Swedish and Swiss Implementation of IAS 40:: Does Culture Matter?

Sammanfattning: When fair value accounting was introduced in 2005 it was, and still is, controversial, and accused leaving greater room for subjectivity in the valuation. The aim of this paper is to investigate if culture, via a greater or lesser extent of emphasis on conservatism on the accounting value level, is to influence accounting practice in the fair value valuation when marking-to-model investment property according to IAS 40. The study focuses on the real estate market, since it with its relative illiquidity and therefore necessitated marking-to-model provides a unit of study where subjectivity is allowed to play a greater role than in more liquid markets. Valuation praxis in annual reports is studied, interviews with respondents in both countries performed and analysed, and an analysis of the components of the discount rates used in the valuation by the real estate companies conducted. No general conclusions could be drawn, but the study detected a few areas where practice appeared to slightly differ, and where further research may be of interest.