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Contemporary Accounting Research Vol. 42 No. 1 2025

“No comment”: Language frictions and the IASB 's due process

Eduardo Flores1; Brian Monsen2; Emily Shafron3; Christopher G. Yust3

1 School of Accounting and Actuarial Science University of São Paulo São Paulo Brazil · 2 Department of Accounting & Management Information Systems The Ohio State University Columbus Ohio USA · 3 James Benjamin Department of Accounting Texas A&M University College Station Texas USA

open access

Abstract

The IASB asserts that global stakeholder participation in the standard‐setting process is critical for developing and maintaining high‐quality accounting standards. However, the myriad languages used in countries that apply IFRS may impede this participation. We find that the IASB is less likely to receive comment letters from stakeholders in countries with languages that are linguistically distant from English. We also find that comment letters from more linguistically distant stakeholders are less likely to be quoted in IASB staff‐prepared comment letter summaries, suggesting that they have less influence in the redeliberation process. Path analyses show that this result arises from language frictions being associated with reduced writing quality and originality. We also find that language frictions prevent participation in other standard‐setting communication channels. Collectively, language frictions appear to impede the IASB's efforts to equitably obtain and consider valuable global feedback.

DOI
10.1111/1911-3846.13001
Volume
42
Issue
1
Pages
446-489
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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