Departmental website: lse.ac.uk/accounting
Number of graduate students (full-time equivalent)
Taught: 243
Research: 4
Number of faculty (full-time equivalent): 22
RAE: 70% of the Department's research was rated as world leading or internationally excellent
Location: OLD 320
About the Department
The Department of Accounting is widely recognised for its excellence in accounting and financial management research and teaching, as well as its leading role in public policy issues. In the 2001 review of university research by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Department was awarded 5* – the highest possible rating and one of only two departments in its category to receive this award. The Department was similarly successful in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, on this occasion as part of the 'Business and Management Studies' Unit of Assessment.
The Department of Accounting provides an outstanding international and interdisciplinary environment, based on a mix of departmental activities, close links with other departments, as well as strong connections with research centres. Each year, over 240 graduate students from over 40 countries and representing a wide range of academic and work backgrounds are admitted into its taught graduate programmes. Our research seminars and workshops, visitors and visiting research students, together with our links with professional and practitioner communities ensure that our faculty continue to work at the cutting edge of new developments and that their output is widely disseminated.
Our faculty are members of, and involved in, the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR), as well as LSE Health. They contribute to public debate in both the academic and professional domains. We have close links with several international journals, such as Accounting Organizations and Society, Contemporary Accounting Research and Management Accounting Research. Faculty also have close associations with several research and professional institutions, including the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM), the European Accounting Association (EAA) and the American Accounting Association (AAA).
Faculty continue to play key roles in a range of professional and regulatory bodies. These include: the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA); the Monopolies and Mergers Commission; the Centre for Business Performance of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW); the Institute of Actuaries; and the Accounting Standards Board. Members of the Department also have advised the International Accounting Standards Board.
Staff and their academic interests
The Department of Accounting has expertise in a wide range of areas. In financial accounting and corporate reporting, particular strengths include debates around audit and financial regulation, comparative and historical studies of financial accounting, reporting and auditing, and the economics and politics of accounting standard setting and harmonisation.
In management accounting and control, we have unique strengths in the organisational and social analysis of management accounting systems. This includes: studies of accounting innovation in organisations; strategic approaches to management accounting and control; cost management, performance measurement and incentive systems; the impact of organisational and technological change on management accounting; accounting in the public sector, with particular reference to health care; and historical and international differences in practices of organisational control.
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Dr Vasiliki Athanasakou: Financial accounting and financial reporting; earnings management, earnings forecasts and disclosure.
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Dr Gerben Bakker: The historical analysis of the interaction between markets, industries, firms and strategies and their impact on economic growth and development; applied industrial economics; strategic management; history of multinational enterprise; innovation and productivity growth in services; creative industries; motion pictures; music; pharmaceuticals; software; methodology; philosophy of history.
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Professor Al Bhimani: Management accounting in the digital economy; international comparative management accounting; strategy and cost management; the socio-cultural analysis of accounting systems.
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Professor Michael Bromwich: Accounting standards; theory of fair value, economics of information and organisations, management accounting in the new manufacturing environment, strategic management accounting, accounting for utilities.
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Dr Stefano Cascino: Accounting conservatism, corporate governance, international accounting, debt markets, disclosure regulation in capital markets, family firms.
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Dr Yasmine Chahed: Accounting change in its social and institutional context, regulation of non-financial and future-oriented reporting, corporate accountability and disclosure, integrated performance measurement and reporting systems.
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Dr Pascal Frantz: Securities analysis; economics of disclosures and auditing.
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Dr Martin Giraudeau: Accounts of the future: plans, projects, budgets, simulations; entrepreneurship and strategy: new ventures organising, entrepreneurial work, strategic planning, strategy as practice; economic sociology: market devices, emergent market ties, financial interaction, calculative practices; business history: early modern ventures, history of entrepreneurial education, history of entrepreneurial finance; history of economic thought: physiocratic theory and classical economics, theories of the entrepreneur, performativity of economic thought; anthropology of the future: the social and technical construction of expectations, performativity of plans and planning, prospective habitus.
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Dr Lisa Goh: Mergers, executive remuneration and governance.
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Dr Matthew Hall: Management accounting, management control systems and performance measurement; behavioural accounting; the role of accounting in managerial work.
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Dr Lisa Kurunmäki: Accounting in the new public sector, with special reference to healthcare.
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Professor Richard Macve: Conceptual framework of financial accounting; financial reporting, accounting and auditing regulation in insurance; history of accounting; environmental accounting.
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Dr Andrea Mennicken: International accounting and auditing; sociological studies of audit regulation and harmonisation; processes of professionalisation.
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Professor Peter Miller: Investment appraisal; accounting and 'New Public Management'; accounting as social and institutional practice.
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Dr Yuval Millo: Corporate networks and interlocking directorships; institutional analysis of financial markets.
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Mr Christopher Noke: Historical developments of financial reporting, financial accounting.
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Dr Tommaso Palermo: Management control systems and performance measurement, linking risk management to performance management, management accounting and public sector management.
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Professor Michael Power: Internal and external auditing in corporate governance; internal control systems and corporate risk management; financial regulation and security.
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Dr Rita Samiolo: Institutional analyses of risk management; auditing.
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Dr Ana Simpson: Accounting disclosures; analyst forecast efficiency; earnings management.
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Dr Kazbi Soonawalla: Financial accounting; international accounting; joint ventures; corporate social responsibility.
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Dr Ahmed Tahoun: Financial accounting, corporate governance, regulation of financial markets. political economy.
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Dr Ane Tamayo: Impact of accounting information on capital markets, role of financial intermediaries in capital markets, empirical asset pricing and portfolio allocation, corporate governance/finance.
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Professor Wim A Van der Stede: Management control systems: budgeting, performance measurement, and incentive systems; corporate governance: executive compensation, boards of directors, and internal controls.
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Dr Zsuzsanna Vargha: Economic sociology, sociology of finance, banking, and risk management, performance measurement and organisational control, professions and professionalisation.
Opportunities for research
You should have a substantial academic background in accounting, typically at master's level, although we are able to consider students with a more general graduate training in the social sciences. Strong performance in the Department's or School's own MSc programmes can meet the entrance requirements.
The PhD in Accounting is a formally structured programme that has received research training recognition from the ESRC. The programme aims to produce students whose research is of the highest international quality and is designed to provide a comprehensive training in theoretical and empirical research in accounting.
The student's individual programme of study is designed in collaboration with the supervisor to reflect the specific needs and interests of the student. In the first year, you will normally attend the main research seminar in Accounting, in addition to a maximum of three taught graduate courses in areas related to your field of research. The aim is to both broaden and deepen students' understanding of their area. One further course or part-course may be taken in the second year.
We encourage our research students to participate fully in the intellectual life of the Department. Students are required to make a seminar presentation each year, and to attend the Department's Accounting Research Forums which provide exposure to the work of leading academics worldwide. Students are also encouraged to attend any relevant seminars in related areas elsewhere in the School, such as those offered by the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR)|, as well as other research centres and departments as appropriate. These seminars provide an opportunity to hear presentations not only from academics, but also from policy makers and business practitioners.
Taught programmes