The department's research has long been a source of excellence which has recently been recognised in its contribution to the Business School's top rating in Scotland in the latest RAE, affirming us as a leader for "world leading and internationally excellent" research.
Chan et al. (2007) has ranked the Department's research the 5th in Europe. In studies of the most prolific authors of the past 50 years in Finance and in Accounting Heck et al. (2009) have shown that 5 Professors are within the top 5%.
The research activities in the Department are supported by excellent research and technical assistance, subscription to an extensive set of comprehensive databases, internal workshops, hosting a series of seminars by renowned researchers in the fields of accounting and finance and generous financial support to participate in national and international conferences.
The research themes of the department can be summarised into four categories.
In recent years publications have appeared in prominent journals such as Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability, Human Relations, International Journal of Business and Economics, and Environment and Planning.
Christine Cooper researches the economic, political and social impact of accounting on our everyday lives and Ian Thomson's involvement in the Sustainable Development Commission's creation of sustainable development indicators has resulted from his work on dialogue and accountability.
Julia Smith is working on a project on the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities and Andrea Coulson conducts research and consulting projects focused on the assessment of environmental risk in the financial sector.
Ian Thomson has developed a new conceptual model for evaluating and designing social and environmental reporting practices as well as researching the interaction between governance structures, risk management, accountability processes and sustainability reporting practices.
Other academics involved in this research area include Professor Andrew Marshall.
Research in this area has been published in notable journals such as Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Journal of Corporate Finance, European Financial Management Journal, and International Review of Finance.
John Capstaff and Prof Krishna Paudyal focus on forecasting and revisions of corporate earnings, Prof Andrew Marshall and Patrick McColgan work on corporate bankruptcy announcement and Patrick McColgan, together with Dick Davies investigates corporate value and managerial structure.
Prof David Hillier researches in the field of corporate governance while Prof Krishna Paudyal specialises in corporate decisions and mergers & acquisitions.
With publications in European Financial Management, European Journal of Finance, Multinational Finance, Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting, and The Review of Financial Economics, researchers focus on derivatives.
Andy Marshall concentrates on the impact of the Euro on use of derivatives, on interest rate swaps and risk management and the use of derivatives in corporate hedging with Dick Davies and John Capstaff.
Helena Pinto has developed research in real options, such as the impact of competition on the optimal entry time of companies in new markets.
Empirical Finance is an important research area with publications in Economics History Review, Management Science, Journal of the Operational Research Society, Journal of Financial Services Research, Emerging Markets Review, Financial Review, and the Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, in addition to an ongoing INQUIRE-funded project on International Funds.
Current research projects within the field of empirical finance include Jonathan Fletcher on the performance of managed funds and applications of portfolio analysis fund performance; Prof David Hillier on corporate governance; Andy Marshall on Eurobond issues; Prof Krishna Paudyal on investment strategies, and corporate financial decisions & aggregate economic conditions; and Lei Lei Tang on financial econometrics, credit risk management, and decision-making in markets for state contingent claims.
