Abstract:

The purpose of our research is to reveal if there are differences in the perception of the role of accountants and accounting information in the different economic and cultural environments. The continental type of the accounting system and its role as well as the position of accounting profession have their historical roots and were formed under the condition of European historical, social and economic environment. The economic development in the Asian countries, although in recent decades it acquires a global character, has its own characteristics which arose from the different cultural, social and historical environment. These roots are reflected in the different views on the various aspects of the financial reporting, inter alia in the approaches to deal with situations as a part of the financial reporting. In the last two-three decades China economy has been one of the fastest growing economies. The process of transformation of the economic system to the market principles including the implementation of IFRS has been started and it could cause the changes in the thinking and approaches in the many areas of economic life. To find out if there are any differences in the views and attitudes to the solution of selected situations as a part of accounting profession and financial reporting has become an impetus for our research. We use the method of questionnaire survey which included questions of different forms. The respondents were two groups of the university first year students, first one from the China Republic and the second from the Czech Republic. Both groups included students at the beginning of their university studies, having passed mostly the comprehensive secondary school, coming from larger cities and lower and middle classes. The results confirmed our hypothesis that there are some differences in the students' opinions depending the nationality. We found that there are differences both in the opinions on the role of accountants in business management and on the role of financial reporting information as well as in the attitudes to the solution of selected accounting situations. These findings have many limitations, but they can be considered as the first pre-research phase, which could become the basis for further, more extensive and deeper research, the results of which can contribute to the vocational education for accounting profession.

Keywords:

Cultural differences, financial reporting, accounting practice, professional education.