Accounting and Management Control

The Accounting and Management Control specialization is designed to provide a thorough understanding of current accounting theory, practice and research...

HEC Paris is a great school to pursue a PhD. I learned from passionate and experienced faculty how to develop my research ideas in a supportive environment.

Alexandre Madelaine

PhD 2023, Accounting and Management Control, Assistant Professor, Erasmus University - RSM

The Accounting and Management Control specialization is designed to provide a thorough understanding of current accounting theory, practice and research, taught within the framework of modern economic, finance and sociology theories as applied to the behavior of today’s corporations and financial markets.

The Curriculum

The curriculum covers a large array of topics in financial accounting, management accounting and control such as:

Disclosure and transparency - financial reporting quality - information provision to capital and debt markets - agency conflicts - management control - regulation - control devices - management accounting technologies - performance measurement and management - corporate governance - risk management - organizational and sociological aspects of management control auditing - environmental management accounting - risk rating - social studies of finance.

Main field courses (non-exhaustive list):

Accounting for private entities and non-investor stakeholders
Disclosure and Financial Reporting
Empirical Research in Management Accounting
Theory in Financial Reporting
Theory in Management Control
Topics in Empirical Financial Accounting

See global course examples here

Students may join courses from other specializations or partner universities to broaden their knowledge.

Why join us

The specialization welcomes PhD students interested in quantitative, qualitative, and analytical research. The PhD program in Accounting and Management Control is a small and intensive program aiming to attract outstanding students with the highest level of ambition.

Only 1 to 2 students are enrolled every year. Selectivity, demanding and intensive course training, close supervision, and full immersion in research activities are cornerstones of our philosophy in PhD training. We are also pursuing a successful policy of encouraging academic exchanges with the world’s leading business schools and research presentations in academic conferences. Our international, research-driven, and young faculty is a key ingredient of success in our PhD Program.

Research Seminars

Most academic departments organize research seminars on a regular basis as well as many other academic events. Students are encouraged to join these seminars already from the first year of studies. They give students a good idea of what they are expected to produce. They are also a good way to socialize with the professors of the departments and the other PhD students. Most of these research seminars are available to all PhD students from all specializations.

Within the Accounting and Management Control department we organize over 20 seminars or brown bags per year and welcome regularly visiting faculty from other schools.