Professor Choi of Tobin recognized for study of Korean accounting standards

Yeong C. Choi, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Accountancy at The Peter J. Tobin College of Business, was honored by the Korean Accounting Association on June 21 for his pioneering work on harmonizing Korean accounting standards with those used in the rest of the world.

Choi’s paper, “A Study for the Korean Accounting Curriculum Development of Merchandising Inventory Recording System,” looked at the accounting practices by one of the largest Korean corporations and recommended changes to the way in which accounting in taught in Korean business schools. Published in the April issue of the Korean Accounting Journal, the paper earned Choi the Accounting Education Innovation Award, given by the Korean Accounting Association after deliberation by the Association’s Accounting Education Competition Enforcement Committee.

Using the case study method, with a particular emphasis on Hyundai Motor Company -- Korea’s second largest export company after Samsung Electronics -- Choi found that Korean accounting theories did not meet the standards set by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) or International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

“The discrepancy between international and Korean accounting standards stems from the country’s emergence from an agricultural economy in the 1950s to the economic powerhouse that it is today,” said Choi, referring to the Korean economy’s current status as the world’s 10^th largest. “Many Korean accounting textbooks contained content in the form of standards that are not acceptable to either GAAP or IFRS.”

As a result of his findings, Korean accounting education is being reassessed. To aid in that reassessment, Choi developed a new design, “Hierarchical Order of Accounting for Merchandising Business,” that details proper processes, procedures and methods for this area of accounting. This concept will be incorporated into a new accounting textbook edited by Wayne B. Thomas, Ph.D., Chair of Accounting at the University of Oklahoma, and published by McGraw-Hill Education.

The paper also attracted the attention of the editorial board of the International Journal of Business and Research, which recently invited Choi to become a member of either its editorial board or its reviewing team.