Form a group of four students, then decide who will do each of the following tasks:

Student A — Explore USA generally accepted accounting principles to determine the specific standard that addresses the accounting for research and development costs. Determine the basic principles.

Student B — Explore international generally accepted accounting principles to determine the specific standard that addresses the accounting for research and development costs. Determine the basic principles.

Student C — Identify a USA company with significant research and development costs. Determine how those costs were reported, and interact with Student A to determine if USA GAAP was applied.

Student D — Identify a non-USA company with significant research and development costs. Determine how those costs were reported, and interact with Student B to determine if international GAAP was applied.
Group Get to together and discuss your findings and conclusions. Do inconsistencies in accounting standards from one region to the next potentially inhibit the ability to compare financial results? In light of your observations, does it make sense that there is significant effort being devoted to the development of uniform global accounting standards.