Accounting Education: an international journal

Vol. 14, No. 3, 349 –360, September 2005

International Accounting Books:

Publishers’ Dream, Authors’ Nightmare
and Educators’ Reality

SALLY AISBITT
The Open University Business School, UK
ABSTRACT The emergence of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as the required
convention for reporting to stock exchanges in the European Union (EU) and other important
markets, together with the convergence programmes of major standard setters, has accelerated
the reduction in differences in financial reporting between countries. The education of potential
accountants would be expected to respond to these changes and, indeed, there is evidence that
the teaching of accounting techniques now frequently draws on both IFRS and local GAAP.
Perhaps a greater shift has been in the discipline of International Accounting (IA), which has
moved from being an optional subject to being core to most programmes and an increasingly
popular choice for more specialised degrees at both undergraduate and Master’s levels. This
article surveys the books that are available to support educators and learners in IA building on
the analysis and classification of Laidler and Pallett (1998) Accounting Education: an
international journal, 7(1), pp. 75 – 86. A range of IA textbooks is examined in detail, along with a
more general review of reference works. The analysis finds that there has been a growth in the
number, breadth and depth of texts serving the IA market. Authors have fallen upon a number of
devices in their battle to keep their materials up to date in this dynamic environment. Some of
Laidler and Pallett’s (1998) criticisms of the writing and coverage of IA texts have been
addressed, although not necessarily in the way that they envisaged. In spite of the growth of this
section of publishers’ catalogues, there remain a number of areas given scant coverage, notably
enforcement and audit, and countries outside of the EU and US. The article concludes with
recommendations for publishers, authors and educators to enhance the teaching of IA and the
resources needed to support it.

KEY WORDS : International accounting, textbooks, education

Introduction
The aim of this article is to provide an up to date survey of English language textbooks
available to support teaching in International Accounting (IA) and to provide guidance
as to how these publications might be used and developed for specific courses. Recent
changes in the economic and educational environments have provided publishers with
an opportunity to increase the range of materials on offer. Authors are doing their best
to rise to the challenge of meeting the demands of the perceived market at a time when
changes in regulations ensure books are out of date as soon as they are published. It is

Correspondence Address: Dr. S. A. Aisbitt, The Open University Business School, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes
MK7 6AA, UK. Email: s.a.aisbitt@open.ac.uk

0963-9284 Print=1468-4489 Online=05=030349–12 # 2005 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080=06939280500187290
350 S. Aisbitt

hoped that this survey will be useful to academics working under the pressures of high
workloads and a dynamic regulatory environment in selecting materials to support their
teaching.
The term IA has traditionally been used to encompass a range of subject areas, which do
not necessarily sit together comfortably (Adams and Roberts, 1994). As the discipline has
developed, classifications of the different elements have evolved (e.g. Laidler and Pallett,
1998). In the past, two main approaches to IA were adopted (see Stolowy and Tenenhaus,
1998, for example), accounting for and by multinationals (the approach primarily adopted
in the US) and understanding of foreign accounting and harmonisation (the European
approach). Meanwhile, changes in the business, accounting and educational environments
have altered the relative importance of the different elements of IA within the accounting
curriculum. Whereas once most IA was regarded as an optional subject to be offered to
students in more advanced stages of their studies, certain elements are increasingly inte-
grated into core areas of the curriculum. This article is essentially predicated on the
assumption that accounting for multinational corporations and multinational activities is
now part of the mainstream financial reporting syllabus. The recent progress of standard-
isation and harmonisation means that they are now being presented as ‘current issues’.
Nevertheless, it may not be long before they become part of the wider discipline of
accounting history along with comparative IA. In the meantime, international financial
statement analysis will continue to present challenges and will provide a rich feeding
ground for study, which may be core or optional, depending on the thrust of institutions’
wider philosophy.
The rest of the article is structured as follows. The second section provides some back-
ground to the article in terms of developments in the business environment, accounting
education, IA research and IA textbooks. The third section presents the results of the
survey; and the fourth section offers some conclusions.

