Abstract:

Over the years, the number of firms acknowledging adherence to International Financial Reporting Standards has increased steadily. The study examines firm specific characteristics of Tunisian companies that have voluntarily prepared their financial reports using IFRS.
The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics that could explain the preparedness of 48 listed Tunisian companies to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards in 2008. Many characteristics have been cited in the literature to explain preparedness of companies to adopt IFRS.
In this paper, the following characteristics have been selected: Company size, commercial internationalization, auditor type, indebtedness, foreign participation in the equity of the company and the rate of profitability.
Our results indicate that commercial internationalization and auditor type are significantly and positively associated with the level of preparedness to adopt IFRS.