Research
My research explores how accounting practices, people and context come together to shape how organisations actually function and make decisions.
I am particularly drawn to sites of accounting controversy, such as fraud, organisational crisis and contested change. These are the settings where accounting’s influence, limitations and consequences are most exposed. I study these moments to yield insights that strengthen professional judgment, build trust in organisations and markets, and advance the accounting profession in ways that matter from policy and practice perspectives.
Research Themes
Fraud and organisational misconduct
This research explores why people commit serious workplace fraud, even when they see themselves as pro-social individuals. Drawing on a critical mass of interviews with fraud offenders, it examines the pressures, pathways, motives, and narratives that lead people to cross lines they never expected to cross, costing organisations trillions of dollars annually across the globe. It also looks issues in detecting fraud in practice, including the limits of auditing and the critical role of whistleblowing.
Performance and algorithmic management
This research examines how performance management systems, including those driven by algorithms and AI, are designed, implemented and shape how people behave at work. It looks at how targets, ratings and automated controls influence decision-making, motivation and resistance, often in unintended ways. The work highlights what happens when human judgment is replaced or constrained by algorithms, and what this means for managing contemporary workforces fairly, effectively and responsibly.
Assurance in emerging domains
This research looks at what happens when assurance principles and practices are adapted outside their traditional domain of financial statement statement audit, such as in crisis response, professional sports and government accountability. It explores who credibly provides assurance in these new areas, how they build trust and credibility, and what makes assurance meaningful rather than just a box-ticking exercise. The work helps explain how organisations, regulators and professions decide what “good assurance” looks like in new domains, in a world where demands for verification and accountability now go far beyond financial reporting.
Professional governance and accountability
This research examines how professional accounting bodies are governed, and how their governance structures shape their ability to regulate and serve their members, protect the public interest and support the profession at the same time. It explores the tensions that arise when professional bodies must balance commercial, member and regulatory roles, and how these tensions affect accountability, trust and effectiveness. The work sheds light on why some governance arrangements strengthen professional integrity, while others inadvertently undermine it.
Selected Publications
Title: Ritualistic exploitation: fraud offender perspectives on auditing and auditors.
Journal: Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.
Summary: From interviewing fraud offenders that engaged with audit processes, study reveals features of audit practice they exploited, and strategies they employed to do so, providing crucial insights on elements of audit practice that are vulnerable to sophisticated deception.
Title: A narrative analysis of the justifications and excuses of serious employee fraud offenders.
Journal: Contemporary Accounting Research.
Summary: This article identifies specific narratives employees can use as motive and to rationalise fraud, helping organisations develop more targeted controls and staff development to disrupt the "fraudster mindset" before it takes root.
Title: Oligarchy in professional accounting bodies: Challenges for governance and leader‐member relations.
Journal: Contemporary Accounting Research.
Summary: This study highlights the risk of power becoming concentrated in a small group of leaders within professional accounting bodies, cautioning that such "top-down" control holds the potential to alienate regular members and affect transparency in professional governance.
Title: Algorithmic management and the politics of demand: Control and resistance at Uber.
Journal: Accounting, Organizations & Society.
Summary: This research explores how Uber drivers navigate and push back against ‘management by app,' offering important insight into how digital monitoring changes the balance of agency between workers and technology in ‘gig economy’ business mdoels.
Title: Boundary work at the margins of politics and auditing: Rationalising advertising probity in Ontario.
Journal: Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.
Summary: This article examines the tension between political interests and ambition for neutral oversight in government, showing how auditors must constantly fight to maintain their independence when positioned to review government activities such as publicly-funded advertising campaigns.
Title: Governance of professional accounting bodies: A comparative analysis.
Journal: Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.
Summary: By systematically comparing how the world’s largest accounting organisations govern themselves, this study provides a blueprint for reform, urging these bodies to improve transparency and member engagement to ensure they serve the public interest over professional status.
Research Grants
My Research as been generously support by a major competitive grants from of scholarly and professional organisations, including:
Australian Research Council (Linkage Grants Scheme);
Canadian Social Sciences and Research Council;
Australian Institute of Criminology;
CPA Australia;
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand; and
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Research Supervisions (Selected)
Singh, V. Sustainability Assurance. [with Clune, C. and O’Dwyer, B. Due 2028]
Hassan, T. Social Impact Performance and Assurance. [with Clune, C. and O’Dwyer, B. Due 2027]
Burfitt, B. Explorations at the Margins of Accounting: VIK and Indigenous Accountability [with Baxter, J., Clune, C. and Mouritsen, J. Completed 2024]
Dhillon, R. Rankings, Ratings and Reviews: The New 3Rs of Accountability in the Australian and Singaporean Education Sectors [with Baxter, J. Completed 2018].
McDaid, E. Uber Drivers and the Paradox of Control [with Free, C. Completed 2020]. 2021 Prize for Best PhD Dissertation from AFAANZ and UNSW Business School.
Pare-Plante, M. The Social Construction of Financial Values [with Free, C. Completed 2019].
Editorial Roles
Editorial Appointments
Associate Editor: Australian Journal of Management.
Special Issue Editor: Accounting, Auditing, & Accountability Journal.
Editorial Boards
Accounting, Organizations & Society
Accounting, Auditing, & Accountability Journal
Behavioural Research in Accounting
Corporate Governance: An International Review
Mentoring leadership
PhD Colloquia
Coordinator Global Management Accounting Research Symposium (2020)
Global Management Accounting Research Symposium PhD Colloquium (Sydney, 2017; 2023)
Asia-Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting Emerging Scholars’ Colloquium (Auckland, 2019)
European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management Workshop on Conducting, Writing, and Publishing Case-Based Research in Management Accounting (Kyoto, 2016)
Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand PhD Doctoral Symposium (Hobart, 2015)
University
Director, UNSW Business School PhD Teaching Fellows Program (2019-2020)