Journal of Business & Economic Policy

A Structural Examination of the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) Governance Network
Patricia A. Goedl, CPA, Ph.D.

Abstract
Although the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) governance network—the web of organizations responsible for international accounting regulation—was restructured in 2013 to address international concerns regarding independence from vested interests, it is theorized that the restructuring of the physical organizational structure did not necessarily change the underlying structural embeddedness of the IASB’s governance network. A longitudinal study examining the structural properties of the reorganized network verses the properties of the former network examined in Goedl (2012) was completed building on Laughlin’s (1991) framework on the effect of environmental disturbances on organizational transitions and transformations. It was found that although the organizational structure of the IASB’s current governance network appears to be vastly different from the previous network, the recently reorganized governance network exhibits nearly identical structural properties as the governance network defined in Goedl (2012). In particular, a robust relational tie to the professional perspectives of banking was found in both networks. If it is accepted that in response to a disturbance networks can appear changed but not truly changed in a fundamental way, then it must be accepted that this underlying network is inextricably connected to due process, accountability, transparency, and stakeholder influence within the IASB and that the existence of such a stable underlying networks requires further understanding, research, and monitoring.

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