Research in the Department of Accounting

Our research in accounting for sustainable development is at the heart of Birmingham Business School’s mission to provide thought leadership for a responsible future. We study how accounting and accountability practices can enable humanity to address the complex social and ecological challenges it currently faces, including those set out by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs).

Central to this work is our research on accounting for carbon net-zero and nature-positive, to address the interconnected challenges of climate change and nature loss. We have pioneered new understandings of how accounting calculations interact with the social-ecological systems comprising Earth’s biosphere, upon which our economies and societies depend. Our work also investigates how alternative and sustainability driven forms of enterprise, including co-operatives, enact alternative modes of accountability, ones that go beyond shareholder value, to prioritise collective responsibility, community well-being, and ecological care. This research fundamentally informs our teaching and our engagement with the accounting profession, industry and governments. Members of the department have active roles in setting UK sustainability reporting standards.

• The role, work undertaken, and information used by investment analysts and fund managers, funded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.

• Textual analysis of reporting disclosures in analysts’ reports, credit rating agency reports, annual reports, integrated reports, including CEO tone, tax, and climate risk disclosure.

• Sustainability reporting and sustainability-related financial disclosure.

• Financial Accounting and Reporting of Co-operatives.

• Integration of Sustainability into Professional Accounting Education.

• Accounting for Democratic Governance, Social Justice, and Environmental Stewardship in Alternative Organisations.

• Accounting for Sustainable Development Goals. Part of this project is funded by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh. The project examines the organisational level translation of the UN SDG framework and accounting thereof. Three PhD projects have been completed as part of this project funded by the Saudi and Chelian Governments and the University of Sheffield.

• Sustainability accounting and accountability in the developing countries.

Associated people:

• Salma Ashour
• Ataur Belal
• Annika Beelitz
• Thomas Cuckston
• Elisavet Mantzari
• Bisola Joloko
• Mayya Konovalova
• Li Lin
• Parvez Mia
• Raeni
• Nick Rowbottom

At the Department of Accounting, we explore the social, institutional, and political aspects of corporate reporting regulation and practice. The topics we study include how accounting, corporate reporting, and management commentary standards are developed and operationalised in practice, the organisation of regulatory bodies, developments in digital reporting, how organisations communicate corporate crises, climate change and carbon emissions, and the role of accounting in the co-operative sector.

This research informs our teaching and our engagement with the accounting profession and policy-makers. Projects in corporate reporting regulation and practice led by scholars in the Department of Accounting include:

• The role, work undertaken, and information used by investment analysts and fund managers, funded by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.

• Textual analysis of reporting disclosures in analysts’ reports, credit rating agency reports, annual reports, integrated reports, including CEO tone, tax, and climate risk disclosure.

• Sustainability reporting and sustainability-related financial disclosure.

• Digital transformation of global accountability standards: Competition, collaboration and standardisation, funded by Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ).

• Financial Accounting and Reporting of Co-operatives.

Associated people

• Omiros Georgiou
• Shahed Imam
• Elisavet Mantzari
• Nick Rowbottom
• Stephanie Tiller
• Idlan Zakaria
• Salma Ashour
• Annika Beelitz

Academics in the Department of Accounting look at taxation from a social and organisational perspective. We examine the political and organisational issues surrounding the creation of tax regulation and tax policy for direct taxes such as corporate tax, and indirect taxes including environmental taxes, both in the UK and outside of the UK. Tax policy making raises both interesting governance issues and organisational practice considerations by tax administrations especially where problematic tax regulations are put in motion.

We look at corporate tax reporting, including voluntary tax disclosures and mandatory tax disclosures including compliance with international standards with particular reference to the areas of tax transparency and tax havens.

Other research areas focus on corporate communication between different social actors within tax administration, and the role of trust within tax compliance.

Associated people

• Salma Ashour
• Mayya Konovalova
• Rodrigo Ormeno Perez

A key area of expertise in the Accounting Department is the research and education in management control and performance management systems in various organisational contexts, including the public and third sectors. Previous research projects explored the design and implementation of performance measurements and management control systems, particularly as organizations face the challenges coming from change, integration, and sustainable development.

Projects in this area included the investigation of risk management, internal controls, strategic use of accounting, and the impact of integrated thinking in internal systems and controls.

The development of research projects and educational case studies based on such expertise has offered meaningful insights in advancing both theory and practice, while a range of high-quality international publications as well as externally funded projects continue to contribute to understanding the role of management accounting and control in dealing with contemporary organisational challenges such as technology and sustainability.

Members of the department have active roles in learned societies and networks such as the Management Control Association (MCA) that supports the BAFA Management Accounting stream, the ENROAC (European Network of Research on Organizational and Accounting Change) and the IRSPM (International Research Society for Public Management) Accounting and Accountability SIG.

Associated people

• Inya Egbe
• Elena Giovannoni
• Melina Manochin
• Gabriela Rozenfeld
• Robert Scapens
• David Crvelin

Projects in this area bridge critical and historical perspectives, drawing on traces from the past as a means to illuminate future trajectories and delve into the often contested and ambiguous functioning of accounting practices in their material, spatial, social and organizing contexts.

• Listen to James Brackley's The Critical Accountancy Podcast with Professor Keith Hoskin.

Associated people:

• Giulia Achilli
• Ann-Christine Frandsen
• Keith Hoskin
• Elena Giovannoni

The digital innovation and accounting research theme focuses on the dynamic relationship between information technology (IT) innovation, organisation, social change, and accounting. We study how digital innovations such as digital platforms, data analytics and AI impact and are impacted by business practice, management and governance.

