La contabilidad en el mundo¿un instrumento para reflejar la realidad económica o para cambiarla?

Abstract

Financial reporting has been the main, and only, information system for many years in the world, and its internationalization has occurred gradually over the last century. However, sustainability reporting, which appeared at the end of the century, has begun to be regulated at great speed in this decade, and unlike financial reporting standards, it has been an international process since its inception. This article analyzes the evolution of corporate reporting standards over time and space, in order to understand how the purpose of the information, and therefore of Accounting, has evolved as a function of certain events that have taken place in the world. Thus, financial reporting has gone from being oriented towards decision-making in the capital market to contemplating financial stability, and, for its part, at least in the European panorama, sustainability reporting is oriented towards influencing the decisions of companies and stakeholders. This implies a change of focus and a broadening of the notion of public interest.