On the IASB’s construction of legitimacy – the case of the agenda consultation project
研究国际会计准则理事会如何通过与利益相关者的互动来构建其合法性，以2011/2012年的议程咨询项目为例，发现其可能只是形式上强调用户导向，并试图将议程制定描绘成客观证据驱动的过程。
As an expertise-based private standard-setter, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) needs to work continuously to maintain its position as the uncontested rule-making authority of financial reporting in the international regulatory arena. The present paper analyses how the IASB constructs legitimacy in interaction with its constituents. We focus on the specific case of the IASB’s agenda consultation in 2011/2012 as this project was explicitly introduced by the IASB to promote its legitimacy. We carry out a comprehensive study of the agenda consultation that takes into account all board meetings, comment letters and public board activities. We show that the consultation activities in this project were used by the IASB to pronounce its user (investor) orientation, which, however, might be formal rather than substantial, and to integrate a loyal circle of constituents further. It is also shown that the IASB increasingly tried to portray agenda-setting (and standard-setting) as an objective and evidence-based procedure that resonates with constituents’ demands, although it might in fact enlarge the discretionary leeway of IASB (and staff) members.