Background
Developments in the Business Environment
In recent years, there has been much talk of globalisation. The expansion of the European
Union (EU) as a trade bloc and the adoption of the Euro have increased the level of inter-
national activities within member states and there are indications that there is increased
activity beyond regional boundaries. Advances in communication technology have
allowed businesses to make greater use of advantageous wage rates and/or skill banks
outside of their traditional area of operations. Successful management of globalised oper-
ations requires a good understanding of local practices and a strategy for ensuring effective
international communication of activities and performance.
Political pressures to increase transparency in financial reporting have resulted in major
companies in the EU and other important economies being required to adopt International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). At the same time, national standard setters in the
major economies are working closely with the International Accounting Standards Board
(IASB) with the aim of achieving convergence on a single set of high quality standards.
Bodies such as the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in the US, the Account-
ing Standards Board (ASB) in the UK and the IASB itself have made significant progress
in this direction. In many countries, this represents a paradigm shift from rules-based to
more principles-based accounting. While true principles-based accounting may not be
possible, Enron demonstrated the dangers of abuse associated with very detailed regu-
lations, e.g. fixed percentage thresholds for defining transactions.
 International Accounting Books 351

Developments in Accounting Education

Some ten years ago, Adams and Roberts (1994) pointed out that IA was more commonly
included in undergraduate courses in the UK than in the US. They also lamented the
breadth of subject matter and conceptual development that educators attempted to
shelter under the umbrella of IA. Nevertheless, IA has a good history in the US, with,
for example Vernon Zimmerman being a leading force in the establishment of the
Centre for International Education and Research in Accounting at the University of Illinois
as early as 1962. The introduction of international aspects to the accounting curriculum
had also been explored in the US (Stout and Schweikart, 1989; Conover et al., 1994;
Rezaee et al., 1997), demonstrating that practitioners (and academics) had increasingly
perceived their benefits. Stolowy and Tenenhaus (1998) examined the teaching of IA
across Europe. In contrast with Adams and Roberts (1994), who favoured a better separ-
ation between ‘comparative accounting courses’ and ‘accounting for multinationals’,
Stolowy and Tenenhaus (1998) recommended narrowing the gap between the two views.
Meanwhile, bodies such as the International Accounting Standards Committee Foun-
dation (IASCF) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) have been colla-
borating with professional bodies of accountants to set the agenda for the future training
and qualification of professional accountants. The IFAC Education Standard on the
content of professional accounting education programmes (IES2) includes reference to
globalisation and international regulations. Karreman (2002) recommended that accoun-
tancy education should be benchmarked internationally to establish what was ‘good prac-
tice’ (in the meaning of ‘standards to achieve’). The same could be said of IA practices: the
professionals of the future need to know what is being practised throughout the world, in
order to understand the information that is being published and contribute to the continu-
ing improvement of that information.
Albrecht and Sack (2000) also recognised the challenges that globalisation brings to the
business community in general and the accounting profession (and their educators) in
particular. In their recommendations, they emphasised the importance of students building
up competence in financial analysis and teachers designing their pedagogy to allow
students to develop critical skills. As others (e.g. Seidler, 1967) have pointed out, the
study of international accounting seems to provide an ideal vehicle for satisfying these
recommendations.
Another feature of Albrecht and Sack’s (2000) report was the challenge of declining
numbers of students choosing accounting courses. This particular concern was not
unique to the US: in the UK, a working group of the (now disbanded) Board of Accred-
itation of Accountancy courses (BAAEC) issued a report echoing this unease. One
response in the UK seems to have been a growth in the number of accounting courses
(often combining accounting with business or management) at both the undergraduate
and post-graduate level. The post-graduate courses provide opportunities for students
who have previously studied in a different discipline to develop higher-level accounting
and finance skills in addition to allowing accounting and/or finance students to develop
their specialism. The professional bodies’ increasingly strict approach to continuing pro-
fessional education (CPE) seems to be contributing to demand for higher-level courses
from the bodies themselves, commercial training organisations and the University
sector. These newer awards often seem to include the word ‘international’ in their title
or to include courses (modules) with an international title.
In this environment, it is perhaps surprising that the proportion of accounting educators
in the UK declaring a teaching specialism and/or research interest in IA is relatively small,
at under 10% (see Appendix 1). The figures may tend to understate the case. For example,
352 S. Aisbitt

this may reflect the way in which IA has become ‘mainstream’ and lecturers see them-
selves as ‘financial reporting’ specialists. Similarly, researchers may have expressed an
interest in, say, accounting for intangibles, which they would ‘automatically’ consider
on an international level. Membership of special interest groups, such as the International
Accounting sections of the American Accounting Association or the British Accounting
Association, attracts only a small proportion of the subscribers to the respective associ-
ations. Possible consequences of these data might be that:

(a) IA courses are being taught by educators who do not regard themselves as specialists
in this area; and/or
(b) A small number of specialists are delivering a large number of courses, leading to
pressures of time.

