MEDIEVAL TRADERS AS INTERNATIONAL CHANGE AGENTS: A COMPARISON WITH TWENTIETH CENTURY INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTING FIRMS

The International Accounting Standards Committee's (IASC) exposure draft on “Comparability of Financial Statements” has increased the awareness of the need for international changes in accounting standards. Since the IASC cannot mandate these changes, the accounting community needs to learn how to communicate, adopt and implement changes. This paper discusses an important aspect of the change process, the change agent. The first part of the paper presents an historical example of an important group of international change agents, the Jewish traders of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Parallels are then drawn between the Medieval Jewish traders and modern international accounting firms. Finally, the potential for accounting firms to act as change agents is discussed in the context of concepts from theories of social change.