Research Method and Unit Analysis

In-depth interviews are deemed to be the most appropriate qualitative technique to explore the factors and internal barriers that influence the preparedness of companies for IFRS convergence, in particular to understand the 'hows' and 'whys' of the institutional isomorphism influence the IFRS adoption. Prior studies have studied the IFRS adoption by using survey and archival research which have relatively restriction in understanding the IFRS adoption process in the organisation level (see Jones & Higgins, 2006; Jermakowicz &Gornick-Tomaszewski, 2006; Guerreiro et al., 2012).

   Generally, full convergence with IFRS will have considerable impact on the publicly accountable entity in Malaysia.  Hence, companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia that meet the definition of ‘publicly accountable entity’ are selected as the unit of analysis in this study. To address the research context, personal interviews were conducted with Financial Controllers, Chief Accountants or Head of Finance/Accounts Department as they are presumed to be directly involved with the adoption process of IFRS in their respective companies and have better understanding and wide knowledge on IFRS. The length of the interviews ranged from 30 to 90 minutes. Interviews were semi-structured, which allowed greater adaptability and flexibility of the discussion. The general structure of the interview was controlled by the question guidelines.

   In total, seven public listed companies from a broad range of industries participated in this study. Five out of seven companies in the sample were conducted by face-to-face interview in Malaysia for one week period in April 2013 and another two interview were conducted via Skype due to location distance between interviewee and interviewer. The use of Skype in qualitative research is supported by academic researchers. In the past, telephone interview has been widely adopted in research. Holt (2010) argues that use of telephone interview is a new research medium with the additional benefit of enabling the ‘visual’ in the interview setting. Hanna (2012) extends the Holt's (2010) suggestion on telephone interview to Skype interview and states that "additional visual element offered by Skype that the interview can remain, to a certain extent at least, a ‘face-to-face’ experience while preserving the flexibility and ‘private space’ elements offered via telephone interviews".  Thus, Skype interview is deemed to be suitable medium apart from face-to-face personal interview to address this research context. 

References

Guerreiro, M. S., Rodrigues, L. L. and Craig, R. (2012), "Voluntary adoption of international reporting standards by large unlisted companies in Portugal - Institutional logics and strategic responses", Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 37, pp. 481-499.

Hanna, P. (2012), " Using internet technologies (such as Skype) as a research medium: a research note", Qualitative Research, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 239-242.

Holt, A. (2010), "Using telephones for narrative interviewing: a research note", Qualitative Research, Vol. 10, pp. 113–121.

Jermakowicz, E.K. and Gornick-Tomaszewski, S. (2006), "Implementing IFRS from the perspective of EU publicly traded companies", Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Vol. 15, pp. 170-196.

Jones, S. and Higgins, A. D. (2006), "Australia's switch to international financial reporting standards: A Perspective from Account Preparers", Accounting and Finance, Vol. 46, pp. 629-652.