engleski

International Accounting Standards Implementation in Croatia: the Experiences of Manufacturing Industry

Globalisation has the impact on all the segments of socio-economic life, particularly of a small country, which has to adjust to the new requirements of the globalising environment and to get involved into globalisation processes effectively and efficiently without delaying that could be punished with unrecoverable consequences for the whole small economy. One of the fields under the strong influence is accounting. From the early 1990s, Croatian accounting system has been developing under the impact of two processes: transition and globalisation. Together with the transition of the whole economy, the accounting transition tried to turn the uniform accounting system typical for planned economies, into a modern one, comparable to the systems of developed market economies. The process was based on direct implementation of International Accounting Standards, which was in the same time, a way to take a part in international accounting harmonisation as the consequence of globalisation, and the precondition of its future flows without institutional barriers. The paper examines the successfulness of the accounting transition and harmonisation in Croatia through the IAS implementation analysis, particularly some frequently discussed topics of IAS 16 and 2 like depreciation methods, rates, capitalization, revaluation, inventroy methods, inventory valuation, fair value implementation, etc. The research is based on the random sample of 140 enterprises of Croatian manufacturing industry in late 1990s. Besides the original research results, some contribution on IAS implementation and harmonisation problems usually pointed out by Croatian accounting professionals and scientists are also included. Along with the analysis of the present situation, prospective of accounting principles harmonisation toward the European Union is discussed in the light of external institutions expectations and divided internal opinions and attitudes.

international accounting standards; accounting harmonization; accounting developments

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