The corollary of both (a) and (b) is that there is a need for high quality learning materials
to support teachers and learners on IA courses.

Developments in International Accounting Research

Surveys of research in the domain of IA reflect the changing nature of the external environ-
ment and the development of the discipline. Aisbitt and Evans (2004) summarised the
developments in European accounting research over time as shown in Figure 1. Authors
are increasingly collaborating across national boundaries and the research has moved
from descriptive to analytical. Their model could probably be extended beyond Europe
to cover IA as a whole. Nobes (2003) points out, through his discussion of a conceptual
framework for taxable income, the continuing need to ensure there is an adequately devel-
oped conceptual underpinning to support the technical aspects of accounting, as it moves
internationally towards a principles-based approach.
As research in IA develops, so the teaching and associated resources must develop.

Figure 1. The development of English language literature on European accounting. Source: Aisbitt
and Evans, 2004, p. xviii

Developments in Textbooks
The range of media available to support learning has never been greater, but it seems that
textbooks will be important for some time to come. Textbooks are a tried and tested
medium that is inexpensive (relative to the cost of infrastructure required for multi-
media learning) and allows flexibility for the time and place of study.
 International Accounting Books 353

Laidler and Pallett (1998) identified a number of desirable features of good books on
comparative IA. They also concluded that the books on the market had a number of weak-
nesses and put forward some suggestions as to how these might be addressed. Strauss and
Frost (1999) suggest that Business Schools measure effectiveness of teaching and learning
against cognitive, skills and attitude learning objectives. Textbooks can contribute to
meeting all of these objectives. Indeed, Groomer and Heintz (1994) found that 70% of
class time in higher level auditing courses in North America was devoted to textbooks.
Nevertheless, the importance of interaction with other aspects of the teaching and learning
strategy cannot be denied, which is why it is important for educators to be in a position to
select texts that will complement their personal or institutional pedagogy.
There has been a growth in the number of textbooks claiming to deal with IA. It is poss-
ible that developments in the business environment have prompted publishers to feel this is
an area to include in their catalogues, if they are to have credibility. Alternatively it may be
seen as an opportunity to exploit new (e.g. countries joining the expanding EU) and
growing (e.g. responding to the technical challenge of adoption of IFRS) markets. Their
authorship now tends to be more multinational (in terms of both authors’ place of birth
and their current and recent work experience). This addresses Laidler and Pallett’s
(1998) comment that comparative IA guides work best if written from a particular stand-
point and overcomes the potential problem that they envisaged of this limiting the size of
the market for a particular book to the country of origin of the author. Using multinational
teams of authors reflects the way international accounting research has moved (as
described above) and may mean that, from the publishers’ point of view, more texts
can survive given the larger size of the potential market. Nevertheless, a number of the
texts included in Laidler and Pallett’s (1998) survey do not seem to have survived to
second editions.
The choice of books for a survey of this nature is always subjective. This article covers
two groups of books: textbooks and reference works. In both categories, up to date editions
of the books covered in Laidler and Pallett’s (1998) survey (where available) have been
supplemented with more recent publications addressing IA for a multinational audience.
Textbooks on the mechanics of financial reporting have become more international in
their approach. For example, the most recent editions of textbooks by Lewis and Pendrill
(2004) and Black (2003) are firmly rooted in UK accounting practice, but they point out
important differences from IFRSs and the nature of expected changes. Other mainstream
accounting texts include other international examples, and possibly additional chapters on
international issues. It can be difficult to decide at what stage an advanced financial
accounting course using this ‘internationalised’ approach (e.g. O’Connor et al., 1996)
moves from being an accounting course to being an international accounting course.
For reasons of space, these more general textbooks have not been included in this
survey, although two ‘technical’ accounting textbooks have been included for reasons
that are explained below.
The discussion of the texts is based on the following criteria for a good book on IA.
These have been derived from Laidler and Pallett’s (1998) original criteria (p. 77) and
their recommendations (pp. 84– 5).

