The Department of Accounting is a global leading centre for accounting and financial management research. Through our work, we seek to further the understanding of the critical role played by accounting in markets, organisations, and society.
The Department has a long-standing commitment to interdisciplinary social science research, underpinned by robust quantitative and qualitative methods. Our research is broadly organised into two subject areas: Accounting, Organisations and Institutions (AOI) area, which studies the interrelation between accounting, organisations and institutions using primarily qualitative methods and theories grounded in sociology and organisational studies; and the Economics of Accounting (EoA), which investigates accounting questions from an economics perspective using largely quantitative methods. Both research areas share important subject themes and areas of investigation, including regulation, institutional risk, organisational control, auditing, performance management, and corporate social responsibility and sustainability.
Through our work, we seek to bridge academic research and global accounting and management practice. We have strong links with national and international professional bodies and regulatory institutions, and our publications have contributed to shaping international accounting practices. Among others, recent faculty projects have influenced the revisions of the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting, and helped reshape how financial organisations assess their risk cultures. Faculty members also have close professional links with Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). We conduct a variety of knowledge exchange activities, often through the auspices of Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation (carr), an interdisciplinary research centre hosted by the Department of Accounting which focuses on organisational and institutional settings for risk management and regulatory practices.
Our faculty also hold editorial positions in leading academic journals in the field, including the Accounting Organizations and Society, Review of Accounting Studies, and The Accounting Review.
To find out more about the Department’s research, browse our research highlights and Departmental news, as well as our programme of seminars, publications and individual faculty profiles.
Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation
The Department of Accounting hosts LSE’s Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation (carr), an interdisciplinary research centre whose core intellectual concerns are the organisational and institutional settings for risk management and regulatory practices. Ongoing carr projects include RECONNECT, which investigates how in an age of citizen dissatisfaction and political turbulence, the administrative state in Europe can be more responsive both among citizens and politicians. The QUAD (Quantification, Administrative Capacity and Democracy) project scrutinised the relationships between quantification, administrative capacity and democracy across different policy sectors in several European countries. To find out more, visit carr’s homepage