Accounting diversity: International student survey outcomes

Abstract

The paper presents the results of the Polish-American survey focused on the problem of international accounting diversity. A survey was conducted on two undergraduate students groups taught respectively on Polish and U.S. GAAP accounting standards. The results showed that American students consider shareholders and managers as the main users of the financial statements, while Polish students think that tax authorities and managers are the main users. Both groups respect the Income Statement as important core of the financial statements. However, the Americans rely also strongly on the Statement of Stockholders’ Equity, while the Polish prefer more the Balance Sheet as a source of knowledge about the company performance. Moreover, we confirmed that cultural differences led to a different understanding of the word ‘probable’―which is more based according to the taught set of standards on a professional judgment than on the specific probability value. American students turned out to be less prudent in the area of accounting for write-offs. We also revealed that Polish and American students can have different attitudes to ethical issues in auditing―Americans showed more concern. We pointed out that the identified differences can be essential for reporting process by companies and capital groups operating not only on different accounting standards but also in different cultures.