The Accounting and Financial Management group at Royal Holloway has an established and growing reputation for its distinctive high-quality and high-impact research, and for the teaching of cutting-edge insights in social, environmental and governance aspects of accounting.

Research in Accounting and Financial Management

Members of the group work across the fields of accounting and financial management. Notably, members of the group have many publications in the world’s top journals which publish research in 'qualitative' accounting, such as Accounting, Organizations and Society (AOS); Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ); Accounting and Business Research (ABR); Accounting Forum; Abacus; and Critical Perspectives on Accounting (CPA).

Members of the group (counting those who were members at the time of publication) have published in the following leading international journals from 2014 onwards:

• Abacus: Stadler/Nobes, 2014
• Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal: Agyemang, 2016; Agyemang/Broadbent, 2015; Agyemang/Unerman, 2017; Bolt/Tregidga, 2023; Chen, 2023; Napier, 2017; Nobes, 2014; Nobes/Stadler, 2018; Nobes, 2020; O’Leary, 2024; Sian, 2022; Tregidga, 2017 and 2019; Unerman/Rinaldi, 2014 and 2018.
• Accounting and Business Research: Davison, 2015; Napier/Stadler 2020; Nobes, 2015, 2020, and 2024; Nobes/Stadler, 2015.
• Accounting Forum: Agyemang, 2016; Rinaldi, 2020; 2022 and 2024; Sian, 2024; Zhao, 2014.
• Accounting History, Sian 2020.
• Accounting, Organizations and Society: O’Leary, 2017, 2020 and 2023, Rinaldi 2014; Sian 2020; Tregidga, 2014 and 2017.
• British Accounting Review: Nobes, 2018; Nobes/Stadler, 2018; Rinaldi, 2020; Sian 2021.
• Critical Perspectives on Accounting: Nobes, 2018; Nobes/Stadler 2018; Sian, 2015 and 2023; Tregidga 2022 (twice), 2024.
• Economics Letters: Evgenidis 2023.
• European Accounting Review: Stadler/Nobes, 2024
• Journal of Accounting and Public Policy: Nobes/Stadler 2018
• Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies: Uygur/Napier, 2023.
• Journal of Business Ethics: Uygur/Napier, 2023.
• Journal of Business Research: Li, 2019.
• Management Accounting Research: O’Leary, 2016
• Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management: O’Leary/Tregidga, 2020.
• Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal: Zhao, 2016.

See full list of publications by clicking the ‘Publications’ tab above.

The work of the group is widely disseminated, as evidenced by high citation statistics.  The following have over 300 citations in Google Scholar:

• Napier, C. (1993) (with P. Miller). Genealogies of calculation. Accounting, Organizations and Society (8: 7/8), 631-647.
• Napier, C. (1996) (with G. Carnegie). Critical and interpretive histories: insights into accounting’s present and future through its past. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (9: 3), 7-39.
• Napier, C. (2002) (with G Carnegie) Exploring comparative international accounting history, Accounting, Auditing and Accountabillty Journal, (15: 5), 689-719.
• Napier, C. (2006) Accounts of change: 30 years of historical accounting research. Accounting, Organizations and Society (31: 4/5), 445-507.
• Napier, C. (2006) (with and B. Maali and P. Casson) Social reporting by Islamic banks. Abacus (42: 2), 266-289.
• Napier, C. (2010) (with G Carnegie) Traditional accountants and business professionals: Portraying the accounting profession after Enron. Accounting, Organizations and Society (35: 3), 360-376.
• Nobes, C. (1998) Towards a general model of the reasons for international differences. Abacus (34: 2), 162-87.
• Nobes. C. (1983) A judgmental classification of financial reporting practices. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting (10: 1), 1-19.
• Nobes, C. (2006) The survival of international differences under IFRS: towards a research agenda. Accounting and Business Research (36: 3), 233-245.
• Nobes, C. (2020 and earlier editions) (with R. H. Parker) Comparative International Accounting, Prentice Hall.
• Nobes, C. (2010) (with E.Kvaal) International differences in IFRS policy choice. Accounting and Business Research (40: 2),173-87.
• Nobes, C. (2011) IFRS practices and the persistence of accounting system classification. Abacus (47: 3), 267-283.
• Nobes, C. (2020 and earlier editions) (with D. Alexander) Financial Accounting: An International Introduction, Pearson.
• Nobes, C. (2012) (with E.Kvaal) IFRS policy changes and the continuation of national patterns of IFRS practice. European Accounting Review (21: 2), 343-371.
• Rinaldi, L (2014) (with C de Villiers and J Unerman). Integrated reporting: Insights, gaps and an agenda for future research, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal. (27; 7), 1042-1067.
• Rinaldi, L. (2017) (with J Unerman and C de Villiers), Evaluating the integrated reporting journey: insights, gaps and agendas for future research, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, (31; 5), 1294-1318.
• Tregidga, H. (2006) (with M. Milne). From sustainable management to sustainable development: a longitudinal analysis of a leading New Zealand environmental reporter. Business Strategy and the Environment (15: 4), 219-241.
• Tregidga, H. (2009) (with M. Milne and S. Walton) Words not actions! The ideological role of sustainable development reporting. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (22: 8), 1211-1257.
• Tregidga, H (2014) (with M. Milne and K. Kearins). (Re)presenting ‘sustainable organizations’, Accounting, Organizations and Society (39: 6), 477-494.
• Tregidga, H.  (2022) (with M. Laine and J. Unerman), Sustainability Accounting and Accountability, Routledge.
• McSweeney, B. (2002). Hofstede’s Model of National Cultural Differences and their Consequences: A Triumph of Faith - a Failure of Analysis. Human Relations, 55(1), 89-118.
• McSweeney, B. (2002). The Essentials of Scholarship: A Reply to Geert Hofstede. Human Relations, 55(11), 1363-1372.