. clearly identify difference between multinational accounting and domestic accounting

. build on existing relevant theory
. consider how the factors addressed impact on MNC strategy and decision making
. clear philosophical perspective
. academic rigour
. global (as opposed to regional) focus
354 S. Aisbitt

Review of current texts

Textbooks
The textbooks covered by this survey are summarised in Table 1.
In line with Laidler and Pallett (1998), the content of the textbooks has been analysed, to
give an indication of the relative importance accorded to different areas by the authors/
editors. The results of the analysis are presented in Table 2. This is a crude (and highly
subjective) analysis based on numbers of pages and chapter headings. As the authors’
approaches differ, this is not a straightforward exercise. For example, the contributors
to WHR integrate theory and concepts throughout the book, whereas ABJ deal with a
number of theoretical issues in (relative) isolation at the start of the book, as well as refer-
ring to them throughout the text. Nevertheless, Table 2 does demonstrate that the two main
ways of approaching teaching IA persist in the texts, although there has been some move-
ment towards integration, as recommended by Stolowy and Tenenhaus, (1998).
The ‘technical issues’ percentage could be regarded as a proxy for the proportion of the
text given over to skills-based objectives, with the remainder addressing cognitive and atti-
tude objectives. Technical issues covered in detail usually included foreign currency trans-
lation, consolidated financial statements, taxation and disclosure matters (notably
segmental reporting). Individual classes of assets and liabilities were examined in some
cases along with revenue recognition. Financial instruments were tackled as a technical
issue by some authors, but as part of management control or risk management sections
by others.
A perennial problem with producing this kind of textbook has been whether to concen-
trate on the differences between accounting in different countries (comparative IA) or to
focus on the technical issues that are important (mainly for multi-national corporations,
MNCs) and consider how these are addressed in different jurisdictions. Very few

Table 1. Details of textbooks included in survey

Authors/Editors Title Publisher

Alexander, D., Britton, A.
and Jorisson, A. (ABJ)
Choi, F.D.S., Frost, C.A.
and Meek, G.K. (CFM)
Flower, J. with Ebbers, G. (FE)
Nobes, C. and Parker, R. (NP)
Radebaugh, L.H.
and Gray, S.J. (RG)
Roberts, C., Weetman, P.
and Gordon, P. (RWG)
Stolowy, H. and Lebas, M.J. (SL)
Walton, P., Haller, A.
and Raffournier, B. (WHR)
International Financial Reporting Thomson
and Analysis
International Accounting, Prentice Hall
4th edition (international edition)
Global Financial Reporting Palgrave
Comparative International FT Prentice Hall
Accounting, 7th edition
International Accounting and Wiley
Multinational Enterprises,
5th edition
International Financial Accounting: FT Prentice Hall
a comparative approach, 2nd edition
Corporate Financial Reporting: Thomson
A Global Perspective
International Accounting,a 2nd edition Thomson

a
All discussion here is based on this English language edition. Editions of this text have previously also been
published in French and German.
 International Accounting Books 355

Table 2. Analysis of the content of the textbooks (%)

ABJ CFM FE NP RG RWG SL WHR

No. of pages 636 511 669 564 436 744 624 510
Theory/concepts 26% 0 9% 9% 4% 13% 6% 0
International markets 0 8% 4% 0 4% 7% 0 4%
Classification 0 5% 0 4% 8% 4% 0 0
Standardisation/harmonisation 1% 10% 19% 11% 7% 15% 0 13%
Comparative country studies 0 16% 19% 37% 0 61% 0 63%
Financial statement analysis 14% 8% 0 4% 8% 0 16% 4%
Audit 0 0 0 5% 8% 0 0 4%
Management planning & control 0 10% 0 4% 14% 0 0 0
Financial risk management 0 7% 0 0 0 0 0 0%
Technical issues 58% 36% 48% 22% 46% 0% 77% 13%
Other 1% 0 0 5% 0 0 1% 0%

