Dr Ataur Belal

Senior Lecturer

Finance and Accounting Group

• Phone:+44(0)121 204 3031
• Email: a.r.belal@aston.ac.uk
• Room: ABS409

Current Research

My current research focuses on corporate social responsibility [CSR] reporting from the context of developing countries. In particular, my interest is to find out why Bangladeshi managers started to disclose social and ethical information and also what are the attitudes of different Bangladeshi stakeholder groups towards this new phenomenon. My more recent interest includes case studies of CSR practices around the world, particularly UK, Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Research Funding

• Belal, Ataur (with Stuart Cooper and Prasanta Dey), (£40,000) Climate Change Issues and environmental performance of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in India and the UK. Awarded by British Council, UK. Date awarded 12/03/2012 [for 2 years].
• Belal, Ataur (with Reiner Grundmann and Prasanta Dey), (£15,000) Corporate Climate Change reporting and the media in BRICs. Awarded by Aston University, UK. Date awarded August 2009 [for 1 year]. 
• Belal, Ataur (with Stuart Cooper and Prasanta Dey), (£45,000) Corporate Reporting & Embeddedness of Environmental and Climate Change Issues in Bangladesh. Awarded by British Council, UK. Date awarded 12/03/2009 [for 3 years].
• 5th APIRA 2007 Research Fund based in New Zealand [NZ$3000] for my research work on CSR Reporting.
• 2008 Aston Business School's Internal Fund [£1000] for the project on "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting in a multinational sunsidiary in Bangladesh: A Case Study".
• 2007 British Academy's Conference Funding [£800] for the attendance of 5th APIRA Conference in New Zealand.
• Sheffield University Management School Grant (2000 - 2002) for undertaking doctoral work on corporate social responsibility [CSR] reporting.  One paper arising from the project has already been published in the refereed journal Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management and another paper in Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (see below).  Several conference presentations were made from the materials arising from the project.
• A project Funded by Chittagong University (Bangladesh) Research Cell (1995-1996) which investigated job satisfaction of professional accountants in Bangladesh.  The findings of the study were reported later in Chittagong University Studies in the form of an academic refereed paper.

Research Publications

Book

• Belal, A.R. 2008.  Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reporting in Developing Countries: The Case of Bangladesh, Aldershot: Ashgate Publishers. http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&calcTitle=1&title_id=8400&edition_id=9011. 

 Book Chapters

• Belal, A.R. & Lubinin, V. 2008. Corporate Social Disclosures (CSD) in Russia.  In S.O.Idowu, & W.L.Filho (Eds.), Global Practices of Corporate Social Responsibility. Berlin: Springer. http://www.springer.com/economics/social+policy/book/978-3-540-68812-9.
• Bahia, S., Belal, A. R., & Khan, N. A. 2009. Corporate Social Disclosure of Supply Chain Issues: A Focus on Selected Global Companies. In P. Maiti (Ed.), Corporate Social Responsibility: Critiques, Policies and Strategies, Vol. 2: 133-151. Jodhpur, India: Sharda Publishing House.
  

