Accountancy and Finance

Research

Research mission

The department of Accountancy and Finance (ACF) aims to be an international centre of excellence in the fields of accounting, finance and insurance. It strives to optimize the accounting and finance landscape for governments, business and the broader society alike. The department does this by producing high quality fundamental research and publishing in top international academic journals, but also by performing applied research directed towards businesses and other organizations. Its members are encouraged to disseminate this research by presenting at international academic conferences, and to communicate via other forums to other societal actors.

ACF also provides high quality research-evidence based teaching on a graduate and postgraduate level, as well as executive teaching programs and presentations aimed at professional organizations. The department thus contributes to enhancing existing academic knowledge, while still being extremely relevant to society. To achieve this, ACF collaborates closely with other departments of the University of Antwerp, researchers from various national and international research institutions, as well as in close co-operation with public authorities at all policy levels, with sector organizations and with small and large private actors and non-profit organizations.

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Research outline

Producing high quality research is one of the main aims of ACF. This does not just include high-quality fundamental research, but just as importantly applied research. In the latter capacity, outputs of the department were for example used by the Commision Buysse when revising the Belgian Corporate Governance Code for Private Enterprises. ACF research also impacts business directly.  Studies regarding the issues of SMEs in obtaining bank or other types financing were used by the Belgian Government to take legal action to improve the debt financing situation of small enterprises. The department also advises firms and other organizations directly via research based executive teaching programs and presentations aimed at professionals. Studies by ACF are typically multidisciplinary and multimethodological, meaning that they are extremely relevant to a wide variety of societal actors.

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Research topics

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Financial Accounting & auditing

  • Financial reporting and analysis
  • Narrative impression management
  • The use of IFRS by private firms
  • IASB and IFRS foundation
  • Earnings management
  • Sustainability reporting
  • XBRL applications
  • Social media as a corporate reporting tool (financial and non-financial information)
  • Auditing as a corporate governance tool (audit quality, auditing in private firms)
  • Gender studies

Management Accounting

  • Management accounting and control
  • Cost allocation systems
  • Management control systems design and use
  • Impact of digitalization and new technologies on management control systems

Corporate finance

  • Entrepreneurial finance /small business finance
  • Entrepreneurial finance /small business finance within immigrant entrepreneurship
  • Financial performance and growth of SMEs within immigrant entrepreneurship
  • (Multinational) business group finance
  • Financial history and financial decisions
  • Financial performance and growth of SMEs
  • Transfer of businesses
  • Company valuation and cost of capital

Financial economics, capital markets & Institutions

  • Impact of institutional environment on pricing in financial markets
  • The relation between monetary policy and financial markets
  • International financial integration
  • Financial history and capital markets (equity, debt markets)
  • Modelling of interest rates and investment returns
  • Real estate finance
  • Financial risk management
  • Fixed income markets (bonds)
  • Behavioural finance
  • Investor profiling
  • Investment product positioning
  • Portfolio construction
  • Risk and returns in credit markets
  • Economic effects of state aid in finance
  • Financial contagion
  • Exchange rate behaviour
  • Macroeconomic and financial disasters, and asset pricing implications
  • Multivariate analysis of financial markets
  • Financial stability and macroprudential policies
  • Empirical finance and banking

Insurance

  • Insurance industry
  • Exact distributions and upper and lower bounds for financial and actuarial quantities with stochastic interest rates
  • Dependence measures and copula models for dependent risks

Corporate governance

  • Corporate governance in listed firms
  • Corporate governance in private firms
  • Governance in emerging markets
  • Corporate governance and performance
  • Corporate governance and sustainability in accounting and finance
  • Sustainability reporting

Accounting and Finance in family businesses, SMEs and NPOs

  • Design and use of management control systems in family firms
  • Succession in family firms
  • Entrepreneurial orientation and familiness resource pools in family firms
  • Strategic changes and innovation in family businesses
  • Corporate governance and family governance in the family firm
  • Financial reporting and auditing in SMEs and NPOs
  • Economic psychology
  • Dividend policy and capital structure decisions

Tax management

  • Tax management of (multinational) companies
  • Transfer pricing of multinational groups

Research promotors

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Publications

Discover the full bibliography of this research group.

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