Management accounting and control

Important research topics in the area of management accounting and control include performance measurement, performance evaluation, target setting, incentive and compensation system design, cost management and the interface between management accounting and marketing and between management accounting and operations management. Researchers in this area work from a variety of theoretical backgrounds and employ a wide range of research methods including archival data analysis, quantitative and qualitative field work, questionnaire surveys and experiments.

Accountability and sustainability

Researchers in the area of accountability and sustainability are interested in issues such as accounting and accountability in non-governmental organisations (NGOs), corporate social and ethical accounting and reporting, sustainability and non-financial assurance and professional regulation and accounting ethics. Section members working in this area mainly use qualitative research methods and case studies.

Financial accounting and auditing

Researchers in the area of financial accounting and auditing are interested in issues such as earnings management, accounting conservatism, IFRS, voluntary disclosure, fair value accounting, corporate taxation, audit quality and auditor independence. The prime research method used by researchers in this area is markets-based archival research. However, some section members working in this area also use other methods, including qualitative methods and experiments. 

See the list of publications of Accounting section faculty members.

Accounting section members have access to excellent research facilities. The section has subscriptions to all major databases, including Audit Analytics, Compustat, CRSB, Datastream, Execucomp, I/B/E/S, Thompson One, and WRDS. Section members who conduct experiments in the experimental economics tradition can use the Behavioural Lab at Amsterdam Business School or the CREED laboratory at the Amsterdam School of Economics. Finally, thanks to the close links between the section and the executive education programmes of the Amsterdam Business School, section members have easy access to local businesses and managers and accounting professionals from the Netherlands and around the world.

The section organises the Accounting Research Seminar Series. In this seminar series, researchers from around the globe are invited to present their work and to meet with faculty members. Each year, the section organises around fifteen seminars, sometimes in cooperation with other universities such as VU University (VU). Have a look at the list of forthcoming and past seminars.