Articles in Refereed Academic Journals

• Sharmin, S., Khan, Niaz & Belal, A, 2013. Corporate Community Involvement In Bangladesh: An Empirical Study. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management. Forthcoming.
• Wagiciengo, M. M., & Belal, A. R. 2012. Intellectual capital disclosures by South African companies: A longitudinal investigation. Advances in Accounting, 28(1): 111-118.
• Belal, A. R., & Cooper, S. 2011. The Absence of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in Bangladesh. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 22(7), 654-667. 
• Belal, A. R. (2011). Students’ perceptions of Computer Assisted Learning: an empirical study. International Journal of Management in Education, 5(1), 63-78.
• Belal, A., & Roberts, R. 2010. Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Corporate Social Reporting in Bangladesh. Journal of Business Ethics, 97(2), Pp.311-324.
• Belal, A., Kabir, M. R., Cooper, S., Dey, P., Khan, N., Rahman, T., & Ali, M. 2010. Corporate Environmental and Climate Change Disclosures: Empirical Evidence From Bangladesh. Research in Accounting in Emerging Economies, 10, Pp.147-169.
• Belal, A. R., & Momin, M.: 2009, 'Corporate Social Reporting (CSR) in Emerging Economies: A Review and Future Direction', Research in Accounting in Emerging Economies 9, Pp.119-143.
• "The views of corporate managers on the current state of, and future prospects for, social reporting in Bangladesh: An engagement based study", Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal Vol. 20 No. 3, 2007, Pp.472-494.  (with Owen, D) 
• "Stakeholder Accountability or Stakeholder Management: A Review of  UK Firms' Social and Ethical Accounting, Auditing and Reporting (SEAAR) Practices", Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management (U.K.), Vol. 9 No.1, 2002, Pp.8-25.
• "A Study of Corporate Social Disclosures in Bangladesh", Managerial Auditing Journal (U.K.), Vol.16 No.5, 2001, Pp.274-289.
• "Environmental Reporting in Developing Countries: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh", Eco-Management and Auditing (U.K.), Vol. 7 No.3, 2000, Pp.114-121.
• Khan, N. A., & Belal, A. R.: 1999, 'The Politics of the Bangladesh Environmental Protection Act', Environmental Politics 8(1), 311-317.
• Solaiman, M., & Belal, A. R.: 1999, 'An account of the sustainable development process in Bangladesh', Sustainable Development 7(3), 121-131.

Teaching and Supervision

As a member of Finance and Accounting Group in the business school I'm currently teaching financial and international accounting at the undergraduate level and postgraduate levels.

In addition, I'm supervising two doctoral students working on the research theme of NGO accountability and climate change accounting and reporting. I'm also engaged in supervising undergraduate [usually 3/4 students a year] and postgraduate students [usually 5/6 students a year].

My main teaching interest is in the area of SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING, FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING and INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTING.

I taught the following modules successfully at all levels of the undergraduate course in Sheffield University Management School (SUMS):

MGT 119 Introduction to Financial Accounting
MGT 102 Introduction to Management Accounting
MGT 211 Intermediate Management Accounting
MGT 301 Financial Accounting
MGT 302 Financial Reporting Theory (including social & environmental accounting)

At Aston I've successfully taught the following undergraduate and postgraduate modules:

BF 1101  Principles of Financial Accounting
BF 1162  Financial Accounting: an international perspective
BF 2211  Financial Accounting
BF 1169 International Accounting
BFM 221 Financial Statement Preparation
BFM 223 Sustainability Accounting and Accountability
BFM 236 Financial Accounting and Reporting

As part of Aston Business School's Internationalisation Programme in 2005 I delivered a course on International Accounting to a group of postgraduate students at the University of Toulouse, France. I also delivered the same course in 2008 at the University of Regensburg, Germany.  During the period of 1994-1997 I've also taught at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. I have worked as an external examiner for doctoral theses in the UK and abroad.

JOURNAL INVOLVEMENT

Associate Editor, Accounting Forum [ABS 3*]
Lead Guest Editor, Accounting Forum [ABS 3*] Special Issue on “Social and Environmental Accounting and Reporting in Emerging and Less Developed Countries”. Other Editors: Dr. Stuart Cooper [Aston University, UK] and Dr. Robin Roberts [University of Central Florida, USA]. This special issue is due to be published in 2013.
I’m on the editorial board of the following journals:
 Issues in Social and Environmental Accounting
 Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting

Ad hoc Academic Reviewer for the following journals:

• Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
• Journal of Management Studies
• Journal of Business Ethics
• Critical Perspectives on Accounting
• The British Accounting Review
• Accounting Forum
• Accounting Education: An International Journal
• Research in Accounting in Emerging Economies
• Journal of Applied Accounting Research
• Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business
• Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management