Altarawneh, MSS (2015) An Investigation into the Suitability of International Financial Reporting Standards for Small and Medium-sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs) in Jordan. Doctoral thesis, Liverpool John Moores University.

Text 158061_thesis electronic copy.pdf - Published Version Download (6MB)

Abstract

The Full IFRS caters to the needs of shareholding corporations and their investors, which also led to incurring high cost especially for SMEs due to the requirements of financial reporting constructed for public companies as it is very complex and requires a high amount of disclosure (Fearnley and Hines, 2007, Haller and Eirle, 2008, Eierle and Haller, 2009). Hence, for the purpose of reducing essentially the reporting burdens facing SMEs, IASB in 2009 issued IFRS for SMEs.
This study aims to investigate the relevance and suitability of IFRS for SMEs in Jordan. It will also analyse the current problems faced by Jordanian SMEs in the light of applying the current IFRSs, furthermore, the expected benefits from applying IFRS for SMEs, will be addressed.
A total of 10 interviews with external auditors were conducted to test the ground and determine the relevant topics within IFRS for SMEs in Jordanian SMEs context. In addition to that, a total of 605 questionnaires were distributed to external auditors and financial managers of SMEs who prepare financial statements based on full IFRS.
The overall outcomes reveal that managers; banks and creditors; public authorities; and analysts were the most frequent and important SMEs’ financial information users while both employees and shareholders were found as rare users of financial statements presented by SMEs. Furthermore, the current applied standards are substantially characterised to embrace many problems such as; the complexity of measurements and recognitions; high disclosures requirements; making inappropriate decisions and other issues pertaining to preparing financial reports. On the other hand, although the respondents especially the auditors group were evidently worried about several potential obstacles that may impede the effective application of IFRS for SMEs, both groups of users were obviously optimistic about the capability of IFRS for SMEs to mitigate the aforementioned problems and to enhance the accounting practice in terms of preparing and using the financial information. With respect to topics from full IFRS that have been omitted in IFRS for SMEs, all respondents agreed to exclude these topics from the IFRS for SMEs’ content due to the irrelevance of these topics to SMEs’ context. Likewise, the overall participants approved on the most proposals under IFRS for SMEs compared to those based on full IFRS except the suggestion associated with measuring some kind of assets, for instance; investment property; intangible; property; plant and equipment, which were rejected only by the group of managers while several proposals regarding expensing some kind of costs instead of capitalise them as well as lease matters were neither agreed nor disagreed by respondents. Finally the majority of responses show that both groups were willing to adopt IFRS for SMEs.
The key contribution provided evidences as to whether the adoption of IFRS for SMEs would be a necessary undertaking. Thus, a recommendation were mainly made to the standard-setters on the basis of preparers’ perceptions of the importance of applying such financial standards.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	full IFRS, IFRS for SMEs, IASB, SMEs, Jordan
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HG Finance
Divisions:	Liverpool Business School
Date Deposited:	28 Oct 2016 12:51
Last Modified:	03 Sep 2021 23:26
DOI or ID number:	10.24377/LJMU.t.00004444
Supervisors:	Pegum, R, Menacere, K and Agyei-Boapeah, H
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/4444

View Item