The Role of Business Environment Indicators in Determining the Level of IFRS Adoption: An Empirical and Comparative Study

Abstract

This study examines the impact of business environment indicators measured by legal and economic indicators on the level of IFRS adoption for a sample of countries in the Middle East from 2001 to 2010. IFRS adoption is the dependent variable in the model. While business environment indicators is the independent and the variable of interest, measured by developing a composite measure taking the mean of foure indi- cators comprising legal origin, accounting enforcement, investor protection, and economic growth. Firm size, market size, and Big N were used as control variables. The results indicate that there is a positive and significant association between the level of IFRS adoption and business environment indicators, implying that countries with common law legal origin background, high accounting enforcement, weak investor pro- tection, and low-income level are more likely to adopt IFRS compared to all other countries. Based on the results, the study recommends that legal indicators in general, legal origin, and accounting enforcement in particular, are the most important indicators to focus on in order to increase the success of IFRS adoption decision in both countries that adopt IFRS or others in the region that still study it.