Message from the Deputy Dean

Welcome to the School of Accountancy Research Centre (SOAR).

Accounting information is critical to well-functioning financial markets and efficient business operations. The mission of SOAR is to conduct and disseminate high-quality academic and industry research that helps us understand financial market and business challenges from the perspective of accounting information and provide practical solutions to address these challenges. At SOAR, we emphasize both academic impact and practice relevance and we strive to be one of the best in the world in both dimensions.

On the academic research side, our core area of expertise is financial reporting and disclosure. Our scholars have examined how various ownership structures and governance arrangements; legal and political environments; financial and information intermediaries; and personal characteristics of corporate executives, influence the quality of financial reporting and disclosure. SOAR scholars have also studied how various new accounting, auditing, and disclosure regulations, as well as accounting and disclosure quality in general, affect the efficient operations of internal and external capital markets.

Over the past decade, digital technologies have dramatically reshaped business operations and financial markets. However, the degree of success and potential consequences of digital transformation remain largely elusive. Moreover, a critical challenge currently faced by governments around the world is whether and how to regulate the digital economy. Against this backdrop, SOAR seeks to develop a new area of research expertise in digital transformation. Recently, our scholars have embarked on several projects in this area, such as the financial market application of blockchain technology, machine-learning based tools for accounting fraud detection, and the regulation of social media content.   

On the industry research side, we focus on emerging issues in business and financial markets in Singapore and Asia and encourage collaborations with industry partners. For example, SOAR researchers have collaborated with Singapore Exchange on projects relating to quarterly reporting regulations and corporate disclosure quality, with CPA Australia on digital transformation in accounting, and with Deloitte on governance, risk and compliance in the digital age.