Skip to main content
About HEC About HEC
Summer School Summer School
Faculty & Research Faculty & Research
Master’s programs Master’s programs
Bachelor Programs Bachelor Programs
MBA Programs MBA Programs
PhD Program PhD Program
Executive Education Executive Education
HEC Online HEC Online
About HEC
Overview Overview
Who
We Are
Who
We Are
Egalité des chances Egalité des chances
HEC Talents HEC Talents
International International
Campus
Life
Campus
Life
Sustainability Sustainability
Diversity
& Inclusion
Diversity
& Inclusion
Stories Stories
The HEC
Foundation
The HEC
Foundation
Summer School
Youth Programs Youth Programs
Summer programs Summer programs
Online Programs Online Programs
Faculty & Research
Overview Overview
Faculty Directory Faculty Directory
Departments Departments
Centers Centers
Chairs Chairs
Grants Grants
Knowledge@HEC Knowledge@HEC
Master’s programs
Master in
Management
Master in
Management
Master's
Programs
Master's
Programs
Double Degree
Programs
Double Degree
Programs
Bachelor
Programs
Bachelor
Programs
Summer
Programs
Summer
Programs
Exchange
students
Exchange
students
Student
Life
Student
Life
Our
Difference
Our
Difference
Bachelor Programs
Overview Overview
Course content Course content
Admissions Admissions
Fees and Financing Fees and Financing
MBA Programs
MBA MBA
Executive MBA Executive MBA
TRIUM EMBA TRIUM EMBA
PhD Program
Overview Overview
HEC Difference HEC Difference
Program details Program details
Research areas Research areas
HEC Community HEC Community
Placement Placement
Job Market Job Market
Admissions Admissions
Financing Financing
Executive Education
Home Home
About us About us
Management topics Management topics
Open Programs Open Programs
Custom Programs Custom Programs
Events/News Events/News
Contacts Contacts
HEC Online
Overview Overview
Degree Program Degree Program
Executive certificates Executive certificates
MOOCs MOOCs
Summer Programs Summer Programs
Youth programs Youth programs

Keith ROBSON

Professor

Accounting and Management Control

 Profile picture

Biography

Keith Robson holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Social Studies majoring in Econometrics (Victoria University of Manchester), a Master’s Degree in Accounting and Finance (Victoria University of Manchester) and a PhD in Financial Reporting (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology). 

He has authored and co-authored three books, seven chapters in edited collections and over 35 articles in academic accounting, management and organization studies journals (Accounting, Auditing and Accountability; Accounting and Business Research, Accounting Business and Financial History; Accounting, Organizations and Society; Contemporary Accounting Research; Critical Perspectives on Accounting; Economy and Society; European Accounting Review; Human Relations, Organization; Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Science in Context).

He is an Editor (and former Editor-in-Chief) of Accounting, Organizations and Society, former associate editor of British Accounting Review, and serves on the boards of Accounting, Auditing and Accountability, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, International Journal of Auditing, Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Organizational Change, and the British Accounting Review.

His research interests include performance measures and diffusion; socio-political studies of accounting regulation; the profession, professional firms and professionalization; management control in schools; auditing methodologies. He is a member of the American Accounting Association, British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA), European Accounting Association (EAA), and is Doctoral Alumnus of the American Accounting Association (AAA) Doctoral Consortium (as the BAA nominee), and of the European Accounting Association Doctoral Colloquium. He has held a Research Fellowship of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Keith was a co-organizer of the Doctoral Colloquium of the European Accounting Association.  

Keith has held posts at Aberystwyth University, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), University of Manchester and Cardiff University. taught management accounting at various levels at Aberystwyth, Cardiff and Manchester. He is an Honorary Professor at Cardiff Business School. At HEC he is currently teaching cost accounting (HEC Master of Science in Management - Grande École), and theories of management control and Empirical Topics in Management Accounting (HEC doctoral program). He supervises one PhD student at HEC Paris and two at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University. 

