World-class research in management accounting

Brigham Young University, USA, has ranked 232 universities and business schools for their research on management accounting. Örebro University places itself as number 14 in the survey, which focuses on the past 12 years, claiming the highest spot of any Swedish university.

The focus of the ranking is the number of papers on management accounting published in world-leading accounting journals.

– Management accounting, which forms the basis of this ranking, is an important part of business administration, which in turn is the major subject area at business schools. So even if it may seem a narrow field, it is an important field, says Jonas Gerdin, research leader of the Centre for Empirical Research on Organizational Control, CEROC, at Örebro University School of Business.

Incredible development

– If you break down this survey and look more closely at publications in the accounting journals that are usually ranked as A+, i.e. the most prestigious ones, Örebro University advances to number nine. The next Swedish higher education institutions on the list, following Örebro University, are Lund University and Stockholm University, tied for 36^th place.

For over ten years, CEROC has studied management accounting and operational control. Researchers examine how decision-makers use financial indicators and the way this affects different operations.

– We have seen an incredible development. Ten years ago, CEROC consisted of one newly graduated PhD and a handful of doctoral students. Today, we are an internationally strong environment within this field, which is good for our research, for our study programmes, as well as for Örebro University as a whole, says Jonas Gerdin.

Text: Linda Harradine

Translation: Charlotta Hambre-Knight