International accounting standardization : the institutional legitimacy of a private standards setters

The objective of this paper is to analyse the sources of legitimacy of the producing organizations of accounting standards.The objective of this paper is to analyse the sources of legitimacy of the producing organizations of accounting standards. Firstly, we examine the need for harmonisation of accounting standards in particular to maintain the confidence of investors and savers in the financial and economic system. Secondly, the paper presents the internal and external sources of legitimacy and analyses the legitimacy of the International Standard Accounting Board (IASB)