ABSTRACT
This chapter relates accounting systems to sociologists’ classifications of culture. Culture is defined as the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another. Culture is collective, not individual. It is not directly observable but can be inferred from people’s behaviour. Researchers in the field of sociology have established quantitative scales of cultural dimensions. Hofstede and Schwartz, among others, have each provided scales of cultural dimensions that have been used in accounting research (criticisms and limitations are discussed in the chapter). A highly influential study by Gray, published in 1988, derived four pairs of accounting values from combinations of Hofstede’s dimensions of culture. Empirical research has found some support for the existence of accounting values as predicted by Gray. The chapter cites views that support, and views that challenge, the idea that culture is an important influence on accounting.
