International Accounting Diversity in the Aftermath of a Crisis

Financial crisis periods have their way of bringing judgments upon a series of elements within the financial system. Financial reporting is maybe one of the first places where we tend to look for information and explanations. The interesting aspect is moreover to take a look at the diversity of accounting practices and their connection to difficult periods in history. Grouping the classification systems gives an approach meant to simplify a complex world (Roberts et al., 2005, p. 198). Similar classifications are often useful in reaching a certain degree of understanding some specific characteristics for a chosen national accounting system at a specific moment in time (Elliott and Elliott, 2006, p. 9), but also in order to explain the existent accounting diversity at international level (Riahi-Belkaoui, 2002, p. 56). The accounting diversity is the one that actually turns into the diversity of accounting practices and policies which are used in different countries around the world. These differences can take the shape of financial accounting information disclosure or they can act through the level of flexibility in correspondence with the accounting practices used within different national accounting systems. Therefore our purpose within this research demarche is to accomplish a complex analysis on international accounting diversity as perceived before and after the current financial crisis.