The wide ranging interests of the group are reflected in the following research themes which represent the substantive areas of research the group is working on.
The research activity of the group has been funded by both private and public sector organizations such as CIMA, British Accounting Association, Leverhulme Trust, INQUIRE-UK, HEFCE, H.M. Treasury.
Valuation of Corporate Performance builds on work during the 1990s on short-termism and now focuses on shareholder and stakeholder value measurement and reporting (Cooper) and the dimensions of corporate performance (Brignall).
Financial Management of Public Services & Regulated Utilities covers the determinants of organisational performance in the public sector (Brignall), a further dimension encompasses financial performance in regulated industries (Cooper).
Auditing projects have examined the market for professional services in Indonesia (Basioudis), explored the relationship between audit fee and audit firm alumni and developed a model of audit fees based on the determinants used in private sector audit fee models (Basioudis).
Comparative Financial Reporting research is directed at understanding accounting in different countries (Abd-Elsalam). One project is assessing the various types of corporate online disclosure as well as the usability of both the financial and environmental web-pages across different countries (Abd-Elaslam)
Concentration & the Volatility of the FTSE-100 Index. This INQUIRE-UK funded work, undertakes the first measurement of stock market concentration. The study looks at the nature of the relationship between concentration and stock market volatility. (Chelley-Steeley).
Market Microstructure A substantive body of research has examined the impact that the trading mechanism has had on the behaviour of stock returns (Chelley-Steeley). Collaborative work is currently being undertaken on the Irish Stock market with Trinity College Dublin. Chelley-Steeley and Steeley have been examining the impact that extreme thin trading has had on the serial correlation of portfolios.
Investment Trusts (Agyei-Ampomah), recent research has shown that the volatility of closed end fund returns in the US are significantly higher than the returns of assets held by the funds. A project in its early stages is investigating the timing and selectivity performance of UK Investment trusts (Agyei-Ampomah, Joseph).
Fixed Income A Leverhulme grant was awarded to study the efficiency of the UK STRIPS market (Steeley). Projects have also estimated the yield curve using gilt edged securities (Steeley).
Interest Rates Research projects on interest rates have used cointegration to model the behaviour of major currency interest rates at early maturities Agyei-Ampomah, Joseph).
Corporate Governance This area of research is currently looking at CEO pay differentials (Sadler), the evolution of executive long-term incentives in the UK (Sadler), Managerial incentives and performance criteria (Sadler) and premium executive options (Sadler).
Social, Ethical & Environmental Accounting (Belal and Cooper) research aims to consider the practice of corporate social, ethical and environmental responsibility and reporting. The research undertaken adopts a stakeholder approach to consider how corporations incorporate stakeholder concerns into their decision-making processes and how these are reported. The impact of recent social accounting standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), AA1000 and SA8000, is considered in both the UK context (Cooper) and developing countries (Belal).
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