An Analysis of the SEC’s Drive to Bring IFRS to U.S. Capital Markets

In this paper, we analyze the SEC’s deliberations on adopting IFRS in the United States between 2005 and 2017. We mobilize the theoretical framework of institutional entrepreneurship to study the role of the SEC’s Chairs in promoting IFRS adoption and how they were enabled and con-strained in these endeavors by the institutional environment. Based on archival as well as interview material, we show how the Chairs’ characteristics influenced their respective motivation to pro-mote IFRS adoption. We also show how the presence or absence of economic and political pres-sures, the political and regulatory environment, the SEC’s organizational structure and the general political climate enabled or constrained the Chairs’ efforts. Our paper contributes to literatures on determinants of IFRS adoption, regulatory decision-making and the U.S. debate on IFRS.