Accounting
AICPA and AAA Honor Professors as Early Career Researchers
The award recognizes early career researchers with the best overall bodies of research in management accounting. To qualify for this award, the research must have been completed within five years of the researcher earning his or her a doctoral degree.
Aug. 13, 2019
The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants and the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association (AAA), today recognized two early-career professors for their contributions to management accounting research.
Adam Presslee, Ph.D., assistant professor of accounting at the School of Accounting and Finance at the University of Waterloo (Canada) and Laura Wang, Ph.D., the Fred and Virginia Roedgers Faculty Fellow and assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, were named dual recipients of the 2019 Best Early Career Researcher Award. This was the first time the award was bestowed to two individuals.
The award recognizes early career researchers with the best overall bodies of research in management accounting. To qualify for this award, the research must have been completed within five years of the researcher earning his or her a doctoral degree. The award is sponsored by the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, the global accounting organization formed by members of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). It’s given on behalf of the Association’s Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation which distinguishes a unique group of 150,000 management accountants worldwide who have reached the highest level of quality and competence.
Dr. Presslee and Dr. Wang earned the award as a result of their research contributions which broadly explored the effects of incentives on employee performance. Dr. Presslee’s research focuses more specifically on the effects various incentive system features and control environments have on employee effort and performance. Dr. Wang’s research examines how the design and efficacy of management control systems affect individual differences in employee skills, personalities and values and goals. The award is accompanied by a $2000 grant.
“Management accountants play an important role in helping their organizations create value and providing incentives that drive performance is a key component of that process,” said Bob Sannerud, CPA, CGMA, chair of the Association’s Americas Region Advisory Panel and chief financial officer of Life Link III. “The insights from Dr. Wang and Dr. Presslee’s research will help CPAs and CGMA designation holders better advise and direct their organizations in this area.”
Dr. Presslee earned his Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Waterloo (2014). He has received numerous recognitions including Teacher of the Year by University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business in 2017 and the Outstanding Management Accounting Paper Award from the AAA in 2011. His work is published in journals including The Accounting Review, Accounting, Organizations and Society, and Journal of Management Accounting Research.
Dr. Wang earned her doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin (2014). Prior to teaching, she worked as senior associate at Grant Thornton. She has been recognized for her excellence in teaching and is on the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their students. Her research has been published in journals including The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research and Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.