Research Centres
Centre for Accounting Ethics
Established in 1991 through a grant from the Auditing and Accounting Development Fund, the Centre for Accounting Ethics supports projects designed to enhance the teaching of ethics to accounting students and the research of ethical issues in accounting. The Centre aims to help prepare future accountants and financial managers to exercise professional judgement within an ethical framework and to promote high ethical standards.
Waterloo Centre for Taxation in a Global Economy
The link between the accounting tax research community and participants in Canadian corporate tax policy is presently very weak. The main objectives of the Waterloo Centre for Taxation in a Global Economy are to support academic research focused on taxation in a global economy and to disseminate that knowledge to tax professionals in corporations, governments, and the intermediaries between the two.
University of Waterloo Centre for Information Integrity and Information System Assurance
The key objectives of the University of Waterloo Centre for Information Integrity and Information Systems Assurance (UWCISA) are to stimulate relevant research, support the development/delivery of educational materials, communicate about important ISA issues and Centre activities and promote interaction among ISA educators and practitioners.
CPA Ontario Centre for Sustainability Reporting and Performance Management
The CPA Ontario Centre for Sustainability Reporting and Performance Management (CSPM) will develop new programs bringing together industry and faculty, build strong strategic cross-disciplinary alliances, conduct conferences and symposia, and embody a strong education culture that emphasizes experiential learning.
The purpose of the CSPM will be to create and disseminate knowledge related to a variety of topics central to performance management. The focus will be on research related to strategy implementation, performance measurement, compensation and incentives, management control systems and business analytics.
Research Communities
Archival/Empirical Research Community
The Archival/Empirical Research Community considers the role of information and information intermediaries in capital markets, particularly in the areas of financial reporting, tax, information systems, and governance. Research questions include: how firms leverage IT to achieve and sustain competitive advantage; how taxes affect corporate decision-making; the use of accounting information in firm valuation; and, the impact of different governance mechanisms on tax avoidance and aggressive financial reporting. We use advanced econometric techniques in analyzing databases to answer these important questions.
Behavioural Research Community
The Behavioural Research Community applies theory from social science disciplines such as economics, psychology, and sociology to understand the nature of judgment and decision making and behaviour in accounting, auditing, and ethical contexts. The group tests theory using a variety of research methods, including lab and field experiments, interviews, and questionnaires. The group's research investigates factors that impact managers' and professional accountants' behaviour such as management control systems, decision support systems, expertise, incentives, and resource constraints. The group's findings contribute to multiple accounting disciplines, including financial, managerial, auditing, ethics, and information systems.
Finance Research Community
The Finance Research Community conducts research into numerous aspects of financial markets including the pricing of financial securities, investment strategies, financial intermediation, risk management, and the financing of corporate activities. Research methodologies include theoretical modelling to systematically investigate frontier questions, advanced empirical techniques to investigate specific testable hypotheses, and simulation techniques to provide insight when general solutions become intractable. The Finance Research Community also takes advantage of cross-disciplinary expertise, often focusing on research questions that integrate with the accounting, economics, statistics and computer science disciplines.