PhD projects

Financial scandals around the world have harshly shown the importance of transparency and reliability in performance reporting systems. Companies that fail to clearly communicate externally with investors on their investments, financial position, and financial performance likely face increased difficulty accessing external financing or an increased cost of financing. Companies that do not report, evaluate and compensate performance transparently and equitably internally, can create detrimental organisational cultures and can stimulate managers to behave opportunistically by managing earnings, by gaming the performance measurement system and by acting myopically.

Accounting is the research discipline that examines the role of accounting information in companies' communications, both externally and internally. Top and middle managers, as well as outside providers of financing such as banks and equity investors, use accounting information for decision making and control purposes.

The objective of this PhD project is to identify and analyse innovative research questions in the area of accounting. The project can apply to the subfields of managerial and/or financial accounting (incl. auditing), or on the intersection thereof, depending on research interests and goals, and skills and preference of the candidate. This research project has a strong potential to influence companies' external and/or internal communication policies and/or accounting and incentive systems, as well as influence regulatory policies and/or accounting institutions.