Lazaridis School ranked among top 10 schools in Canada for accounting research

Feb. 23, 2022
For Immediate Release

Waterloo – Brigham Young University has recognized the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University for excellence in accounting research. The rankings are based on peer-reviewed articles in the top 12 accounting journals globally.

Lazaridis School Accounting professors ranked among the top 10 schools in Canada overall, as well in tax, managerial accounting, audit and accounting information systems research, and among the top 12 in financial accounting research. Even more impressive, Lazaridis School professors also ranked No. 3 in managerial accounting research in Canada and No. 47 globally.

“The Brigham Young University rankings highlight some of the accounting faculty's research achievements,” said Ling Chu, a professor and head of Accounting at the Lazaridis School. “We have become known for our behavioural and archival research, and we are also known for our diversified research interests and agenda. With our core of highly reputed, productive and hardworking researchers, we are attracting many strong researchers interested in joining us.” 

The Lazaridis School has several tenure-track research positions to provide faculty with opportunities to advance accounting in Canada and the world and a number of Accounting faculty members currently engaged in vital research.

The Brigham Young University rankings recognize the real-world implications of the research that Lazaridis School professors produce. Some of that research includes a recent paper on how merit can perpetuate gender biases from Professor Bruce McConomy, another on pay inequity between the top and bottom levels in an organization from Associate Professor Lan Guo, and research on tax fairness from Associate Professor Jonathan Farrar.

“It’s such a thrill to see Laurier ranked so well amongst highly respected schools,” said Leslie Berger, associate professor of Accounting and KPMG Foundation Felow in Accounting. “I’m incredibly proud of the Accounting area. It’s a reflection on the great research team that we have in the Accounting area and a metric that speaks to the quality of work that’s happening right now.”

Real-world implications are also at the top of Berger’s research in Managerial Accounting. Berger is currently researching whistleblowing and knowledge sharing in the workplace, a topic that has garnered significant media attention in the last few years. Her research has also looked at how whistleblowing occurs within the Canada Revenue Agency. The agency has a system for taxpayers to report fraudulent returns or information, and Berger is looking into what influences people to make a report. 

Darren Henderson, an associate professor of Accounting and William Birchall Foundation Fellow in Accounting, is studying the global supply chain — a topic with real-world implications for consumers and businesses in the wake of shipping issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s an area of research he described as straddling both accounting and operations research.

“With supply chain, we’re looking at upstream relationships with suppliers, downstream relationships with customers, and considering how the concentration of those relationships affects the performance of the firm sitting in the middle,” Henderson said.

Both Berger and Henderson are proud of the Brigham Young Rankings and what they mean for the university.

“This is a signal that the work we’re doing has value,” said Berger. “We’re contributing to the accounting literature in a good way and we’re getting recognized. It’s a sign of the quality of researchers that we have at Laurier.”