The research activity in accounting covers a wide range of topics in the areas of financial and management accounting. The emphasis of research in financial accounting is on financial statement analysis, broadly defined. During the past few years, a number of research projects have addressed international comparisons of enterprise profitability, financial performance and competitiveness from an international perspective. Current research activity concentrates on firms´ earnings management behavior in different settings, the adoption of International Accounting Standards (IAS), goodwill accounting issues, voluntary accounting disclosures, the relationship between investment policy and corporate performance, investor relations, audit pricing and auditing practices.
Research in the field of management accounting focuses on cost management, management control systems, performance measurement, and capital investment decision making. Current research topics include the implementation and diffusion of non-financial performance measures such as balanced scorecard, and the use of management accounting information in strategic decision making.
The focus of accounting research is twofold - quantitative in financial accounting and qualitative in management accounting. In financial accounting, extensive and high quality financial information on company financial performance and company specific information is benefited, combined with detailed information on financial markets. The objective is to create new insightful research with major academic relevance. Priority is put on rigorous research methods and innovative research settings to meet high quality international research standards.
In management accounting, the focus is on case and field study methods, benefiting from good relationship with major Finnish companies. The main methods include interviews with company representatives, with focus on management control processes instead of techniques. The objective is to create new insights on the management accounting practices. Priority is put on the insightful research settings, theoretical innovativeness, profound empirical analysis, which materialize to high quality academic research. Besides the academic interests, also influence of research on management accounting practices is of high priority.
Homepage of Research seminar (22L200)