Research symposium

About AFECA

AFECA was formed in 1993 by 4 participating European universities including Bournemouth University. During the subsequent years the membership grew to some 13 participating universities and the annual programmes have been attended by over 2,000 European students.

Professor Dr Lucien Jaffré, Co-founder of AFECA

The content of these programmes has changed significantly over time. Initially the focus was to compare accounting regimes between the various countries in an era where international standards were not generally adopted. By working on the same basic data, each country produced a financial statement using their own countries’ principles. The results were then compared to analyse the differences and thus understand alternative systems of financial statement practice and production. With the coming of the adoption in Europe of international standards in 2005, the focus of the programme was more on the soft skills. This was achieved by the students working on more complex accounting matters in mixed international groups to bring wider perspectives to the formation of solutions.

The network has also facilitated several exchanges between partner institutions, research collaborations funded by the EU, the World Bank and various national bodies resulting in high-caliber academic publications. Eight AFECA members collaborated in production of Theorie und Praxis aus Rechnungswesen und Wirtschaftsprüfung, a book published by LexisNexis in 2018.

This year we said good-bye to the founding father of AFECA, Professor Dr Lucien Jaffré. Lucien was a dear friend to us all, leaving us far too soon but with an amazing legacy to carry on: AFECA. We will miss him dearly and are very grateful for his vision and passion for academic research and pedagogy in accounting and audit. We will continue to honour Lucien through this well-established network with every ISP, symposium, joint publication and future collaboration.

Professor Dr László Lakatos
President of AFECA

The Workshops

The following four workshops are aimed at promoting discussion on contemporary issues in accounting, provide continuing professional development, and foster academic relationships with regulators and the accountancy profession. The main themes are the role of digitalization and sustainability concerns on the development of accounting and auditing practices. These fit well with the strategic aims in accounting pedagogy, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the focus of the Accountancy Profession.

AFECA/BU Bid-Writing Workshop

Monday, 2 September 2019; 13:00 – 16:00
Executive Business Centre (EBC, 7th Floor)

Lead – Prof Dr Valdonė Darškuvienė, Vice Rector for Science and Economics at ISM University of Management and Economics, Lithuania.

BU Co-Lead – TBC

AFECA has a long history of winning large grants from prestigious Funders, including Erasmus+, and achieving high praise and significant impact. Our recently concluded project has been classified as a "Good Practice Example" by the European Union. Further, the three-year project, International Learning Platform for Accountancy (ILPA), was nominated for the Special Education Award by the Austrian National Agency.

This workshop will address relevant research principals as it develops further and stronger international research teams, including many BU academics. It will support research development through discussing funding opportunities and aligning academic and professional interests. There will be a breakout session in which AFECA’s next Strategic Partnership Erasmus+ application will be developed for submission in 2020. Further bids from other funding sources will be considered and developed in other breakout groups.

Computerized Textual Analysis of Non-financial Disclosure

Tuesday, 3 September 2019; 13:00 – 16:00
Talbot Campus (Fusion Building, Create Lecture Theatre)

Lead – Prof Dr Klaus Henselmann, Chair of Accounting and Auditing in the School of Business, Economics and Society at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen, Nurnberg, Germany

BU Co-Leads – Dr Tuan Vu and Dr Hany Elbardan of the Accounting, Finance and Economics Department

In this new digital reporting environment and the increasing regulatory sustainability disclosure requirements, accounting and auditing researchers need to analyse and apply process mining of the textual non-financial records utilizing the new available techniques such as RapidMiner and Python. A huge number of financial reports can be collected in the new digital format, which will enable many studies using the digital textual analysis of narratives. Examples of further studies include:

Study the non-financial risk and ethics disclosures;
Study the contents of sustainability reports,
Study the Social, Environmental and Governance report and assurance contents;

This workshop is aligned with the strategic research direction of BU2025 as it addresses one of the major digitalization and sustainability issues. The workshop will stimulate multiplicative generation of external impact and income by utilizing digital textual analysis techniques in academic research, and combining accounting and auditing as a Social Science and Humanities (SSH) discipline with Information technology and sustainability areas of research.

Modern History of European Accounting

Wednesday, 4 September 2019; 13:00 – 16:00
Talbot Campus (Fusion Building, Create Lecture Theatre)

Lead – Prof Dr Robert Kirsch of Southern Connecticut University, USA.

Co-Lead – Prof Dr Eurico Bastos, Prof. Dr. from the University of Porto

BU Co-Lead – Mr Robert Day, Research Fellow to Project-DIPCAT within the Faculty of Management of Bournemouth University

AFECA, established in 1993 by Professor Dr Lucien Jaffré, continues to thrive and promote international education and collaborative scientific research in accountancy. Its members are able to present and discuss the most contemporary developments of the accounting professional history. This research session is concerned with the modern history of European accounting discussing the most recent development in accounting such as sustainability and digitalization new era. The main objective of this session will be to progress a work-in-progress in honour of Lucien. This is a book in which the AFECA members will collaborate on country-specific and concept-specific chapters.

Open Research Workshop

Thursday, 5 September 2019; 13:00 – 16:00
Talbot Campus (Fusion Building, Create Lecture Theatre)

Lead – Dr Sabine Graschitz, Associate Professor in Accounting and Auditing from the University of Innsbruck

BU Co-Lead – Dr Suranjita Mukherjee, Senior Academic within the Accounting, Finance and Economics Department

This will be an opportunity for BU academics and visiting AFECA members to share research-in-progress that may be expanded or extended through our international network. Specific areas of research include:

Financial and Tax Literacy – Practitioners, policy makers and academics recognise the importance of addressing low-levels of financial and tax literacy in individuals, but the challenge is where to start and what to do. Actions taken by the governments demonstrate a clear belief that taxpayer education should be introduced early and continuously reinforced and enhanced throughout the lives of their citizens.

Taxpayer Charters and Tax Morale – Aid programmes over the past 30 years have traditionally been a reaction to an immediate problem that requires an immediate response. We now recognise that there needs to be a more sustainable response to the under-achievement of many countries in the world. The UN efforts to support “domestic resource mobilisation” are a recognition that individual countries need to create, from their own resources, the ability to build a future for themselves.