Jean‐Guy Degos and Richard Mattessich
This paper offers a general survey of accounting literature in the French language area of the first half of the 20th century: After a general Introduction, referring mainly to…
Abstract
This paper offers a general survey of accounting literature in the French language area of the first half of the 20th century: After a general Introduction, referring mainly to renowned French authors of past centuries, it deals first with historical accounting research (Dupont, de Roover, Gomberg, Vlaemminck, etc). Then come publications in financial accounting theory and its application (Faure, Dumarchey, Delaporte, Penglaou, de Fages de Latour, etc.), followed by a section on cost accounting and managerial control (Julhiet, de Fage de Latour, Detoeuf, Satet, Bournisien, Brunei, Sauvegrai, etc.). Alarger Section is devoted to inflationary problems (Delavelle, Raffegeau and Lacout, Bayard, Léger, Faure, Thomas, Bisson, Dumarchey, Durand, Beaupère, Ratier, etc.). Another large section refers to charts of accounts and public supervision (Otlet, Faure, Blairon, Detoeuf, Caujolle, Fourastié, Gabriel, Chardonnet, Gamier, etc.). The paper closes with a concise general conclusion about this period of transition from a mainly traditional agricultural to an industrial society with its costing problems, its organizational control, and its greater service orientation.
Jean-Guy Degos, Yves Levant and Philippe Touron
The purpose of this paper is to focus on circumvolutions taken by the accounting standard-setting process in French-speaking African countries which have delayed convergence…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on circumvolutions taken by the accounting standard-setting process in French-speaking African countries which have delayed convergence toward IFRS standards and to identify how different factors shape accounting standards in a context in which post-colonial hysteresis interact with globalization.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses archival data and interviews with key individual actors. Two case studies from two successive periods are contrasted: the design of the OCAM accounting standards in the 1970s, and the development of the SYSCOA/OHADA accounting standards during the 1990s before the partial adoption of IFRS.
Findings
The study shows the convergence toward international accounting standards in French-speaking African countries emerged from a complex, multimodal process mingling competition with collaboration and negotiation. They have followed a different path from most English-speaking African countries, where convergence to IAS/IFRS took place earlier and faster. The evidence indicates the significance of the interaction between the ex-colonization and the indigenous accounting standards, the importance of key actors and the level of the educational institutions.
Research limitations/implications
No African written sources were located. Most of the sources used were French.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for the standards setting in developing countries. The examination of the development of accounting rules in French-speaking African countries between 1960 and 2010 shows the complexity of the accounting standards’ diffusion dynamic.
Originality/value
This study provides novel insights over a 30-year period of accounting standards in French-speaking African countries. This research explains why IFRS have not yet adopted in French-speaking African countries as it was in English-speaking African countries.
Jean‐Guy Degos and Richard Mattessich
This paper seeks to offer a survey of accounting publications and research in the French literature from 1950 to the end of the twentieth century.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to offer a survey of accounting publications and research in the French literature from 1950 to the end of the twentieth century.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology is that of literary research, review and critique.
Findings
Finds that over the period mentioned different aspects of accounting research have been examined in the literature – academic, social, matrix, events, historical. The leading researchers in these fields are covered in detail.
Originality/value
Succeeds in offering problems the most comprehensive survey to date of the French literature on accounting and related research during the period under review.