Practical Issues in Education and Adoption of IFRS: Evidence from Russia

Abstract

This paper examines how the recognition and spread of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have affected accounting practices and accounting education in Russia. We use evidence from Russia as a case study to provide a historical perspective on the changes in its accounting system and analyze the translation and communication difficulties in accounting practices and education. By conducting Russian accounting textbooks’ content analysis, we highlight IFRS translation issues in order to investigate the positional statement of the problems regarding the challenges with IFRS education. We also discover the current difficulties in teaching IFRS-based accounting to non-English speakers. Our findings outline the interrelation between the educational approach and practical applications of the existing knowledge on financial reporting. Finally, this research addresses the nature of the challenges that emerge due to the linguistic translations of the IFRS. We consider this paper will be of particular interest for non-native English-language speakers, including academics, practitioners, and standard setters.