Factors affecting IFRS adoption in listed companies: evidence from Vietnam

Abstract

Nowadays, The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) have been adopted in more than 160 countries. In fact, most ASEAN countries have adopted IFRS. The studies have noted the benefits of applying IFRS such as: Improving the quality of information on financial statements; Attract capital and enhance business cooperation opportunities, increase competitiveness, international integration in the world market; improve business performance, improve management and information quality; reflecting more reasonable business value; helping countries save cost of drafting, quickly integrate into international accounting standards; improve the quality of human resources in the field of auditing and financial accounting. Vietnam is a member of ASEM, APEC, WTO, AEC, etc. but the country is one of the few countries that has not yet announced an official roadmap for IFRS adoption. So IFRS adoption is necessary to proactively integrate more deeply into the regional and world economy. The Ministry of Finance of Vietnam has planned to adopt IFRS for listed firms, foreign-invested enterprises, public enterprises from 2022. In fact, some firms in Vietnam have voluntarily adopted IFRS as required during the operation process with related parties. This paper aims to identify factors that affect the adopting IFRS in Vietnamese listed firms. The authors used mixed research method by logistic regression model. Data was collected from 154 audited financial statements in 2018. The results show that some financial ratios such as return on equities (ROE) affect to IFRS adoption in listed firms of Vietnam. Therefore, if Vietnamese listed firms need to adopt IFRS effectively in the future, the Ministry of Finance should issue regulations for mandatory IFRS adoption to large firms with high rates of profitable on equity, promoting quality of auditing companies and audit program that are based on IFRS standards. © 2019 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada.