
Applied Accounting Research
Explore our work in applied accounting, one of our 4 areas of research in Accounting
A strong accounting profession and effective management of financial resources are essential to financial stability and economic development. Globalisation and recent financial crises have further highlighted the importance of enhancing the quality of accounting practices.
Our Applied Accounting and Financial Management research aims to investigate the behaviours, actions and responses of both providers and users of accounting information. In doing so, our work sets out to improve standards across the accounting and financial management field, and to stimulate debate within it.
In this area, we aim to study problems and issues related to the implementation and application of high-quality standards, codes and best practices. Furthermore, advances in information technology is another issue that affects the practices of accounting and financial management.
Our research covers the following key topics
- Financial reporting and auditing
- Big data accounting
- Performance measurement
- Capital market based research
Our research makes use of both quantitative and qualitative research methods – including content analysis, archival analysis, regressions, structural equation models, linguistic analysis, questionnaire, interviews and experiments.
Funding and collaborations
Recent research projects have been funded by major organisations, such as The British Academy, Financial Reporting Council, British Council, Economic History Society bursary, Food Standards Agency and the UK Innovate.
Much of our research is collaborative and cross-disciplinary in nature – recent projects have seen us work in partnership with the University's Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Science and Health.
Projects
- The impacts of political connections on new business ventures (Co-Applicant: Konstantinos Kallias) – Konstantinos Kallias, Hang Pham (University of Essex) and (St Andrews University) have won a fund of £9,714 from the British Academy (The BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants) to explore the impact of political connections on new business ventures
- UK-Russian Workshop on Current Issues in Corporate Reporting – Khaled Hussainey (PI), Karen McBride and Roza Sagitova have won a fund of £48,412 from the British Council to organise a workshop at the University, from 1 June–31 December 2019
- Country by Country Reporting and Tax avoidance: UK evidence – Ahmed Aboud (PI) has won a fund of £3,060 from the British Academy to empirically examine the impact of country-by-country reporting on tax avoidance for the British companies
- Remuneration Research Project – Ahmed Aboud, Tarek Abdelfattah, Khaled Hussainey, and Karen McBride (PI) won a fund of £40,529 from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to explore changes in remuneration reporting following the UK corporate governance code 2018
Publication highlights
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Disclosure quality vis-à-vis disclosure quantity: does audit committee matter in Omani financial institutions?
Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Volume 57, pages 557–594, 2021, Al Lawati, H. M. A, Hussainey, K, and Sagitova, R.
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Executives vs. governance: Who has the predictive power? Evidence from narrative tone.
Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Volume 58, Pages 361–382, 2022, Bassyouny, H, and AbdelFattah, T. M. H.
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Corporate environmental disclosure and earnings management: The moderating role of corporate governance structures
International Journal of Finance and Economics, 2021, pages 1–22, Gerged, A, Albitar, K, and Al-Haddad, L.
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The Convergence of Big Data and Accounting: Innovative Research Opportunities
Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 173, Issue 2, 2021, Ibrahim, A. E. A, Elamer, A. A, and Ezat, A. N.
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A novel measure of corporate carbon emission disclosure, the effect of capital expenditures and corporate governance
Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 290, 2021, Karim, A. T. M. E, Albitar, K, and Elmarzouky, M.
Conferences
- In 2017, we hosted the 5th European Research Conference, a prestigious gathering of experts in the field of Microfinance.
- In September 2022, the Accounting History Journal and the University of Portsmouth hosted The 11th Accounting History International Conference, a bi-annual event which brings together accounting history researchers from all over the world.
Our members

Dr Ahmed Aboud

Dr Khaldoon Albitar
Media ready expert
Dr Imam Arafat

Media ready expert
Professor Khaled Hussainey

Dr Awad Ibrahim

Professor Lisa Jack

Media ready expert
Dr Karen McBride

Ms Rebecca Nicolaides

Media ready expert
Dr Roza Sagitova
Discover our areas of expertise
Applied accounting and financial management is one of our 4 areas of expertise in our Accounting research area. Explore the others below.
Accounting history
We're exploring the past of accountancy, through archives and historical documentation, to learn about the issues experienced by previous generations. Explore our accounting history research.

Forensic Accounting, Management Control and Governance
We're researching issues and challenges around forensic accounting, management control and governance. Explore our forensic accounting management control and governance research.

Accounting Education
Through our research, we're taking a closer look at how best to educate the next generation of accounting professionals around the world.
Interested in a PhD in Accounting?
Browse our postgraduate research degrees – including PhDs and MPhils – at our Accounting postgraduate research degrees page.