 

Scientific articles

Technological mediation, mediating morality and moral imaginaries of design: Performance measurement systems in the pharmaceutical industry

Accounting, Organizations and Society, Forthcoming, vol. 112, n° 101535, (in coll. with C. Bottausci, C. Dambrin)

Diversity and the Evaluation of Talent in the Accounting Profession: The Enigma of Merit

Accounting Horizons, Mars 2024, vol. 38, n° 1, pp 27-37, (in coll. with F. Anderson-Gough, C. Edgley, N. Sharma)

“He Hears”: An essay celebrating the 25 year anniversary of The Audit Society

Critical Perspectives on Accounting, December 2023, vol. 97, n° 102581, (in coll. with C. Bottausci)

The cultural fields of accounting practices: Institutionalization and accounting changes beyond the organization

Accounting, Organizations and Society, January 2023, vol. 104, n° 101379, (in coll. with M. Ezzamel)

Organizational responses to multiple logics: Diversity, identity and the professional service firm

Accounting, Organizations and Society, November 2022, vol. 103, n° 101336, (in coll. with F. Anderson-Gough, C. Edgley, N. Sharma)

Editorial: Accounting research and practice in the time of pandemic (v5) (Editorial)

Accounting, Organizations and Society, April 2021, n° 101243, (in coll. with M. Annisette, M. E. Peecher)

Editorial: Themed section on accounting and valuation studies

Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2021, vol. 91, n° 101223, (in coll. with Y. Millo, M. Power, H. Vollmer)

Problematizing profit and profitability: discussions

Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 2020, vol. 33, n° 4, pp 753-793, (in coll. with A. LOWE, Y. NAMA, A. BRYER, N. CHABRAK, C. DAMBRIN, I. JEACLE, J. LIND, P. LORINO, C. BOTTAUSCI, C. SPENCE, C. CARTER, E. SVETLOVA)

The multiplicity of performance management systems: heterogeneity in multinational corporations and management sense-making

Contemporary Accounting Research, Spring 2019, vol. 36, n° 1, pp 451-485, (in coll. with M. EZZAMEL, D. COOPER)

The sociology of translation and accounting inscriptions: Reflections on Latour and Accounting Research

Critical Perspectives on Accounting, July 2018, vol. 54, pp 60-75, (in coll. with C. BOTTAUSCI)

Books

Local Management of Schools: the Creation and Implementation of Budgets

CIMA (in coll. with P. EDWARDS, M. EZZAMEL, C. MCLEAN)

Making Up Accountants: the Professional and Organizational Socialization of Chartered Accountants

Ashgate (in coll. with F. ANDERSON, C. GREY)

The Local Management of Schools Initiative

CIMA (in coll. with P. EDWARDS, M. TAYLOR, M. EZZAMEL)

Chapters in edited books

Accounting practitioners, work and organisations

The Routledge Companion To Accounting History, 2Nd Edition, John Richard Edwards, Stephen P. Walker (Eds), Routledge, London, 39

Regulation

The Routledge Companion To Critical Accounting, Robin Roslender, Routledge, London, 184-204

The Corporation in Accounting

The Corporation: A Critical, Multi-Disciplinary Handbook, Grietje Baars, and Andre Spicer, Cambridge University Press, 1, 180-196

Critical Accounting

The Oxford Handbook Of Critical Management Studies, M. Alvesson, T. Bridgman, H. Willmott (Eds), Oxford University Press

Socio-political studies of financial accounting and standard setting

Accounting, Organizations And Institutions, C. Chapman, D.J. Cooper and P. Miller (Eds), Oxford University Press, 1-29

Firm Histories

Companion To Accounting History, S. Walker, J.R. Edwards (Eds), Routledge, London

Connecting Science to the Economic

Science And Economic Calculation, M. Power (Ed.), Cambridge University Press

Regulating the UK Accountancy Profession: A Changing Relationship between the State and the Profession

Accounting As Social And Institutional Practice, A.G. Hopwood , P.B. Miller (Eds), Cambridge University Press

On Understanding the Development of the Accountancy Profession in the UK

Critical Accounts, D. J. Cooper, T. M. Hopper (Eds), Macmillan

Power and Management Control

Critical Perspectives In Management Control, W.F. Chua, E.A. Lowe, A.G. Puxty (Eds), Macmillan

Working papers

Multiple measures, inscription instability and action at a distance: performance measurement practices in the pharmaceutical industry

Cahier de Recherche du Groupe HEC , 2010

Scientific articles

Diversity and the Evaluation of Talent in the Accounting Profession: The Enigma of Merit

Accounting Horizons, Mars 2024, vol. 38, n° 1, pp 27-37, (in coll. with F. Anderson-Gough, C. Edgley, N. Sharma)

Technological mediation, mediating morality and moral imaginaries of design: Performance measurement systems in the pharmaceutical industry

