Management Accounting and Auditing as tools for communication, governance and control of business activity

Regarding Auditing, we focus specifically on the research and analysis of audit reports of annual accounts of unlisted companies, trying to analyze in the Spanish environment several objectives, such as: 1) the audit market of Spanish SMEs, 2) the audit report delay, 3) audit and non-audit fees, 4) the audit opinion and its relationship with the characteristics of the company and the auditor, 5) analysis of auditor conservatism, 6) quality and content of audit reports. In several of these objectives a gender perspective analysis is also included. In addition, we have currently extended this line of reports to other public entities, such as the study of public universities.

In the area of Management Accounting, we analyze activities related to the design of costing models and efficiency in the use of management information in general and in the public sector in particular. This line of work addresses, from very different perspectives, which information obtained from the management accounting model is adequate for the decision-making process at different levels in public sector organizations. Case studies of the development of the implementation process and subsequent use of the cost/management accounting model in hospitals and universities for decision making are carried out.

RESEARCH STAFF

Mercedes Mareque Álvarez-Santullano, Beatriz González Sánchez, Ernesto López-Valeiras, Belén Fernández-Feijóo

COLLABORATING STAFF

Nieves Carrera Pena (IE Business School) and Jaime del Olmo Casalderrey (in training)

Sustainability Communication and the Economic Dimension of Corporate Social Responsibility

Analysis of the greenwashing (GW) phenomenon from different perspectives. The aim is to better understand GW and to analyze which characteristics make companies less or more likely to practice it. GW is an abstract construct that cannot be measured or observed directly. This means that different results can be obtained using other estimators, hence the importance of advancing knowledge of this phenomenon.

The economic dimension of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has not been investigated in the same way as the social or environmental dimensions. In this line, an in-depth analysis of the concept of economic CSR is addressed, so it can be seen as a basic dimension that requires conceptualization in order to bound its content, manage and measure it, so that companies can prepare information on this dimension for the communication of the economic impacts generated by their business activity.

RESEARCH STAFF

Silvia Ruiz Blanco, Belén Fernández-Feijóo.

COLLABORATING STAFF

Silvia Romero Andrade

Sustainable Finance

This line of research highlights the environmental and social impact of Finance and the need to link traditional financial criteria (profitability, risk and liquidity) with ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) sustainability criteria.

Its linkage, driven by the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, affects decision making in the financial sphere and the proliferation of strategies aligned with the 2030 Agenda by the main players in the financial market. With a clear teaching motivation —aligned with SDG 4— we explore the desirability of drawing more robust ethical boundaries in finance and integrating them at the very root of university learning, as the germ of a socially responsible financial practice, closer to human progress, the real economy and sustainable development.

RESEARCH STAFF

Sonia Rodríguez Parada

Gender equality in the workplace as part of SDG5 and Corporate Social Responsibility

This line has its origin in the work on gender equality in Galician companies carried out for the Cátedra ARDÁN. The main interest is focused on the measurement of labor equality by gender and the design of key performance indicators that allow any company, regardless of its size, to verify its level of progress, monitor objectives and report relevant non-financial information to its stakeholders in the achievement of SDG 5. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of initiatives that promote gender diversity in the workplace, exploring the impact that certain factors can have on business progress.

RESEARCH STAFF

Sonia Rodríguez Parada, Belén Fernández-Feijóo and Silvia Ruíz Blanco

Transversal Competences for Employability

We attempt to investigate and analyze whether university students possess, and to what degree they master, certain transversal skills necessary for their future employability, as well as the improvement actions that, from the university itself and the teachers themselves, we could propose to improve, enhance and teach these skills, such as, for example, creativity, teamwork, leadership or intercultural skills, among others. We also try to relate whether these skills can be influenced by other aspects, such as economic, socio-cultural or even psychological factors, such as the students’ level of self-esteem. In addition, our studies usually consider the analysis from a gender perspective. In this line, due to its disciplinary nature, we collaborate with researchers from other groups, in particular with Margarita Pino Juste (expert in Didactics), Marcos Álvarez Díaz (Econometrics) and Elena de Prado Creo (Foreign Languages).

RESEARCH STAFF

Mercedes Mareque Álvarez-Santullano

COLLABORATING RESEARCHERS

Margarita Pino Juste, Elena de Prado Creo, Marcos Álvarez Diaz (University of Vigo)

Fundamentals of Economic Analysis: Models and Methods

This line of research is mainly theoretical, even though the models and methods we analyze are used to support empirical applications. We study the formation of market prices and regulated prices in different scenarios, which, for example, allows us to analyze collusion problems. We use game theory to study strategic behaviors, cost allocation problems, and problems of allocations among beneficiaries or creditors. For this type of problems, we have developed and published (Miguel Mirás Calvo) our own software that allows us to calculate numerical solutions.

RESEARCH STAFF

José Ángel Cid Araújo, Fidel Castro Rodríguez, Margarita Estévez Toranzo, Eduardo Luis Giménez Fernández, Carlos Hervés Beloso, Javier Hervés Estévez, Emma Moreno García, João Correia da Silva and Miguel Mirás Calvo