The Chinese Accounting, Finance and Business Research Unit
The unit, formed in 2000, produces high quality research relating to contemporary accounting, business, finance and management issues in China. The research output will be disseminated through academic journals and the unit's own conferences and seminars. The unit will welcome research collaboration with academic, industrial and governmental organisations in China, the UK and elsewhere. Its members currently supervise nearly 10 PhD students researching into contemporary Chinese issues. It has also provided training to postdoctoral researchers.
The unit brings together the activities of staff within Cardiff University who have a strong record of research in the areas of accounting and finance, industrial organisation, strategy and management. Significant strength has been added by recent appointments and the profile of Cardiff Business School in this area is now one of the strongest in the UK. This is also representative of a wider initiative to foster research and teaching links between Cardiff University and Chinese universities.
Reforms in the Chinese economy in the past fifteen years have been fundamental and widespread. Government policies have introduced a third way between capitalism and the centrally planned economy with an emphasis on marketisation, corporatisation and competition. This has widespread implications for Chinese economic and corporate governance, industrial organisation and management.
Members of the unit are researching the implications of all these issues, which involves basic academic research and applied projects. The main focus of current work is on emergent accounting and auditing systems in China, financial markets and the organisational and labour implications of enterprise reform. This research employs both quantitative and qualitative methods and draws upon a variety of academic disciplines including economics, finance, accounting, management, organisational behaviour, human resource management, industrial relations and strategic management. Members of the unit have been successful in obtaining funding for their work from a number of organisations including the Economic and Social Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust, the World Bank, the Chinese Government, the Hong Kong Government, the Carnegie Trust and the International Seafarers Trust.
The range of expertise in the research unit is reflected in its publications and projects which cover the following main topics:
- Financial and Stock Markets and Prices in China and Hong Kong
- Corporate Governance and Reporting in China
- Accounting, Auditing and Financial Systems in China
- The Organisational and Employment Consequences of State Owned Enterprise Reforms
- Globalisation, the Entry of China into the New International Division of Labour and Consequent Organisational and Labour Implications