of EU and EEA member countries,
based on differences and communalities in IFRS implementation
choices. Pronounced variation exists in the level of IFRS implementation
acrossmember states of the EU and EEA. The study highlights statistically
significant differences in the application of IFRS for financial and
non-financial firms. The qualitative data on the IFRS implementation
elections presented here may be of interest to practitioners or researchers
who may have assumed a more uniform adoption process.
The story of IFRS implementation in most member countries of the EU
and EEA is that of supplementation of domestic GAAP with IFRS for
specific uses. The implication for the ongoing debate concerning the
adoption of IFRS in the U.S. is that framing the adoption question in
terms of a substitution of accounting systems may be misspecified.