Accounting research

The Accounting academic area has highly productive research faculty who also are outstanding educators. Accounting faculty hold editorships at and regularly publish in leading academic journals, including The Accounting Review and Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, among many others.

KU Accounting faculty rank No. 1 globally for audit archival research and No. 2 globally for all audit research contributions, according to Brigham Young University's 2024 index of accounting research. BYU’s accounting research rankings also place our faculty at No. 9 over the past six years and No. 13 over the past 12 years for their contributions in all archival research.

The area's mission contains three dimensions:

To provide high-quality programs that prepare students for professional careers in accounting or for successful graduate study;
To enable faculty to conduct exceptional research that contributes to the field of accounting, and to share the results of that research with academic and professional communities;
To provide service to the academic and professional communities at the University of Kansas, in the state of Kansas, and at the regional and national levels.

Every two years, the Accounting academic area hosts the Deloitte/KU Audit Symposium, a two-day conference that brings leaders from the public accounting industry, regulatory agencies such as the SEC, FASB and PCAOB, and university accounting scholars to discuss issues and present research relevant to the contemporary audit environment. The Deloitte/KU Audit Symposium has been held since 1972 and is widely recognized as one of the most prestigious and influential academic accounting conferences.

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Area directors

Degree programs

Research topics

Auditing
Financial reporting & accounting
Regulation
Corporate taxation
Disclosure
Accounting information systems

In the Media

Forbes
What happens to audit partners who issue negative internal control opinions?
Full article
Wall Street Journal
Not enough accountants? The CFO’s tenure might get a little shakier
Full article

Kansas Reflector
Corporate executives offer rosier business forecasts if politically aligned
Full story
Accounting Today
Depositors blame bank failures on audit firms
Full story

Recent accounting research & news

A tech-savvy businessman checks financial information on a laptop.

IT-capable employees improve relevance and timeliness of financial reporting, study finds

In a new study, University of Kansas School of Business researcher Adi Masli examines IT-capable employees’ role in the production process of financial information, deducing that enhanced management of raw data during this process decreases technical errors and increases data processing speed.

An ambulance speeds through a city street.

Attorney marketing tactics compared to ‘corporate ambulance chasing’ in new study

New research examines how social media announcements of plaintiff’s attorneys’ corporate investigations strongly predict future litigation. It finds how these attorneys’ efforts to recruit additional plaintiffs after a lawsuit has been filed signal that the action is more likely to succeed and result in more severe damages.

A stamp with the word “audit” sits atop files labeled “financial statement” and “accounting records.”

PCAOB risk-based inspection consequences evaluated using new model

Mike Wilkins, the Larry D. Horner and KPMG Professor of Accounting at KU, examines the effects of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board's decision to move to more random-based audit selection. The findings suggest there are more benefits than costs associated with auditors’ responses to a selection approach that is primarily risk-based.

Capitol Federal Hall with signage and grass in foreground.

KU School of Business accounting faculty again earn top spot in BYU rankings

For the fifth year in a row, accounting faculty at the University of Kansas School of Business earned a No. 1 global ranking for their audit archival research contributions over the past six and 12 years, according to Brigham Young University’s 2023 rankings.

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