Accounting, Organizations and Society, Forthcoming, vol. 112, n° 101535, (in coll. with C. Bottausci, C. Dambrin)

“He Hears”: An essay celebrating the 25 year anniversary of The Audit Society

Critical Perspectives on Accounting, December 2023, vol. 97, n° 102581, (in coll. with C. Bottausci)

The cultural fields of accounting practices: Institutionalization and accounting changes beyond the organization

Accounting, Organizations and Society, January 2023, vol. 104, n° 101379, (in coll. with M. Ezzamel)

Books

Local Management of Schools: the Creation and Implementation of Budgets

CIMA (in coll. with P. EDWARDS, M. EZZAMEL, C. MCLEAN)

Making Up Accountants: the Professional and Organizational Socialization of Chartered Accountants

Ashgate (in coll. with F. ANDERSON, C. GREY)

The Local Management of Schools Initiative

CIMA (in coll. with P. EDWARDS, M. TAYLOR, M. EZZAMEL)

Chapters in edited books

Accounting practitioners, work and organisations

The Routledge Companion To Accounting History, 2Nd Edition, John Richard Edwards, Stephen P. Walker (Eds), Routledge, London, 39

Regulation

The Routledge Companion To Critical Accounting, Robin Roslender, Routledge, London, 184-204

The Corporation in Accounting

The Corporation: A Critical, Multi-Disciplinary Handbook, Grietje Baars, and Andre Spicer, Cambridge University Press, 1, 180-196

Critical Accounting

The Oxford Handbook Of Critical Management Studies, M. Alvesson, T. Bridgman, H. Willmott (Eds), Oxford University Press

Working papers

Multiple measures, inscription instability and action at a distance: performance measurement practices in the pharmaceutical industry

Cahier de Recherche du Groupe HEC , 2010

Education

  • Ph.D., The University of Manchester - United Kingdom
  • M.A., The University of Manchester - United Kingdom
  • Bachelor of Arts in Econometrics, The University of Manchester - United Kingdom

Academic appointments

Academic Responsibilities at HEC

  • 2020- Member of GREGHEC, the joint research laboratory CNRS-HEC Paris HEC Paris
  • 2016-2020 Department Head, Accounting and Management Control HEC Paris
  • 2014- Professor, Accounting and Management Control HEC Paris

External Academic Responsibilities

  • 2005-2014 Professor, Accounting Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University
  • 2004-2005 Professor, Accounting Manchester Business School
  • 1998-2004 Professor, Accounting Manchester School of Management
  • 1995-1998 Senior lecturer, Accounting and Management Control Manchester School of Management
  • 1988-1995 Senior lecturer, Accounting and Management Control Manchester School of Management
  • 1986-1988 Senior lecturer, Accounting University College Wales
  • 1984-1986 Research Assistant, Department of Management Sciences Manchester School of Management

Scientific Activities

Membership in Academic or Professional Organisation

  • Management Committee, Board and Doctoral Committee of the European Accounting Association
  • Member, European Accounting Association; Management Control Association

Editorial activities

  • September 2015- Editor-in-Chief, Accounting, Organizations and Society
  • July 2013- Co-Editor, Accounting, Organizations and Society
  • July 2013- Editor, British Accounting Review
  • 1991-1995 Member of the Editorial Board, European Accounting Review
  • Member of the Editorial Board of Critical Studies in Finance, Accounting and Behavioural Research, Journal of Contemporary Accounting Organizational Change, International Journal of Auditing, Critical Perspectives on Accounting
  • Former Associate Editor, British Accounting Review
  • Reviewer, Accounting and Business Research; Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal; Accounting, Management and Information Technologies; American Journal of Sociology; Accounting, Organizations and Society; British Accounting Review; British Journal of Sociology; Contemporary Accounting Research; Critical Perspectives on Accounting; European Accounting Review; Gender, Work and Organization; Human Relations; Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Organizational Change; Journal of Accounting and Public Policy; Journal of Management Studies; Management Accounting Research; Organization; Organization Studies; Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management; Scandinavian Journal of Management

  • Conference organisation

  • 2011-2011 Co-organizer of the first Financial Reporting as Social and Organizational Practice Workshop (with Professor Michael Power, LSE, & Professor Joni Young, University of New Mexico)
  • Co-organizer of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Tenth Interdisciplinary Perspectives On Accounting Conference (IPA), Manchester July 1994, 1997, 2000 and Cardiff 2006, 2012