2025 Intake
September 2024
Accounting and Control - PhD Specialisation
Accounting and Control research seeks to identify and understand the market and institutional forces that affect the production and use of information by organisations broadly defined to include people, firms, not-for-profit entities, government agencies, etc. Research topics typically fall into two categories: (1) financial accounting and (2) managerial accounting.
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Financial Accounting
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Financial Accounting
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING research primarily focuses on information that facilitates transactions between organisations. For example, how does information released by a firm's managers affect economic decisions made by shareholders, creditors, information intermediaries such as analysts and auditors, competing firms, regulators, etc.?
Conversely, how do the anticipated responses of the users mentioned above affect the amount and type of information ultimately released by the firm's managers? Moreover, how do all these decisions interact with the manager- and firm-level characteristics and institutional phenomena such as the degree of capital market development, the legal regime and its enforcement, the political and regulatory environment, etc.?
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Managerial Accounting
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Managerial Accounting
MANAGERIAL ACCOUNTING research primarily focuses on the production and use of information within an organisation. Topics include accounting system design, the planning and budgeting process, performance measurement and evaluation, incentives and compensation, and the role of internal control and risk management. In addition, considerable attention is given to how these phenomena interact with the manager- and firm-level attributes such as individual's behavioural biases, conflicting objectives, the organisation's hierarchical structure and corporate governance structure, etc.
Emerging research streams in Financial and Managerial Accounting involve analyses of a broad group of stakeholders with an emphasis on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) topics.
PhD Programme participants will receive comprehensive training in accounting, finance, economics, and data analysis to have the fundamental tools to conduct rigorous research. In addition to receiving classroom training, participants will work with faculty members to conduct cutting-edge research projects. Consequently, participants will develop strong analytical skills and a creative perspective to help them identify and answer important research questions.
PhD students will leverage the expertise of faculty members with considerable experience teaching, supervising and mentoring PhD students at INSEAD and their prior institutions. These institutions include Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, Stanford, MIT, The Wharton School, the University of Chicago, and the University of California at Berkeley.
The Accounting and Control area at INSEAD is renowned for its excellence in research. This Accounting group is one of the few groups outside North America that has consistently produced articles in the top accounting, finance, and management journals. These journals include The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting and Economics, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Finance, and the Journal of Financial Economics and Management Science. In addition, the Accounting and Control faculty members have strong connections with the academic accounting community. They serve as associate editors and editorial board members of influential journals and routinely present their research in workshops and conferences held by leading educational institutions and premier academic journals. The ACC area also has regular research seminars and an annual research symposium, attracting world-renowned scholars to present and discuss a small set of high-quality papers on campus.
The expertise and research interests of the Accounting faculty include the following:
- consequences of disclosure regulation and firms' accounting and disclosure choices for investors and stakeholders
- the role of auditors and financial analysts in capital markets
- the consequences of shareholder activism and private equity ownership for corporate governance and companies' financial and nonfinancial performance
- the determinants of debt contract design; the causes and detection of corporate fraud
- the design of internal performance management and risk management systems
- corporate social responsibility and ESG
The PhD specialisation in Accounting and Control aims to produce highly trained individuals who will conduct first-class accounting research at top-tier business schools and universities.
Visit the Accounting and Control Academic Area page
Download the Accounting and Control Course Template
What are we looking for in a PhD Candidate?
Ideal candidates for this position should have strong analytical skills and solid backgrounds in accounting, finance, economics, mathematics, statistics, or related subjects. Although prior work experience in these fields or related areas is valuable, it is non-mandatory. Research experience is also not a requirement, but it could be advantageous. Additionally, we do not require previous knowledge of accounting rules for a successful application but expect students to gain a deeper understanding of this during the programme.
Download the Call for applications for the 2025
STUDENTS' (CURRENT AND PREVIOUSLY ADMITTED) BACKGROUNDS:
- BA in International Business and MBA in General Management
- Bachelor of Accounting and Finance; ACA, Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW)
- BE Computer Science and Engineering, MS Management Information Systems and Masters in Accounting
- Honours Business Administration (HBA)
- BBA and MSc Business Administration (Accounting)
- BA and Masters in Accounting
- BA in Business Administration (Human Resource Management) and MSc in Mathematics
- BBA Business Administration and BA Economics (Double Major), and MS Accounting
- BTech Mechanical and MBA Finance
- BA in Management and MSc in Financial Economics
- BS in Finance and MSc in Financial Management
Full list of Accounting PhD students and their backgrounds
Where are our Accounting PhD graduates now?
Graduates of the PhD in Management Programme, specialising in Accounting and Control, have successfully secured top academic placements globally, with CUHK, Grenoble School of Management, HEC Paris, Norwegian School of Economics and Singapore Management University, to name a few.
Learn more about the Global PhD Alumni Community here.
What are the next steps?
We encourage prospects to plan for their application for the PhD in Management. Application for the following year's intake starts in the early Fall of the current year, with a preferred deadline of mid-December.
Go to the Admissions and Financing page
Moreover, we encourage prospects to attend our upcoming recruitment events or register below to receive the URLs of the Special Area Webinars we conducted over the years.
