Unravelling the ‘Black Box’ of the Accounting Profession : Evidence from the IFRS for SMEs

This paper investigates the logics that drive small accounting practitioners' attitude towards new accounting standards and then, the heterogeneity amongst practitioners in order to unravel the accounting profession, until now considered as a ‘black box' in the accounting harmonization process. Through the analysis of an extensive survey of 1,268 Italian Certified Accountants and ten interviews with presidents of local professional associations regarding an ongoing accounting harmonization project (i.e., the IFRS for SMEs), we first document the coexistence of competitive logics in driving small accounting practitioners' attitude towards the new accounting standards. Secondly, we demonstrate the role of social characteristics in fragmenting the community of the accounting profession, in particular concerning new accounting harmonization projects. This paper contributes to the literature on the relation between the profession and accounting harmonization. The results are informative to policy makers in understanding the implementation process of the accounting harmonization process