Dimensions of National Culture and the Accounting Environment - the Spanish Case

Abstract

Gray (1988) has put forward a hypothesis on how a national accounting environment might reflect the cultural dimensions identified by Hofstede (1980, 1983). A number of studies have tested Gray's hypothesis including one by Pourjalali and Meek (1995) which identified a match between changes in cultural dimensions and the accounting environment in Iran following the revolution.

In this paper we replicate this work in the context of Spain following the death of Franco in 1975 and the emergence of a democratic constitution in 1978. Specifically we:

1) Consider Gray's hypothesis built on Hofstede's cultural dimensions and review some empirical tests of the hypotheses. 2) Building on the work of Hofstede and Gray, we: a) Put forward some hypotheses on how we would expect cultural dimensions to change in Spain with the transition to democracy. b) Identify the changes in the Spanish financial and management accounting environment which we would expect to arise, following Gray, from there changes in cultural dimensions. 3) Review developments in accounting in Spain following the transition to democracy in order to identify how well these fit with our hypotheses.

Key Words: Management accounting; Spain; Culture

JEL Classification: M41, M46, M47