The paper reviews prior researches on institutional factors, i.e. economics, politics, law system, finance system and accounting profession affecting IAS/IFRS adoption in a country. The paper analyses Vietnam s institutional conditions to find out favourable and unfavourable factors influencing IAS/IFRS adoption in Vietnam. The results show that Vietnam is facing a lot of obstacles to IAS/IFRS adoption. The implication is that the Vietnamese government should carefully plan an approach to converging with IAS/IFRS.