authors seem to have the courage to go down only one of these routes, and most attempt
some kind of combination, with varying degrees of success.
ABJ is essentially a technical accounting book, rather than an IA textbook. Neverthe-
less, it has been included here to demonstrate how theory can be integrated in this kind
of material, to set the techniques in context. It is essentially a re-working of Alexander
and Britton’s successful UK volume for an international market. Few of the textbooks
examined had separate sections explaining the theoretical underpinning and the success
of attempts to integrate theory with broader discussions was somewhat patchy. ABJ
also deals with interpretation of international financial statements and points out the pro-
blems of national focus that will remain, even if/when implementation of IFRS is comple-
tely successful for larger companies.
SL claims to be an introductory financial accounting text written from an ‘a-national’
user perspective. The level of detail in the teaching of techniques would seem singularly
inappropriate for users in many cultures, but perhaps it reflects the level of technical com-
petence considered necessary in others. It certainly starts at a much lower level than ABJ
(which assumes knowledge of double entry and basic accounts preparation). Basic prin-
ciples are explained and illustrated in the context of US and European (in accordance
with European Directives on Company Law) ‘models’ as well as providing extracts
from national or IFRS financial statements. Reference is made to detailed technical articles
in specialist accounting journals, which also seems somewhat at odds with the book’s
target audience.
Given that, on balance, ABJ and SL probably do not qualify as IA textbooks, let us turn
to safer ground. Choi and Mueller produced the original text for the US approach to IA,
focusing on multinational companies with some comparative material to provide some
local colour. Their text was also widely adopted in European IA course reading lists
(Stolowy and Tenenhaus, 1998). CFM is the latest generation of that text and is written
from a user perspective, although it does not shy away from the technical accounting
issues. It includes a wealth of examples, case studies, exercises and questions. Issues
tend to be considered from an integrated perspective, rather than individually. Conse-
quently, users of the book will benefit most if they already have a firm grounding in the
principles of financial accounting. The authors’ starting point is the US, but there are refer-
ences to and examples from other parts of the world. Non-US students would find this text
356 S. Aisbitt

of interest and would not be disadvantaged because of their background. This book also
refers to research articles, as well as other textbooks, making it a useful starting point
for those seeking to deepen their understanding of the issues.
RG takes a similar approach to CFM and aims to contribute to the development of
‘internationally competent people in accounting and business’. There is also an instruc-
tor’s manual advertised. The book includes examples and extensive references to aca-
demic publications. Nevertheless, the material is carefully selected to hold the reader’s
interest with ‘lighter’ examples, such as the Economist’s Big Mac Index being used to
demonstrate the purchasing power of the dollar in different countries.
FE is written from a European perspective, but deals with the issues of global financial
reporting by providing a detailed analysis of comparative practices and important issues in
just five countries: Britain, the USA, France, Germany and Japan. Concentration on this
‘pentad’ allows for meticulous explanations of the regulatory systems and individual regu-
lations. The authors refer to technical pronouncements as ‘further reading’ along with
international academic journals. The emphasis here is on regulation rather than theory
as the underlying rationale. There are end of chapter review questions and extracts from
published financial statements.
RWG concentrates on country comparisons and includes the examples of Egypt,
Hungary and China to illustrate the challenges faced by markets that are emerging or
in a state of transition. These are presented alongside the staples of comparative IA text-
books: France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, Australia, the USA and Japan.
IFRSs are used as a benchmark and useful tables summarise the principal differences
between national practice and IFRS. Extracts from published accounts are reproduced
as facsimiles, which add interest and variety. References for further reading are extensive
and include non-English language publications.
WHR also concentrates on country studies and uses local experts to describe local prac-
tice against an IFRS checklist. European countries dominate the selection, but transitional
and developing countries are given more than just token recognition. The technical issues
selected for separate discussion (foreign currency translation and segmental reporting) are
undoubtedly important, but somehow seem to be something of a postscript to what is
essentially a comparative IA book.
NP has the advantage of being the earliest text in the comparative IA market, which has
evolved to its seventh edition. It has been on reading lists since the first edition, so has the
advantage of familiarity. However, its benefits go beyond the merely comfortable. NP was
one of the first texts to recognise the value of bringing together a multi-national team of
authors, allowing the sharing of local knowledge against international benchmarks.
Solutions are provided in the text to the questions. NP includes both comparative IA
and technical issues in a more balanced way than most of the other books, suggesting
that these authors are happy to address both aspects of IA.
NP, RG and WHR all provide a chapter on international audit, which is a welcome
addition to this kind of text. Nevertheless, it would be even more useful to provide
further information about national auditing (i.e. comparative national auditing) rather
than purely concentrating on international audit.

