• français
    • English
  • English 
    • français
    • English
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
BIRD Home

Browse

This CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsJournals BIRDResearch centres & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsJournals

My Account

Login

Statistics

View Usage Statistics

Towards an Understanding of the Phases of Goodwill Accounting in Four Western Capitalist Countries: From Stakeholder Model to Shareholder Model

Thumbnail
Date
2008-01
Link to item file
http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00366038/en/
Dewey
Contrôle de gestion - Comptabilité
Sujet
United States; Japan; Great Britain; Germany; France; Corporate governance; Stakeholder/shareholder models; Social nature of accounting; Accounting history; Goodwill
JEL code
M41
Journal issue
Accounting, Organizations and Society
Volume
33
Number
7-8
Publication date
01-2008
Article pages
718-755
Publisher
Elsevier
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2007.07.002
URI
https://basepub.dauphine.fr/handle/123456789/1389
Collections
  • DRM : Publications
Metadata
Show full item record
Author
Stolowy, Hervé
Richard, Jacques
Ding, Yuan
Type
Article accepté pour publication ou publié
Abstract (EN)
The objective of this paper is to illustrate that the change in shareholders' attitude towards firms (from stakeholder model to shareholder model) influences the accounting treatments of goodwill. Our study is based on four countries (Great Britain, the United States, Germany, and France) and covers more than a century, starting in 1880. We explain that all these countries have gone through four identified phases of goodwill accounting, classified as (1) “static” (immediate or rapid expensing), (2) “weakened static” (write-off against equity), (3) “dynamic” (recognition with amortization over a long period) and (4) “actuarial” (recognition without amortization but with impairment if necessary). We contribute several new features to the existing literature on goodwill: our study (1) is international and comparative, (2) spans more than a century, (3) uses the stakeholder/shareholder models to explain the evolution in goodwill treatment in the four countries studied. More precisely, it relates a balance sheet theory, which distinguishes four phases in accounting treatment for goodwill, to the shift from a stakeholder model to a shareholder model, which leads to the preference for short-term rather than long-term profit, (4) contributes to the debate on whether accounting rules simply reflect or arguably help to produce the general trend towards the shareholder model, (5) demonstrates a “one-way” evolution of goodwill treatment in the four countries studied, towards the actuarial phase.

  • Accueil Bibliothèque
  • Site de l'Université Paris-Dauphine
  • Contact
SCD Paris Dauphine - Place du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny 75775 Paris Cedex 16

 Content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons 2.0 France (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) license.