Research

New faculty add strength and depth

With seven new faculty hires this year, the School of Accountancy has bolstered its status as one of the nation's top accounting programs. "We are hiring in a strategically focused way to build on our strengths and to add depth in areas where we see opportunity," said Philip M. J. Reckers, director of the school and an accounting professor

2013-10-22

With seven new faculty hires this year, the School of Accountancy has bolstered its status as one of the nation's top accounting programs.

"We are hiring in a strategically focused way to build on our strengths and to add depth in areas where we see opportunity," said school Director and Accounting Professor Philip M. J. Reckers. "These new members of the faculty provide us with a different mix of expertise and allow us to add new kinds of pedagogy."

Two of the new faculty members were hired from other university programs.  Shawn Huang, an expert in disclosure and executive compensation, comes to the W. P. Carey School after four years on the faculty of the University of Arkansas. Andrew Call arrives after six years on the faculty of the University of Georgia. He is an expert on the role of analysts in evaluating firm performance and value.

Phil Lamoreaux, who recently completed his Ph.D. at the University of Arizona, brings to the faculty real world experience in accounting. Before starting his doctoral studies, he was a senior manager at KPMG, one of the big four international accounting firms.

Maria Wieczynska, an expert in the fast-growing field of international accounting, recently completed her doctoral work at Emory University. David Kenchington, who completed his doctoral studies at the University of Arizona this year and earlier worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, specializes in the role of taxes in the value of firms.

Marianne M. Jennings, emeritus professor of legal and ethical studies, returns to the W. P. Carey School faculty after a year and a-half absence. One of the nation's leading experts on ethics and finance, she was on the faculty from 1977 through 2011. She is the author of six textbooks and four monographs.

Veena Srinivasan, who has been teaching accounting at the W. P. Carey School since February of this year, brings over fifteen years of experience, both professional and academic to her appointment as senior lecturer. She worked six years for global accounting firms in both India and the United States and was director of accounting programs at the State University of New York at Albany.

Faculty for a fast-growing school

The seven new hires in one year represent the biggest surge in faculty hiring ever at the accounting school. "We are really very fortunate this year," Reckers said. "Very few programs anywhere are bringing on this many new faculty members."

In addition to adding to the accounting school's strengths in key areas, the new faculty will allow the school to keep pace with increased accounting enrollment, according to Reckers. In five years, the number of undergraduates studying accounting has increased 110 percent.

Reckers said this year's group of new hires increases diversity on the faculty. Three of the new members are women and four are originally from foreign countries.

He also said the school is fortunate to be able to hire two experienced faculty—Call and Huang—with proven track records. "They bring a lot of talents to the table," Reckers said. "They have both done very well teaching and have very strong research records."

Call, who received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 2007, has done extensive research on the role of financial analysts and how their forecasts affect managers, firms, and other participants in the economy. He has also studied whistleblowers and the discovery of violations in financial accounting.

In a recent study, Call and his co-authors surveyed more than 350 security analysts and found that many of the analysts regularly have private phone conversations with managers of the companies they follow. "They reported that these conversations are extremely valuable to almost everything they do," Call said.

Securities regulations prohibit managers of public companies from providing analysts with exclusive access to information. "There may be nothing scandalous going on, but the fact that these private phone conversations are happening, and that they are so valuable to analysts, raises some eyebrows," Call said.

Beginning in January, Call will teach intermediate accounting courses, covering both the basics of financial reporting, as well as some of the more complex accounting issues. "I like teaching these challenging topics because I enjoy the opportunity to make more difficult topics understandable and intuitive to students," he said.

Call said that when he began to look for a new job, there was only one school he approached. "ASU has a profile that appealed to me in terms of its research and teaching missions, and it has the potential in the future to get even better," he said.

An international focus

Huang did his undergraduate studies at Jinan University in China, and then came to the United States for graduate school, receiving a master's degree from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. In October, he began teaching advanced accounting to master's accounting students at the W. P. Carey School.

Huang's research interests cover a wide area, including the role of transparency and disclosures, executive compensation, accounting standards, and international accounting.

In one important study recently, Huang found that when countries adopt uniform international accounting standards, investment flow between countries increases. "We think that the underlying reason is that having the same accounting standards reduces information costs and increases investment efficiency," he said.

Huang said he is adjusting to Arizona's weather. "Summer is the worst time of the year here, but we should be fine in the winter," he said.

Maria Wieczynska, a native of Poland, came to the United States after high school. She received her bachelor's degree from Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia, and her Ph.D. from Emory in Atlanta. She has become an expert in the International Financial Reporting Standards, which have been adopted by more than one hundred countries to provide a common global language for accounting.

"In countries around the world, different constituencies are trying to determine how the standards are being used and if they are really good for the economy," Wieczynsksa said. "Most of my research is focused on that and on other global issues."

Wieczynska will begin teaching professional accounting research at the start of the spring semester in the master's accounting program. She said she is very happy with the department and her fellow faculty.

"Everyone has a role, and everyone understands each other's role," she said. "When I have a question about research or if I need a resource, I know who to go to."

Enjoying the rain

Lamoreaux's research focuses primarily on auditing and auditing regulation. His doctoral dissertation was on how an auditor’s exposure to potential inspection by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board influences the auditor’s reporting decisions.

Lamoreaux received his bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting from Brigham Young University. He is teaching graduate auditing at the W. P. Carey School.

When he began looking for a job near the end of his Ph.D. program, Lamoreaux said he set his sights on the W. P. Carey School. "I intentionally didn't interview at a lot of other places, and I accepted the offer early. I am very happy to come here."

Kenchington, a native of Great Britain, came to the United States for college, and he earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Brigham Young University. He worked two years for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Orange County, California, before entering the accounting Ph.D. program at the University of Arizona.

Kenchington's main research area is how taxes affect the value of firms. He also studies how accounting information affects stock prices and firm values. He has been teaching an undergraduate tax class in the first session of the fall semester, and in October will begin teaching global business taxes and business strategy to master's students.

Kenchington is married with four children. His wife is from California. "We've grown to love Arizona," he said, adding that while he doesn't miss the rain in England, "I do like it when it rains in Arizona."

A love of teaching

Jennings spent the year and a-half that she was away from the W. P. Carey School doing consulting and training with companies and conducting seminars at universities. "It's been wonderful to be involved in business and teaching in other schools for awhile. I've been pretty much all over the country," she said.

She now is teaching two graduate courses in accounting ethics. "The students are terrific. I'm enjoying it," she said.

Having "emeritus" her title hasn't changed her work greatly at the W. P. Carey School, according to Jennings. "I think emeritus means not having to go to meetings," she said.

Srinivasan began teaching part-time in the accounting school in February and became a full-time senior lecturer in the fall semester. A native of India, she received a bachelor's degree from the University of Madras and a master's of accounting from Louisiana State University. In addition to her accounting experience with the big firms Coopers & Lybrand and KPMG, she has worked as a senior financial analyst for a large music company and a controller for a local landscape company.

Srinivasan is teaching introductory managerial accounting and introductory financial accounting. She said teaching is her passion.

"I like to see the light bulb go on in the students," she said. "That's what fuels my desire to teach."

Srinivasan said that coming from Albany, she is very happy to be in Arizona. "I love the weather, especially after being in the Northeast for ten years," she said.

Accounting