News
Social and Environmental Accountability Journal
Prof. Dr. Katrin Hummel has been invited to join the editorial board of the Social and Environmental Accountability Journal (SEAJ). The journal is the official journal of The Centre for Social and Environmental Research (CSEAR). SEAJ offers a broad forum for research in the area of social, environmental and sustainable development accounting, accountability, reporting and auditing. The journal is characterized by its openness towards innovative and new research ideas and approaches. Prof. Hummel is looking forward to support the journal!
Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/reaj20

Researcher of the Month:
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Katrin Hummel
Prof. Dr. Katrin Hummel is Researcher of the Month
Should it be mandatory for companies to disclose their environmental performance? The climate crisis brings a little-noticed field into focus: companies' reporting obligations. Katrin Hummel, Head of the Department of Accounting & Reporting at WU Vienna, and her colleague Emira Jasari (University of Zurich) examine the consequences of mandatory climate reporting in their new study.
Lecture on "The Role of Paradigms in Sustainability Accounting Research"
On September 22, 2022, Prof. Dr. Katrin Hummel opened the seminar series "Accounting for Sustainability" at the Hanken School of Economics with a lecture on "The Role of Paradigms in Sustainability Accounting Research". In her lecture, Prof. Hummel explained the role of different pradigms in the current discussion on the regulation of sustainability reporting and complemented her remarks with findings from an extensive literature study.
Reinforcement of the team
As of 01.09.2022, Ms. Karina Bauernhofer has newly taken over the function as university assistant praedoc at the group. We wish Ms. Bauernhofer a good start!
CSEAR UK 2022
For the 32nd time, the International Congress on Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR) was held in St. Andrews from August 22 to 25, 2022. The Accounting & Reporting group was also represented at this renowned and internationally attended conference. Both Prof. Hummel and Mr. Jobst, MSc presented in detail their latest research results on climate reporting and the influence of the CSR Directive on the lending behavior of banks and answered questions from the audience. Both the professional exchange with international colleagues and the unique atmosphere characterized this small but top-class conference.
Article by Prof. Hummel published in the journal "Accounting and Business Research"
The article "Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure: A Topic-Based Approach" by Prof. Hummel, Ass.-Prof. Mittelbach-Hörmanseder, Prof. Cho and Prof. Matten has been published in the renowned journal "Accounting and Business Research". The article deals with cultural differences in sustainability reporting between companies in Europe and North America. For this purpose, the sustainability reports of the companies over the period 2008-2019 are evaluated by means of text analysis. Significant differences in the topics of the reporting are revealed. In addition, these thematic differences are shown to be levelling out over time.
Click here for the article: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00014788.2022.2071199
Article by Prof. Hummel published in "Zeitschrift für Controlling"
The article "Externe Prüfung der Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung in Deutschland" by Prof. Hummel and Ms. M.A. Jasari has been published in the "Zeitschrift für Controlling". The article examines the external auditing of sustainability information for a sample of 68 German companies and the period 2015 to 2018, and thus before and after the introduction of the European CSR Directive (CSR-RUG in Germany). The results show that even without an explicit obligation to audit the content, the frequency of auditing sustainability information has increased in the wake of the CSR-RUG.
Click here for the journal: rsw.beck.de/zeitschriften/controlling/das-aktuelle-heft
Award for the master thesis of Matthias Hrinkow
In the course of the 42nd Controller Day of the Controller Institute, master theses were again awarded the Excellence in Research on Financial Leadership - Award. With the thesis "What is key? The development of non-financial KPI of listed Austrian and German companies", Matthias Hrinkow received one of the awards presented by the CFO Club Austria and the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.
WU matters. WU talks
Prof. Petutschnig speaks at "WU matters. WU talks" vor. Details can be found here: Announcement.
Accounting Forum Editorial
Prof. Dr. Katrin Hummel has been appointed to the Editorial Board of the journal Accounting Forum. The journal publishes articles on current issues in accounting and is characterized by a variety of methods and research paradigms. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Katrin Hummel is very pleased to support Accounting Forum with her expertise.
