Can resource dependence explain not-for-profit organizations' compliance with reporting standards?

Not-for-profit organizations worldwide are confronted with an increasing demand for accountability and improved financial transparency. Financial reporting by not-for-profit organizations is no longer an exception, it has become a rule. The usefulness of a financial report to an organizations stakeholders is depending on its quality. The latter is safeguarded by reporting standards as well as the commitment of the organization to fully implement these standards. In this research, it is hypothesized that the dependence of the not-for-profit organization on external resources influences the degree to which new reporting standards are implemented. Although resource dependence has been used in earlier in research, no empirical research linking this theory to compliance with financial reporting standards has been done so far. Using a unique setting in which a large number of non-profit organizations are confronted with new financial reporting regulations, the effect of resource dependence on accounting and financial reporting compliance is documented.