Abstract
As part of due process, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) solicits the views of its constituency as input into its standard-setting procedure. The objectives of this study were to describe the participation in the standard-setting process and to assess the relative power of the participating constituents. An analysis of the development of SFAS No. 87, on employers' accounting for pensions, was conducted. Based on a review of the standard-setting process and the concept of political power, and an evaluation of the previous empirical literature, the relative amount of apparent power for a respondent was hypothesized to be a function of respondent characteristics and submission characteristics. Respondent characteristics tested were respondent category, size of respondent, and whether the respondent was a representational organization. Submission characteristics tested were whether oral testimony was provided, extent of reasoning used, number of issues addressed, and length of the written submission. Additionally, project characteristics, type of issue and stage of process, were asserted to have a moderating impact on the effect of respondent and submission characteristics. Two alternative power measures were calculated for each constituent based on a comparison of the respondent's preferences with the subsequent FASB preferences. An analysis similar to that employed in salary discrimination studies was utilized in order to test the hypotheses. Descriptive statistics indicated that in terms of dominating the input into the standard-setting process, the Big Eight was highly visible in providing oral testimony and industry was highly visible in providing the greatest number of submissions. However, results from the ANOVAs and multiple comparisons suggested that no single constituent group clearly dominated in terms of influence on the outcomes of the process of setting pension standards. Additionally, results from regression models suggested that submission characteristics and other respondent characteristics affected the amount of power...
Wilburn, Nancy Lou (1987). An empirical analysis of the relative power of constituents participating in the standard-setting process of the Financial Accounting Standards Board : employers' accounting for pensions. Texas A&M University. Texas A&M University. Libraries. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /DISSERTATIONS -749063.