Teaching

2023-24 Term 1 (BAcc Program)

ACCT 431 Sustainability Accounting and Reporting

What is the role of accountants in helping the world achieve sustainability goals? How can sustainability accounting help individual organizations and various stakeholders better assess environmental, social, and economic aspects of activities? This course presents a review and analysis of the theoretical foundations of sustainability accounting and its reporting issues in practice. The course will focus on existing and emerging frameworks for developing corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance metrics, assessing their reliability, reporting to stakeholders, and incentivizing managers based on ESG metrics. Specifically, we will examine both 1) the accounting for an organization’s environmental, social, and economic impacts via its activities as well as 2) how an organization is dependent on and affected by the environmental, social, and economic context in which it operates.

2023-24 Term 1 (MSA Program)

ACCT 657 Financial Reporting in an IFRS World Part I 

This course equips participants with an in-depth knowledge of the latest International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), including an understanding of the standard setting process and the conceptual framework upon which standards are set.  Major standards relating to the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure, and de-recognition of key classes of assets, liabilities, equity, revenue and expenses will be examined. 

2023-24 Term 1 (Tsinghua-SMU MCFO Program)

ACCT 666 Financial Reporting in an IFRS World Part I (Instruction in Mandarin)

This course equips participants with an in-depth knowledge of the latest International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), including an understanding of the standard setting process and the conceptual framework upon which standards are set.  Major standards relating to the recognition, measurement, presentation and disclosure, and de-recognition of key classes of assets, liabilities, equity, revenue and expenses will be examined. 

2023-24 Term 1 (PhD Program)

ACCT 702 Introduction to Accounting Research

This course is designed to introduce students to the basic topics in accounting research, with a particular emphasis on the role of accounting information in capital markets. The objective of this course is to not only provide an overview of this important stream of accounting research, but also to develop your basic understanding of common research designs used in accounting studies and to identify interesting potential research questions. We will begin with the seminal studies which relate accounting numbers to capital markets and discuss various topics including positive accounting theory, value relevance, earnings management, voluntary disclosure, accounting conservatism, efficient contracting, etc.

2023-24 Term 1 (SMU-ZJU DBA Program)

ACCT 715 Introductory Research Project

This course is designed to introduce students to the basic methodologies and topics in academic research. Students are expected to meet regularly with the supervisor and deliver an independent research proposal under the supervisor's guidance at the end of the course.