The ESSEC PhD program in Accounting and Auditing (A&A) is devoted to training doctoral candidates to conduct research at the highest level on questions dealing with the role of accounting information in an ever-changing economic environment. It is aimed at providing the necessary intellectual equipment to conduct scholarly research on a variety of accounting and auditing issues.
Research in accounting and auditing addresses a large spectrum of questions, including:
- the impact of accounting information on financial market participants and other users;
- the issues related to information asymmetries between managers and outsiders and the effects of managerial discretion;
- the structure of incentive and monitoring systems;
- the challenges in reporting on increasingly complex financial transactions and instruments and their valuation effects;
- the convergence of national financial reporting systems towards an international standard of reference and its impact on capital markets;
- the role(s) of auditing and the economic effects of regulation of accounting information;
- the role(s) of accounting and accountants in organizations and society, etc.
A&A PhD students can choose to follow either a quantitative or qualitative research track. Students following the quantitative track are required to undertake training in accounting, finance, microeconomics, statistics, econometrics, and quantitative research methods, etc. Students following the qualitative track are required to undertake training in accounting, microeconomics, statistics, management, and qualitative research methods, etc. In addition, all students can take elective courses they find useful for their research.
Students can specialize in one of the following subfields:
- Auditing and regulation
- Corporate finance and governance
- Empirical financial accounting and reporting
- Financial statement analysis
- International financial reporting
- Organizational and social aspects of accounting
- Social and environmental accounting
The Accounting and Management Control Department enjoys worldwide recognition for the excellence of its research. Its faculty members publish on a regular basis in top accounting and business journals, such as Accounting, Organizations and Society, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Contemporary Accounting Research, European Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of International Business Studies, Management Science, and Strategic Management Journal, etc. ESSEC professors have strong connections with the academic community, serving as editors, associate editors and editorial board members of major journals, organizing high-level international conferences, and routinely presenting their research in workshops and conferences held by leading academic institutions and premier academic journals. The Department also holds annually a research seminar series, featuring research presentations by high-profile, world-renowned scholars.
- Ionela Andreicovici - Frankfurt School of Finance and Management (Germany)
- Lisa Baudot - University of Central Florida (USA) / Current: HEC Paris (France)
- Nava Cohen - New Jersey City University (USA)
- Emeline Deneuve – HEC Montreal (Canada)
- Alessandro Ghio - Monash University (Australia) / Current: Laval University (Canada)
- Dmitry Golubkov - Industry
- Thi Hong Nhung Hoang - SKEMA Business School (France)
- Zhongwei Huang - Cass Business School (UK) / Current: Fudan University (China)
- Jin Jiang - Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (China)
- Like Jiang - University of Melbourne (Australia)
- Damien Lambert - Monash University (Australia)
- Junqi Liu – Xiamen University (China)
- Rucsandra Moldovan - Concordia University (Canada)
- Joanne Sopt - San Francisco State University (USA)
- Cong Tao - Lancaster University Management School (UK)
