Accounting and Corporate Governance

Professor Liandong Zhang and Associate Professor Yun Lou earn global recognition for pioneering ESG research, driving corporate accountability and sustainable growth while reinforcing SMU’s commitment to impactful research for a better world.

SMU hosts the 2023 MIT Asia Conference in Accounting.  

SMU a partner for the inaugural International Conference on ESG and Climate Governance

SMU School of Accountancy (SOA) Associate Professor Seow Poh Sun recently garnered recognition for his excellence as an educator when he received the prestigious American Accounting Association’s (AAA) Outstanding Accounting Educator Award 2023.     

In a post-pandemic world, accounting research has proven essential to helping businesses navigate uncertain times and build a stronger future. During an unprecedented era such as this, researchers lead the charge in understanding how Covid-19 has changed how we do business and what the new normal will look like.

As digital technology continues to transform the world, it is clear that the traditional model of accounting education needs to change.

Sustainable, responsible, and impact (SRI) investing is on the rise. But with SRI investing called out as “marketing hype” by sceptics like Mr Tariq Fancy, the former chief investment officer for sustainable investing at BlackRock Inc, the importance of measuring and assessing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impact on investment is more pertinent now than ever before. 

Raising funds, building a team, designing a breakthrough product, and taking that proof-of-concept to market are some of the many hurdles startup founders have to overcome in their nascent entrepreneurial journey. With such a daunting list of tasks to tackle, it comes as no surprise that building an independent board of directors is seldom a priority for multitasking bosses.

The robots are coming. Indeed, in many cases, they are already here — tech-enabled automation has taken over many manual, routine tasks across industries including accounting, and that will continue to happen at an accelerating rate.