Cultural Significance on Accounting: Analyzing the Link between Uncertainty Avoidance and Accounting Conservatism in the Hofstede-Gray-Framework. Dissertation

Abstract

The Hofstede-Gray-Framework postulated by Gray (1988) combines the four cultural dimensions from Hofstede (1980) with accounting values being professionalism versus statutory control, uniformity versus flexibility, conservatism versus optimism, and secrecy versus transparency. This thesis focuses on the cultural dimension of uncertainty avoidance (Hofstede, 1980) which is considered the most significant dimension to predict the accounting values of countries and clusters (Salter & Niswander, 1995). This dimension is strongly linked to accounting conservatism. In this context, a variety of research gaps are addressed, as for example: The improvement of the measurement of dependent variables by applying measures of unconditional conservatism based on current research, the examination if cultural influences on accounting practice persist following the adoption of IFRS and the improvement of the independent variable by integrating data from a questionnaire on financial risk perception (Weber and Hsee, 1999) into the research design. Besides that a comprehensive literature review has been performed providing conclusions and analyses not having been published so far. Based on an examination of 44 countries for the Hofstede data set, it could be concluded that culture cannot be dismissed as a possible variable explaining accounting conservatism even after adoption of IFRS. The financial risk questionnaire dataset less evident than for the Hofstede scale. As the statistical results are encouraging and valuable from a research gap perspective, it is suggested to continue the search for further participants in the survey to increase the number of participants per country to a reasonable amount.