Researchers

SUSTAIN consortium comprises 9 researchers in different career phases and with varying experience and diverse sets of skills and knowledge.

Prof. Hannu Schadewitz is SUSTAIN consortium’s Principal Investigator (PI) as well as PI of subproject 1. He is Professor of Accounting at Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, with a wealth of experience in research, publications, advising Ph.D. students, teaching, and administration. He has published articles e.g. on accounting quality and on sustainability reporting in various institutional settings, and is also experienced in utilising disclosure indices and their composition. Furthermore, he has PI experience in the FINNON consortium, and has worked before with other SUSTAIN consortium members. Schadewitz has also supervised several quantitative and qualitative Ph.D. theses, the themes of which include earnings management, corporate governance in the banking sector, municipal investments, and relationship financing in the private sector.

Prof. Markku Vieru is Principal Investigator (PI) of SUSTAIN consortium’s subproject 2. He is Professor of Accounting at University of Lapland (ULA), where sustainable development and responsibility are among the key concepts in research. Vieru’s own research embraces several research topics comprising stock market use of accounting information, stock market microstructure, auditing, SME lending, corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, and tourism research, and his publications include 13 refereed articles in scientific journals. He has a wealth of experience with large firm-level quantitative data sets including statistical and econometric methods using SAS and STATA and, in addition, he has been part of many collaborative research projects with several universities and research institutions with external funding e.g. from the Academy of Finland. He is also an active university lecturer and has close connections with and consults for several companies. He has delivered courses in business, accounting, finance, entrepreneurship, and tourism in the universities of Lapland, Oulu, Tampere, Turku, and Vaasa, and has supervised over 270 Master’s theses, as well as served as an official pre-examiner for six post-graduate theses. He is also actively involved in international scientific conferences, worked as a referee in many scientific journals and served as a member of scientific committee in numerous conferences and seminars. He held the position of faculty dean and head of department at ULA, serves as the Chair of the Investment Steering Committee at ULA, and is a Docent of Financial Accounting at the Oulu Business School, University of Oulu.

Prof. Michael Jones is an esteemed UK Professor of Accounting at University of Bristol with considerable experience in research, publications and advising Ph.D. students. He has published over 80 refereed articles and 10 books. He has published 11 articles on biodiversity and social and environmental issues and a book on Accounting for Biodiversity. He was former Editor of British Accounting Review, and head of department at Bristol University. He ran the British Accounting and Finance Association Doctoral Colloquium from 2009-2013 and has run the well-known Financial Reporting and Business Communication conference for 21 years.

Prof. Jason Xiao is Professor of Accounting at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, UK. His research interests include corporate governance, and informational, organisational, political and ideological perspectives on accounting change in China. He has an extensive publication record including publications on corporate social and environmental reporting in Hong Kong, the UK and Chinese firms, and accounting change in China. Prof. Xiao is also the Founding Director for the Centre for China Business Research at Cardiff University and the founding editor of China Journal of Accounting Studies (Routledge). Prof. Jones and Prof. Xiao have previously collaborated previously on a project sponsored by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and co-authored two monographs and four papers published in European Accounting Review, International Journal of Digital Accounting Research and Accounting Forum. Xiao has also established and maintained a strong network with academics, government agencies, regulators and practitioners in China.

Ph.D. Rongli Yuan is an Associate Professor in Accounting at the School of Business, Renmin University of China (RBS). She obtained her Ph.D. at Cardiff Business School, Cardiff Univeristy, UK. Her research fields include corporate finance, corporate governance, and accounting information disclosure, and she has 20 refereed publications in international and Chinese scientific journals. Ph.D. Yuan is a Ph.D. supervisor and a member of the National Accounting Talents Plan organised by the Chinese Ministry of Finance. Before she joined RBS, she was CFO of a private firm and is now an independent director of a listed Chinese firm. She has established and maintained a good network with accounting academics and practitioners.

Ph.D. Martin Falk is Senior Economist at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) in the research area “industrial economics, innovation and trade”. His research interests are in the field of quantitative research, particularly firm level analysis and empirical industrial economics, and he has published over 60 articles in SSCI/SCI journals of which 5 are related to environmental issues. He has also been engaged in several scientific projects prepared for the European Commission. He holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Kiel (Germany) and a doctorate in Economics from the University of Regensburg (Germany).

Ph.D. Oana Apostol holds a postdoctoral fellowship position at Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, and has previously worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Advanced Social Research at the University of Tampere. Her research interests include sustainability reporting and its role in contemporary societies, and she has previously examined sustainability-related issues, including those in a non-Western country, Romania. Her research has been published in Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal and Journal of Business Ethics. She is an internationally well-connected scholar and an established member of Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR) community, which is the leading academic association on sustainability accounting.

Ph.D. Janne Peltoniemi has expertise in both academic research and business education at university level, also with private businesses via university projects. He has published research in the fields of accounting, finance, small business finance, debt and stock markets, corporate social responsibility, and lately in strategic finance. In business education, he has lectured and developed very many university modules and courses within business, accounting, finance, and entrepreneurship, consulted for a number of companies in university-based projects, and brought pedagogical and educational development innovations to education. In the sustainability field, his research focus is on corporate finance related issues in corporate social responsibility. He is also an SAP Certified Application Associate in Business Foundation and Integration (SAP ERP 6.07).

Doctorand Ruijing Li is in her second year in the Ph.D. programme at the School of Business, Renmin University of China, her thesis advisor being Prof. Yuan. Her ongoing Ph.D. thesis is titled “The determinants of corporate social responsibility activities in China: an international comparison.” Li’s theme is well-matched with SUSTAIN and focuses on the social dimension of sustainability. Li’s knowledge regarding the Chinese institutional regime is well suited to SUSTAIN.

Overall, each of the SUSTAIN consortium’s reserachers contribute valuable, unique expertise on sustainability themes to the project. Methodologically, SUSTAIN research team members are accustomed to conducting interviews that allow in depth knowledge formation on sustainability and its core in businesses. Additionally, Ph.D. Falk and Ph.D Peltoniemi are specialised in econometric methods and experts in statistical software, e.g. SAS and STATA, bringing essential quantitative skills to the consortium. Furthermore, team members’ personal networks are also a valuable resource to the SUSTAIN consortium. Several of the team members are exceptionally well-connected with other scholars in the field, allowing for consulting other scholars whenever there is a need for external (i.e. outside SUSTAIN) advice and expertise. Team members’ connections with the business world provide access to case companies (i.e. finding interviewees, undertaking questionnaires, disseminating research results, etc.).