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Why do private firms adopt IFRS?

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  • Moritz Bassemir

Abstract

Do private firms voluntarily adopt IFRS? If so, why? Answers to these questions have been very limited so far, mainly due to the absence of financial data on private firms. In this paper, I exploit the German setting where the financial statements of private firms are widely available. I estimate multi-period logit regressions on the choice between national GAAP and IFRS for the consolidated financial statements of nearly 3000 German private firms with more than 14,000 firm-years in the period 1998–2010. My results suggest that the expected net benefits of IFRS adoption vary substantially across the group of private firms, depending on their financing needs, governance system, and organizational and informational complexity. Specifically, I find that private firms using IFRS have more growth opportunities, are more leveraged, are externally rated, seek to raise external capital by issuing public bonds or equity, are registered as a stock corporation, are characterized by private equity (PE) involvement, have more international sales and operations, and have a Big Five auditor. These insights should be of great interest to both preparers and regulators in the current debate about the future of financial reporting in private firms.

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  • Moritz Bassemir, 2018. "Why do private firms adopt IFRS?," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(3), pages 237-263, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acctbr:v:48:y:2018:i:3:p:237-263
    DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2017.1357459
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    6. Katrin Hummel & Peter Rötzel, 2019. "Mandating the Sustainability Disclosure in Annual Reports—Evidence from the United Kingdom," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 71(2), pages 205-247, May.
    7. Costanza Fabio, 2018. "Voluntary application of IFRS by unlisted companies: evidence from the Italian context," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(2), pages 73-86, May.
    8. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Diep, 2021. "Applicability of IFRS in Vietnam stock exchange listed companies: Perspective from Theory of Planned Behavior," HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE - ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY, vol. 11(1), pages 109-121.
    9. Flauzeliton José Aparecido Gonçalves & André Aroldo Freitas De Moura & Fabio Yoshio Suguri Motoki, 2022. "What influences the implementation of IFRS for SMEs? The Brazilian case," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(2), pages 2947-2992, June.
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