Abstract
This study addresses the effects of the accounting reclassification of
members shares in Spanish cooperatives motivated by the new accounting
standards. The study reports the results of semi-structured in-depth
interviews with experts. The accounting reclassification from equity to
liability of members shares has effects even if there is no actual material
change in terms of the members shares. Thus cooperatives are incentivised
to modify their statutes in order to retain their equity accounting
classification, even when this modification is not desired. The evidence is
obtained from qualitative methods and a generalization using quantitative
methods would be interesting if data were available. The present
study provides a starting-point for further research into the use of lending
technologies in the financing of cooperatives and the use of accounting
information in granting bank finance to cooperatives, thereby contributing
to the study of the use of accounting information by capital providers.
There is very little literature on the effects of equity-liability accounting
reclassification motivated by a change in an accounting standard. The
study takes advantage of the recent accounting standard change in Spain
which may be considered as a natural experiment and contributes to the
literature on the effects of accounting standards.
