External Environment, Culture, and Accounting Practice: A Preliminary Test of a General Model of International Accounting Development.

Abstract

Previous theoretical frameworks of accounting development and change are synthesized in a general model of accounting system development. The general model is then subjected to a preliminary empirical test of its explanatory power by examining the relationship between countries' accounting practices and a set of environmental factors and cultural dimensions hypothesized as relevant elements of the model. The results lend support for the general model and provide insight into the importance of various factors in explaining existing accounting diversity worldwide.