Caledonian Business School

The Department has a thriving research culture, having gained a rating of 4 in the RAE 2001 and having 65% of our research graded as 2* or above in RAE 2008. The publications of the staff span papers in refereed and professional journals, textbooks, newspapers and refereed monographs. The research culture is extended by support for conference presentation/attendance and a programme of in-house research seminars.

Research also underpins teaching, in two ways:

• Research into specific topic areas that feed into module syllabi
• Research into pedagogic aspects of education in the disciplinary areas

The Department welcomes inquiries from students interested in Ph.D. studies. Currently, students are conducting research into oil and gas, including lobbying in the extractive industries' accounting standard-setting process and income smoothing in oil and gas firms, and credit unions. For more information about our research activities and discussion of collaboration opportunities, please contact us.

Research areas

A. Accounting

Financial accounting

Areas of research interest and publication include: theoretical bases underlying accounting standards (Kazem Falahati); company law harmonization (Catriona Paisey) and online reporting (Catriona Paisey).

Management accounting and energy accounting

Areas of research interest and publication include: the interface between management accounting, performance measurement and strategic human resource management (Reza Kouhy); university costing systems and financial management in SMEs (Stuart McChlery).

Audit/taxation

Areas of research interest and publication include: auditing risk management (Margaret Crawford); and the audit expectations gap in Bangladesh (Reza Kouhy).

Public sector

Areas of research interest and publication include: the impact of culture on governmental accounting innovations in developing countries (Pat Devlin and Cherif Merrouche); best value in Scottish local authorities (Siobhan White); control self-assessment (Siobhan White) and the role of audit committees in local government (Margaret Crawford).

Accounting education and the accountancy profession

Areas of research interest and publication include: development of interviewing / research skills in accounting students (Margaret Crawford); the relationship between student attendance and academic performance (Catriona Paisey); international comparative studies of accounting education (Pat Devlin); professional accounting education, including core syllabi and quality assurance (Stuart McChlery and Catriona Paisey); the development of accounting as an academic discipline (Catriona Paisey); continuing professional development (Catriona Paisey); gender issues in the accountancy profession (Catriona Paisey and Marco Guidi).

B. Finance and financial services

Finance

Areas of research interest and publication include: sovereign risk, equity asset allocation strategies, stock return predictability, portfolio efficiency, beta risk (Marco Guidi); and examination of the reasons for the unresolved puzzles in economic and financial theory and the construction of an alternative paradigm which resolves them (Kazem Falahati).

Financial services (including banking, insurance, investment and pensions)

Areas of research interest and publication include: wage levels in the financial services sector, demutualization and the efficiency of large UK banks, disparities in EU housing markets, utilisation of DEA in the labour market, institutional investors and corporate governance (Robert Webb); UK pension provision (Patrick Ring); banking, insurance and regulation of financial services (Partick Ring); life, pensions and general insurance accounting (Kazem Falahati).

C. Risk and Governance

Public Sector Risk Management

Our areas of research interests include a range of socially significant risk-related issues such as risk management in local authorities (John Hood, Darinka Asenova and Bill Stein), risk and regulation of care (Darinka Asenova and Bill Stein), risk in public private partnerships and other methods for local authority capital finance (Darinka Asenova and John Hood), risk in public policy (John Hood, Bill Stein and Darinka Asenova), auditing risk management (Bill Stein), risk prediction and management in mental health (Bill Stein).

Private Sector Risk Management

Areas of interest include the treatment of risk in public-private partnerships with specific focus on the financial services providers (Darinka Asenova), employers’ liability (John Hood), and risk management in international business (John Hood).

Public safety

Areas of interest include: the management of low probability high impact animal-to-human diseases (Darinka Asenova), and public space CCTV systems (John Hood).

Insurance

Areas of interest include: the socio-political aspects of insurance (John Hood), the UK and international insurance markets and practice (Bill Stein), and the use of insurance and alternative risk financing in local authority (Bill Stein and John Hood).

The Cullen Centre for Risk and Governance

Glasgow Caledonian University possesses unique expertise, at a national, and international, level of excellence, in a number of areas of applied research, which can be themed under the broad heading of risk and governance. In the past, this expertise was spread throughout different units, such as the Business School, the Schools of Built and Natural Environment, and Health and Social Care. Hosted by Caledonian Business School, the Cullen Centre for Risk and Governance brings together staff in one single research unit which is able to act as a dynamic partner for meeting the research needs of industry, public and voluntary sector bodies. Building on existing national and international links with professional bodies, the Cullen Centre provides a unique interdisciplinary forum for applied industry and community-relevant research in governance and risk management.