Methods of implementations of IFRS: Proposition of a classification

Abstract

The IFRS have been adopted by most countries. This adoption differs in terms of method of implementation from one country to another. In fact, according Zeef and Nobes (2010), the adoption of IFRS in the world by countries to listed companies can be classified in accordance to its level of compliance with the IFRS issued by the IASB into four methods: "due process", "standard by standard", "optional" and "not fully converged". These authors have given some examples of adopters’ countries and have not classified the ensemble of countries adopting the IFRS in the world.

In this paper, we introduce a new classification of methods of implementation of IFRS based on the three criteria: The conformity with the IFRS Issued by the IASB, the necessity of a regulatory passage and the policy of implementation. Thus, the content analysis of studies and reports issued by several international entities concerning the adoption of IFRS around the world has permitted to establish statistics on the methods of implementation applied by the countries around the world. Additional investigations have showed that the state of implementation of IFRS differs from a continent to another.