Neutrality and “Prism Effect” of the Financial Report in the Global Contest: What Prospects?

The globalization of the economy favors increasingly stringent relations between heterogeneous economic and social systems and companies that are organized and managed very differently. As a consequence, international markets are characterized by actors with different physiognomies for management styles and communication modes. It follows that there is an urgent need to agree on homogeneous standards of information, including for budget statements, traditionally considered as a primary source of disclosure to stakeholders of the company’s economic and financial assets. Is it still possible to use a single budget that satisfies a so diverse and wider audience of potential users? In the accounting tradition, in many countries, especially for “practical” reasons, a principle of uniqueness and therefore of “neutrality” of the budget has been established which must be drafted to satisfy all potential recipients at the same time: it must be based on independent and impartial norms, to favor the particular needs of only certain categories of users. The paper represents this principle with the “prism effect”: a single source of information should at the same time adequately respond to the information needs of a large and varied audience of operators. Is this still possible in changing global and “glocal” realities where most economically strong nations want to impose their own accounting languages? What are the possible solutions to the changing needs of information?