Research areas of academics include:

• information systems and organisational change
• digital platform ecosystems
• data analytics and user behaviour

Exemplar projects in the digital innovation and accounting research include:

• Paradoxical Tensions and Dual Identities: Seeking Strategic Balance in Digital Platform Cooperatives
• Building a Food Waste Tracker for Responsible Consumption and Sustainability Enhancement
• Value Co-creation in Industrial AI Adoption

Associated people:

• Shuyang Li

The accounting education stream reflects the department’s deep commitment to innovative pedagogies aligning with our interdisciplinary approach to research and teaching. Our work is particularly notable for advancing the integration of sustainability in accounting education, with past projects such as embedding climate change into the accounting programme. This work has also led to engagement with professional bodies and institutions in this area such as the ACCA, Cotton Connect, and Responsible Jewellery Council (Voluntary Sustainable Assurance and Certificate scheme).

We also examine how our teaching approach shapes the engagement, learning, and experience of students to become critical-thinkers and responsible leaders. Academics in this area explore various pedagogical issues and topics such as:

• Improvised role-play pedagogy
• Text-based and Cartoon-based sustainability case studies
• Mainstreaming sustainability through an integrated curriculum design
• Lego-serious play
• Walking seminars - black Heritage walks
• Exploring the motivations and perceptions of accounting students
• Embedding creative arts in accounting education

• The introduction of peer support to build inclusive and supportive learning environments
• The use of learning conversations with students

Associated people:

Helen Brain

Ann-Christine Frandsen

Bisola Joloko

Tim Mason

Anupam Mehta

Ambika Solanki

Yang, C, Scapens, B & Humphrey, C 2025, 'Advocating a place-space duality for an accounting research agenda', Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, vol. 38, no. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-04-2022-5746

Ahn, JH, Shah, SZA & Imam, S 2025, 'Business group affiliation and misreporting: evidence from Korean chaebols', Accounting and Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/00014788.2025.2488927

Chelli, M, Himick, D, Al Mahameed, M & Belal, A 2025, 'Child Labour Risk Organizing Communication: A Longitudinal Analysis of Corporate Narratives', Meditari Accountancy Research.

Mantzari, E, Smyth, S & Lanka, S 2025, 'Classical Marxist accounting research: A literature review and directions for future research', Critical Perspectives on Accounting, vol. 101, 102789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2025.102789

Pipatnarapong, J, Beelitz, A & Jaafar, A 2025, 'Corporate social responsibility and tax avoidance: evidence from BRICS countries', Corporate Governance. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-09-2024-0463

Frandsen, A-C & Kim, A 2025, 'Gender gap truth battles: conceptualising and analysing statement forms in annual reports', Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-05-2023-6449

Giovannoni, E & Quattrone, P 2025, 'Nothing is right in individual and collective action: Placing unknowability at the heart of theorizing through rhetoric', Organization Theory.

Alhanaya, I, Belal, A & Gebreiter, F 2025, 'Rankings and the Organizational-level Implementation of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): A Case Study', Financial Accountability & Management, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 334-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12418

Belal, A, Alam, S & Sharif, J 2025, SDG Implementation and Accounting at the Corporate Level: Evidence from Bangladesh. The Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh, Dhaka., Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Sobkowiak, M & Cuckston, T 2025, 'Solidity and fluidity in the quantification of nature recovery: wild bird indicators in the UK', Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, vol. 38, no. 5, pp. 1499-1517. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-05-2024-7088

30 April 2025

Speaker: Teerooven Soobaroyen
Affiliation: Aston University
Email: t.soobaroyen@aston.ac.uk
Title: Exploring the role of participatory budgeting: A field study in Sub-Saharan Africa

19 March 2025

Speaker: Zachary Huxley
Affiliation: University Laval, Canada
Email: zachary.huxley@fsa.ulaval.ca
Title: Reluctant expertise: Valuation specialists and fair value accounting for intangibles

12 March 2025

Speaker: Aziza Laguecir
Affiliation: EDHEC Business School
Email: aziza.laguecir@edhec.edu
Title: A three-dimensional power perspective on institutional logics instantiation in hospital budgeting: Overt, covert and latent logics

28 February 2025

Speaker: Professor Lee Parker
Affiliation: University of Glasgow
Email: lee.parker.2@glasgow.ac.uk
Title: The office as a site of management control: historical representation through the medium of film

5 February 2025

Speaker: Christos Begkos
Affiliation: University of Manchester
Email: christos.begkos@manchester.ac.uk
Title: How to game an algorithm: platform factions as meta-markets, networks, and

29 January 2025

Speaker: Kirstin Becker
Affiliation: Copenhagen Business School
Email: kbe.acc@cbs.dk
Title: Contesting the boundaries of accounting standard-setting: The case of the FASB’s current expected credit loss model (Co-authored by Christoph Pelger and Richard Pucci)

20 November 2024

Speakers: Professor Shahzad Uddin and Dalia Alazzeh
Affiliation: University of Essex
Email: snuddin@essex.ac.uk
Title: When Public Budgeting and Reforms Meets Settler Colonial Power and Neoliberalism: A Case of Palestine

18 September 2024

Speaker: Dr Matteo Ronzani
Affiliation: University of Edinburgh
Email: matteo.ronzani@ed.ac.uk
Title: On the non-production of an accounting standard: Climate change, carbon emissions.

20 June 2024

Speaker: Professor Carolyn Cordery
Affiliation: Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Email: carolyn.cordery@vuw.ac.nz
Title: What drives Nonprofit Performance Measurement and Reporting? Insights from an Institutional Logics Perspective