Reference Works
The volume of country and GAAP guides on the market has increased and the number
of countries covered (and the price of the volumes) has been augmented in recent years.
The target audience for these volumes seems to be the practitioner, although some
(notably Alexander and Archer, 2003) have regularly appeared on university reading lists.
 International Accounting Books 357

Nevertheless, they are important reference sources in the academic environment to support
study of particular countries/regulations in more detail. While some (e.g. Wilson et al.,
2001) include a comparative element, others (e.g. Alexander and Archer, 2003) remain
collections of material about GAAP in individual countries. A relatively recent addition
to this sector of the reference library is Transacc, edited by the late Dieter Ordelheide.
This comprehensive work includes contributions by local practitioners and draws the
important distinction between practice in the financial statements of individual companies
and groups. Nevertheless, some questions have been raised regarding the possibility of
errors or doubtful interpretations in Transacc (e.g. Nobes, 2001; 2004).
The publisher, Routledge, in association with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in
England and Wales Research Board produced a useful series of country studies of
accounting in a dozen European countries in the 1990s. These used local authors but
‘foreign’ (UK based) series editors and they have been regarded as authoritative in
terms of history and current regulations. Sadly, these volumes have not been updated
for the latest changes in regulations, nor has the series been extended to cover newer Euro-
pean countries. Such work seems to have become the province of journals such as
Accounting in Europe.
The transition to IFRS has spawned a plethora of manuals on the subject. The IASB’s
annual book of IFRSs is hard to beat in terms of value for money, but it simply presents the
regulations in the order in which they were promulgated. For detailed advice on
implementation, works such as Cairns (2002), and Ernst & Young (2005) are more
useful. However, these reference works are essentially directed at the practitioner and
they would probably go beyond the needs of the majority of students.
Even before the pre-occupation with regulation precipitated by the Enron and World-
com scandals, there was a growing interest in the regulation of financial reporting. A
number of research projects in Europe led to some useful publications for background
reading for the academic or more advanced student (e.g. McLeay and Riccaboni, 2001;
Flower and Lefebvre, 1997). Some contributions to theory (e.g. Riahi-Belkaoui, 1997)
have been published as books, rather than through the academic journal route.
The increase in the number of academic journals dealing with international issues (not
to mention coverage of IA in more ‘mainstream’ journals) is daunting for students (and
teachers!) new to IA. It is a pity that reasonably priced collections of good quality articles
(e.g. Blake and Hossain, 1996) seem to have fallen out of favour with the publishers.
Nevertheless, the latest outputs in Edward Elgar’s New Library of International Account-
ing series (series editor, Christopher Nobes) do provide some guidance on key articles
published in recent years in themed areas of IA. However, with each of the five
volumes priced at over £125, this is very much a collection for the wealthier library,
rather than the individual.
One of the greatest concerns for authors (and potentially for educators) now is
keeping material up to date. Many of the textbooks now have a companion website
where updates are posted. Other sources of up to date information include the websites
of the larger accounting firms (Deloitte’s iasplus.com website has some particularly
useful comparisons between national GAAP and IFRS) and the regulatory bodies.
Some of these also provide an e-mail alerting service, but the weekly digests of
news provided by bodies such as accountingeducation.com are probably more manage-
able. Recent examples of published financial statements are also readily available on-
line now, so, for example, it was easy for anyone who wanted to download the first
reported qualified audit report on IFRS financial statements as soon as it was published.
While it is always possible to go direct to companies’ websites, gateways such as edgar
and huginonline can save effort.
358 S. Aisbitt

Conclusion
Has this review demonstrated that materials to support IA courses have advanced since
Laidler and Pallett’s (1998) review and satisfied the criteria of ‘good books’ set out
here? This section of the article draws conclusions and makes recommendations from
the perspective of each of the three stakeholder groups identified in the title.

Publishers
The publishers certainly seem to be reaping the rewards of increased interest in IA with
extended catalogues in this area. Nevertheless, they do not seem to have developed a
clear marketing strategy. Some seem to be unclear about the segment of the market
they are targeting, while others seem to be offering a number of very similar products
to a single market. Clearer market segmentation would be helpful to the management
of the publishers’ own business, but might also allow for easier choices by other
stakeholders.