Christopher Nobes was named as the most productive European author in leading accounting journals between 1991 and 2002 (Chan et al., Accounting and Business Research, 2006). He was the joint winner of the 2011 best manuscript award of the journal Abacus. 

Leonardo Rinaldi’s Accounting Forum (44;3) 2020 article is the top downloaded paper of all time from that journal and his Accounting Forum (47;3) 2022 article is the most cited paper from that journal in the last three years (and the fourth most downloaded paper of all time from that journal). Leonardo Rinaldi received the 2023 Highly Commended Paper award of Accounting Forum

Further activities include the editing of journals and journal special issues, such as:

Editors

• H Tregidga: Critical Perspectives on Accounting (from 2024 -)
• H Tregidga: Social and Environmental Accountability Journal (2018-2021)

Associate Editors:

• J Davison: Accounting and Business Research
• L Rinaldi: Accounting Forum (2024 - )
• H Tregidga: Accounting Forum (2015-2022)
• H Tregidga: Critical Perspectives on Accounting (2021-2024)

Special Issue Editing since 2014:

• Microfoundations of Accountability (2024) for Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (L. Rinaldi, J. Guthrie, C. Napier and A. Rautiainen).
• Critical Perspectives on Integrated Reporting (2024) for Critical Perspectives on Accounting (H Tregidga with M Rodrigue and C Cooper).
• Accounting for Social Impact (2021) for Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management (S O’Leary and H Tregidga with C Yang).
• Case study insights from the implementation of Integrated Reporting (2017) for Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (L. Rinaldi and J. Unerman with C. de Villiers)

• The IASB’s Conceptual Framework (2015) for Accounting and Business Research (C. Nobes with A. Tarca and M. Barth)
• Integrated Reporting (2014) for Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (L. Rinaldi and J. Unerman with C. de Villiers)

Members of the group serve on a number of journal editorial boards including Abacus; Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal; Accounting and Business Research; Accounting in Europe; Australian Accounting Review;  Accounting History; Accounting Forum; Accounting Organizations and Society; British Accounting Review; Critical Perspectives on Accounting; Revista de Contabilidad y Direcciòn (Spain); Social and Environmental Accountability Journal; Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal; Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management.

Distinctions and grants

Three members of our group have won the Distinguished Academic Award of the British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA): Jane Broadbent in 2008, Chris Nobes in 2015 and Gloria Agyemang in 2020. Further, Christopher Napier was awarded BAFA's Lifetime Achievement Award for 2016.

Jane Broadbent was admitted as an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2012, as was Christopher Nobes in 2017.

Jane Davison is a founding member of the ESRC-funded international research network inVisio [International Network for Visual Studies in Organisations]. She is associate director of the Centre for Impression Management in Accounting Communication at Bangor University. She was a member of the Italian RAE panel 2012 and a member of the ESRC peer review college.

Christopher Napier was a member of the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) (1996-1999), and a member of its Financial Reporting Committee (1997-2004).

Christopher Nobes was a member of the Board of the International Accounting Standards Committee (1993-2001), a member of the Financial Reporting Committee of the ICAEW, and a member of the Academic Panel of the UK’s Accounting Standards Council. He was vice-chair of the accounting group of the Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens (1993-2015). He was a member of the Financial Reporting Standards Committee of the European Accounting Association (2010-15). He received the ‘Outstanding International Accounting Educator’ Award of the American Accounting Association in 2002. In 2014, Prof. Nobes was inducted into the Reial Acadèmia Europea de Doctors (Barcelona).

Gloria Agyemang was a member of BAFA's Board of Trustees (2012-2016). She was Secretary to the Committee of Departments of Accounting (CDAF) from 2000 to 2011.

The success of the accounting section is also reflected in grants awarded, from 2014:

• CIMA 2022 “Exploring the role of management accounting in building sustainability and resilience” (L. Rinaldi)
• ICAEW 2019 'International differences in extractive industry accounting', Christian Stadler and Christopher Nobes.
• Leverhulme 2017 ‘Emile Zola: property bubbles, banking crises and the role of money in society’ Jane Davison.
• ICAEW 2015 ‘International differences in IFRS recognition and measurement’ Christopher Nobes and Christian Stadler.

Emeritus Professors

• Prof. Gloria Agyemang
• Prof. Jane Broadbent
• Prof. Jane Davison
• Prof. Brendan McSweeney
• Prof. Christopher Napier