Joint Accounting Research Symposium Universitas Indonesia and Hitotsubashi University

Joint Accounting Research Symposium Universitas Indonesia and Hitotsubashi University, September 26-27, 2019

On September 26-27, 2019 Department of Accounting and Graduate Program in Accounting (PPIA) FEB UI held a joint accounting research symposium with Hitotsubashi University (HU) Japan. Hitotsubashi University is among the Top 100 QS University World ranking for Accounting and Finance in 2019. The symposium was attended by five faculty members from HU: Makoto Nakano (Professor and Director of Management Innovation Research Center), Hironori Fukukawa (Professor), James Routledge (Professor), Takuma Kochiyama (Associate Professor), and Shoichi Tsumuraya (Associate Professor). In addition to the faculty member, three Ph.D. students from HU also joined the delegation. Faculty members from the Department of Accounting and PPIA’s students and alumnus also attended the two-day symposium.

Dr. Ancella Anitawati Hermawan, MBA, CA, ACMA, CGMA, the Head of Accounting Department FEB UI and Prof Makoto Nakano opened the two-day symposium. In their opening speech, Dr. Ancella and Prof Makoto acknowledged that the symposium is the first joint accounting research symposium between the two universities. The collaboration between Accounting Department UI and Hitotsubashi University Business School is dated back to 2015. It is expected that the symposium will strengthen the relationship between UI and HU and open future collaboration opportunities among faculty members and students from both universities.

In the first day of the symposium, students and faculty members from both universities presented their research papers. A total of nine papers under various accounting topics were presented. Differences in the accounting research context and institutional setting were introduced and discussed in all sessions. For each paper, a discussant was appointed to provide feedback on the paper. The audiences were also involved in the Q&A and discussion.

In the second day of the symposium, Prof Makoto Nakano and Prof James Routledge gave General Lecture for accounting students. In the morning session, Prof Makoto Nakano discussed “Accounting Thinking and Corporate Finance” in which he discussed the relationship between Accounting, Finance, and Management in Corporate Finance discussion. He discussed how company’s merger and acquisition decision and announcement is associated with firm values, how the seasoned equity offering affects firm value, the relationship between company’s payout ratio and firm value, and the relationship between company’s payout ratio and risk-taking.

In the afternoon session, Prof James Routledge discussed the opportunities and challenges in accounting research. He reminded the workshop participants the importance of self-assessing their research paper and making sure the paper addresses contribution and research design in a clear and convincing way. Prof Routledge also addressed some groundbreaking accounting research paper and discussed various research opportunities in the area of Corporate Governance, Disclosure, and Auditing. In closing his lecture, Prof Routledge reminded the workshop participants the importance of attending and presenting research in an academic conference, not only to gain feedback but also to network and connect with other accounting scholars.