Authors
The dynamic nature of the subject and the increased competition (both from other texts
and other media) has certainly proved to be challenging for authors, but has increased
the volume of material available to teachers and students. As IA has developed, there
has been a clearer rationale presented to support new (and continuing) publications.
Most texts set out their perspective and the content seems to match the stated target audi-
ence (although SL seems to be something of an exception). Academic rigour seems to be
present in most textbooks, with clear links to official pronouncements and academic
research. Textbooks seem to be looking beyond their ‘home’ region, to take a more
global perspective. Texts are not merely descriptive of differences in accounting practices:
they try to set out their consequences for decision makers, although the full economic
effect is rarely quantified. There remains scope for a clearer definition of a theory of IA
and its integration in teaching resources.
In view of recent scandals, it seems surprising that textbooks do not give greater weight
to enforcement mechanisms, notably national audit requirements. Perhaps detailed case
studies will be published soon to address these areas. While it is good to see the shift
away from regionalisation in country studies, there are still notable omissions. The
materials concentrate on the needs and practices of larger (listed) commercial enterprises,
even though significant activity in the countries concerned could be conducted by smaller
businesses and the not for profit sector. Few of the materials examined here pay more than
a passing reference to the situation in potentially vital markets, such as China. There is still
more than a hint of the paternalism of colonialism when talking about IA in connection
with emerging markets or developing countries, not least because there seems little con-
sideration of the different activities to be reflected in financial statements. There is an
underlying assumption that all transactions can be shoe horned into accounting practices
designed for the developed world’s commercial activities and structures.
Authors of reference materials seem content to focus on specific areas, but some text-
book authors still seem to have problems deciding whether to focus on ‘issues’ for report-
ing by MNCs or comparative IA. The increasing frequency of new editions demonstrates
the pace of change of IA, but is clearly unsustainable in the longer term either from the
point of view of the economics of publication or the sanity of the authors. One possible
way of addressing this problem, and dealing with the problems of theory discussed
 International Accounting Books 359

above, would be to change the way in which materials are produced and to move towards
the approach used by many academics in their own course design. Printed textbooks could
be confined to presenting core underlying theory and concepts along with the historical
background and structures of institutions. ‘Historical’ case studies could be produced to
demonstrate the evolution of regulatory customs. This material would need to be
revised relatively infrequently. This would then free up authors’ time to concentrate on
updating the more topical areas, perhaps for dissemination via an annual printed ‘pamph-
let’ or internet download. The volume of the topical material being printed (or needing to
be downloaded) in this way could be kept to a minimum by making use of publicly avail-
able information (e.g. published financial statements) available elsewhere on the web.

Educators
It is the educator’s responsibility to assess quality and recommend resources, provide a
framework for using them and to fill in any gaps. A natural progression from this
process, along with the changing patterns of authorship, might be customised ‘books’
for specific courses drawing together materials from different authors (or even different
publishers) in a way that has already been mooted by some publishers (from within
their existing catalogues). The growth in IA materials described in this article demon-
strates that there is a wealth of resources available on a global basis: we simply need to
develop ways of selecting and utilising them more effectively.

If the recommendations set out in this article are followed, it may be that publishers,
authors and educators will all be able to sleep easily and wake refreshed, and ready to
face the new challenges of the dynamic world of IA.

Acknowledgements
The author is grateful for comments on earlier drafts of this article from Professor Peter
Walton, participants at the Emerging Issues in International Accounting 2004 conference
in Padova, Italy and two anonymous reviewers.

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Appendix 1
The British Accounting Association produces a biennial Research Register listing academic
staff members in accounting and finance throughout the British Isles. Institutions supply all
data voluntarily and, while the editors take all reasonable precautions to ensure the data
supplied is accurately published, it is not audited. The following table (prepared by the
author of this paper) summarises IA data from individual institutional listings from the
most recent editions of the Register (Helliar and Gray, 2000; Helliar et al., 2002, 2004).

Staff with lecturing

specialism and/or Staff with research
research interest in IA Total staff a Staff with lecturing interest in IA (but not
specialism in IA lecturing specialism)
Year No. % No. % No. No.
2000 142 9.45 1503 100 81 61
2002 149 9.87 1510 100 78 71
2004 147 9.45 1555 100 78 69

a
The total numbers of staff shown above differ from the total numbers declared in the introductions of the respect-
ive registers (2000: 1508; 2002: 1504; 2004: 1567). The differences are thought to be due to omissions of staff
members from institutional listings (although they are included in name listings) and multiple entries for a small
number of staff who hold posts in more than one institution.