A PRAGMATIC APPROACH TO ACCOUNTING STANDARD SETTING FOR BUSINESS COMBINATION

Accounting forms an integral part of its ethno linguistic framework. Considering the arbitrary nature of accounting standard-setting and accepting unity in diversity one can endorse a pragmatic approach, for which accounting standards provide a means of enforcing the cultural background from which the underlying assumptions are drawn Thus a single set of accounting standards loses meaning in foreign cultural contexts, especially those which are context-dependant. In this paper, goodwill accounting is explored from the perspective of the cultural context, resulting in a semantic taxonomy resting upon market status, cultural context and language, while comparing it to the status of IFRS endorsement for a sample of 79 jurisdictions. The paper uses qualitative research methods as a base for establishing a taxonomy of accounting jurisdictions based upon.