The Impact of Determinants on the Adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standard for the Small and Medium-Sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs)

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze the cultural, economic and legal factors through the international accounting standard ‘IFRS for SMEs’ adoption for the Small and Medium- sized Entities. Based on a sample of 82 countries be they adopters and non-adopters of IFRS for SMEs, the results show a positive and significant effect of the Strength Investor Protection, power distance, and legal environment as well as a negative and significant effect of individualism, uncertainty, avoidance, and foreign market size on the IFRS adoption decision for the SMEs case. Nevertheless, masculinity, regulations of securities exchanges, efficacy corporate boards, strength audit and reporting standards reveal insignificant effect on the IFRS adoption decision. Our findings have implications on revising the IFRS for SMEs and will assist in addressing future complications in the IFRS _SMEs adoption decision process by considering cultural dimensions, economic, and legal factors affecting the decision. Besides, our results allow investors to have an idea about the specific environmental characteristics of the countries that have adopted the "IFRS_SME".

Keywords: IFRS vs. SMEs, cultural factors, institutional, SMEs, Legal Economic, Full IFRS adoption