Graduate School

Accounting and Finance research overview

Accounting and Finance The Department of Accounting and Finance at the University of Portsmouth has a well-established tradition of research excellence. The volume and quality of research activity has increased with each new submission to the UK government’s Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).

Our researchers' work relates to real economic and professional concerns and is regularly published in leading journals and monographs.

The expertise and enthusiasm of our researchers is channelled into our flourishing postgraduate research degree programme, where staff and students work closely together to produce rigorous and topical research. 

For more information about how to apply please contact the Portsmouth Business School using the Contact us page.

If you have any questions about studying for a research degree at the University of Portsmouth, please complete our enquiry form.

Key Facts

RAE rating: Among the 90 UK universities submitting work in the Business and Management Unit of Assessment (UoA 36), Portsmouth Business School (PBS) submitted the 15th largest number of research active staff and was 27th on a weighted quality basis, placing it as the highest south coast university in the UK and the highest new university in this category.

The RAE panel of experts in charge of assessing the outputs of business schools stated that "the submission contained some work that was internationally excellent or better and this was distributed across all research groups" The funding received by HEFCE places the Business School among the top 28 universities which correlates with the Power Ranking and the funding to the Business School has increased by 74% over past years.

Academic staff: 25, please see link to the staff list webpage.

Postgraduate research students: 13

Internal links: The Department has close research links with the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies (ICJS), the Department of Mathematics and the School of Computing.

External links: We have strong affiliations with business and the community, as well as with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Resources

Portsmouth Business School is located in Richmond Building, a modern purpose-built building in the centre of Portsmouth.

In addition to high quality computing and library resources, our postgraduate research students have access to a range of databases such as Datastream and the Bloomberg facility, which enable them to experience the environment of a City trading floor in near real-time.

Research Centres

Accounting and Finance Research Group
The main focus of research in the Accounting and Finance Research Group is the relationship of the corporation with its external stakeholders, specifically through research in auditing, corporate governance and financial reporting. Our research is topical and professionally relevant, and is supported by research grants from ICAEW, ICAS and CIMA.

Management Accounting Research Group (MARG)
The Management Account Research Group fosters and supports research outputs contributing to an enhancement of knowledge and understanding of the technical, contextual, behavioural and ethical role played by management accounting in the modern economy.

Research Areas

Accounting and Finance

The Accounting and Finance researchers actively contribute to accounting knowledge by carrying out high quality policy and relevant academic research in financial reporting, auditing and aspects of regulation. They also contribute to public policy-making by publication and establishing and maintain good working relationships with senior practitioners and regulators

Our research focuses on issues of central concern to the accounting profession. While prioritising publication in academic journals, we also use the practitioner press to ensure timely dissemination of our findings to potential end-users and policy makers.

The Accounting and Finance researchers make a major contribution to the promotion of accounting research at a national level by hosting the annual CDA/BAAF Research Methods workshop, which has provided an introduction to accounting research to about 250 novice researchers since its inception.

Our researchers are working and supervising postgraduate research students on the following areas:

  • Financial reporting review panel
  • Auditor independence
  • Audit market concentration
  • Auditor liability
  • Impact of globalisation on financial reporting and auditing standards
  • Accounting and auditing in the SME sector
  • ASB's Statement of Principles
  • Interactions between finance directors, audit committee chairs and audit partners
  • Professional regulation
  • Corporate governance

The Accounting and Finance research group also organises seminars with internal and external speakers and provides input to other Portsmouth Business School research-promoting activities, such as the allocation of research resources. Members of the group contribute to the Faculty Research Degrees Committee and sit on Faculty and University research committees.

Management Accounting

The researchers in the Management Accounting area offer excellent supervision in the following fields:

  • Strategic management accounting and control
  • Performance measurement
  • Accounting communications
  • Charitable organisations
  • The role of the management accountant in the 21st Century.

Our researchers practise research-led teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level, enhancing the curriculum and disseminating knowledge. We offer best quality supervision for postgraduate research degrees students, encouraging and fostering Work-based learning (WBL) and Problem-based learning (PBL) in research.

Our postgraduate research students attend the group’s research seminars with guest speakers and are fully supported in the various stages of the ‘research cycle’: looking and applying for research funding opportunities, development of a project with a sound ethical, methodological and theoretical approach and preparation of conference and working papers.