Ph.D. in Business Administration (Accounting Track)

Program Objectives

The Ph.D. in Business Administration (Accounting Track) program prepares graduates for careers in teaching and research in various functional areas of accounting. Graduates of the program are expected to make significant contributions to the advancement of accounting theory and knowledge through research and to disseminate such knowledge through their teaching. Students that graduate from the program should be able to:

• Demonstrate advanced knowledge in accounting and related functional areas, as well as explain the role of accounting and related functional areas in managerial and organizational contexts
• Demonstrate the development of advanced theoretical, empirical, or pedagogical methods of analyses appropriate for accounting or related functional areas
• Demonstrate preparation for teaching responsibilities in higher education
• Demonstrate knowledge of the professional requirements for educational and professional advancement in accounting and related functional areas

Research Interest

Most of the accounting faculty members do market-based empirical studies. Research topics include but are not limited to the following:

Earnings quality, earnings management, corporate governance, executive and director compensation, audit quality and audit fees, fair value accounting, accounting for intangible assets, gender/diversity issues, voluntary disclosures, corporate decisions such as investment and M&A decisions, and AIS related issues.

Seminar courses offered include financial accounting, managerial accounting, auditing, and capital market empirical research. Currently, we do not offer seminar courses in taxation or accounting information systems. Due to the availability of major databases, archival research is the methodology mostly used by faculty and doctoral sudents in their research. Other methodologies such as behavioral, survey and experiments are seldom used in research by faculty and students in the program.