تاثیر استانداردهای حسابداری در تصمیمات مصون سازی The impact of accounting standards on hedging decisions

Introduction Beyond its stated objective of representing the economic reality of business transactions, accounting can also act in a reverse manner. This observation is encapsulated in the phrase by Hines (1988) which states that: “in communicating reality we construct reality”. This constructivist interpretation of accounting has been investigated in the accounting literature by various authors who often refer to “postmodern” thinkers (e.g. Chiapello and Baker, 2011). For example, Jean Baudrillard’s theoretical notion of “hyperreality” has been applied to the notions of income and capital, which can be seen as self-referential signs where “the map begets the territory” (Macintosh et al., 2000, p. 32). Interestingly, however, this theoretical approach has resulted in little or no field-based empirical research. The present paper aims to fill this gap by providing an empirical example of the impact of accounting standards on the economic decisions of field managers. In our study, the field managers are corporate treasurers. In specific terms, we investigate how a mandatory change in accounting standards for derivative instruments – principally IAS 39 and IFRS 9 (IASB, 2010) – has redefined the accounting “model” (i.e. the accounting standards) that must be followed when preparing the “map” (i.e. accounting results) of the economic “territory” (i.e. economic decisions). Our research provides support to those who argue that international accounting standards mandating fair value accounting have had a negative pro-cyclical impact on the real economy1 . Our study provides some support for this thesis in that we find an impact on corporate treasurers’ economic decisions arising from accounting standards. The impact appears to be related to a fear of earnings volatility. In addition, we find a complex and nuanced process, with heterogeneous behaviors and dynamic learning processes. Once they have acquired agility in dealing with the new accounting standards, some treasurers are in a position to engage in earnings management to reduce earnings volatility.