The Resonance of Rejection : A Study of the Failure of Inflation Accounting in New Zealand

The failure of an accounting standard on inflation was chosen for this oral history study, examining the outcomes from the 1982 promulgation CCA-1 in New Zealand. This required companies to consider inflation when measuring their assets and liabilities, and thus affecting revenues also.However, compliance with the accounting standard CCA-1 was very low. Its rejection by accounting practitioners and company financial controllers was on a scale unprecedented in the New Zealand accounting community. The resonance of such a failure of compliance with this standard continued for a long period after the events described in this study.The interviews in this oral history study identify the significance of the processes of resistance and change. Added to this are the perceptions of those involved; who, with the benefit of hindsight and contemplation, give their own accounts of the causes of the failure.This provides material for an analysis different from those analyses based on annual report disclosures