Current application issues in connection with the EU Taxonomy Regulation (RWZ)
In the first issue of the Journal "Zeitschrift für Recht und Rechnungswesen" (RWZ) in 2022, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Katrin Hummel, Mag. Sanela Terko, CPA and Matthias Hrinkow discuss current application issues in connection with the EU Taxonomy Regulation. Specifically, problems for reporting practice, such as the lack of a definition of the term "economic activity" and ambiguities regarding the materiality thresholds to be applied, are identified and solutions are proposed based on these. The article is available at the following link: Hrinkow/Hummel/Terko - RWZ 1/2022
The Accounting & Reporting group wishes you a Merry Christmas, relaxing holidays and a good start into a healthy and successful year 2022!
Interview with Prof. Dr. Katrin Hummel in the magazine up:date
www.ksw.or.at/portaldata/1/shadow/Mitgliedermagazin/kswUpdate03_2021/
Enjoy reading!
Distance learning and teaching
Due to the current measures taken by the federal government to reduce COVID-19 infections, the WU switched to distance learning on Monday, November 22, 2021. Therefore, all courses of the Accounting and Reporting group are held online ever since. In particular, the course "The Practice of Sustainability Disclosure" will be taught exclusively online from the first lesson starting on November 30, 2021.
Green Deal – Green Finance – Green Reporting
On October 18, 2021, KSW and iwp held a symposium on the topic "Green Deal - Green Finance - Green Reporting". In a keynote speech on "Accounting for Sustainability", Prof. Dr. Katrin Hummel provided current insights into accounting research in the context of sustainability. Further information is available here.
New team member
As of 01.10.2021, Mr. Lukas Haider has started as a university assistant prae doc at the department. The position is funded by EY and is embedded in a close exchange between practice and research.
Tax & Legal Excellence Lounge Vienna
On September 23, Prof. Dr. Hummel gave a presentation on sustainability reporting as part of a lecture evening on "Global Sustainability Policy and the Transformation of Business" at the Tax & Legal Excellence Lounge Vienna. Her presentation focused on the role of reporting in the context of the transformation to a sustainable economy. Against the background of the current regulatory challenge, Prof. Dr. Hummel presented key findings of her research.
Link to Tax & Legal Excellence Lounge Vienna:
Specialization Sustainability Disclosure
Regulatory and societal developments push sustainability disclosure to the top of the management agenda. There is a great need for expertise in the design and implementation of robust and compliant sustainability disclosure and for a better understanding of the consequences of this new phenomenon.
Therefore the Accounting & Reporting group provides the specialization Sustainability Disclosure for the Master's Degree Finance and Accounting to provide further insights in this constantly developing and ever more important topic. Further information is available here.
New team member
The Accounting & Reporting group welcomes Matthias Hrinkow, who will support the group's research starting from 01.09.2021. The position is funded by BDO and is closely integrated into a research cooperation with BDO. Within the scope of this cooperation, Mr. Hrinkow will intensively deal with the sustainability reporting of Austrian companies and the increased regulatory requirements in this area.
Research cooperation with practice
The Accounting & Reporting group is in close contact with practice. The current dynamics in the regulation of sustainability reporting in the EU forces many Austrian companies to deal with this topic in a timely and in-depth manner. In this context, we are constantly looking for interested and qualified graduates with a Master's degree who, in cooperation with a practice representative, can support the group in research tasks within the framework of a position as university assistant/in prae. If you are interested, please contact Prof. Hummel directly.
European Accounting Association (Virtual) Annual Congress 2021 (26.-28.05.2021)
At this year's virtual annual conference of the European Accounting Association, the Accounting & Reporting group is represented with two presentations. On May 26, Prof. Dr. Hummel will present a research paper on the effects of the EU directive on non-financial reporting ("The European Union Non-Financial Reporting Directive: Evidence on Regulatory Parameters and Firm-Value Consequences, available at SSRN). Secondly, Dr. Laun as well as Prof. Dr. Hummel will present a literature review on research in the field of sustainability accounting on May 28. We are particularly pleased that we will also receive feedback from a qualified discussion partner for this study as part of the presentation.
Link to the virtual annual conference:
https://eaa2021.virtual.eaacongress.org/r/home
Disclosure on the Sustainable Development Goals
In a current research paper, Katrin Hummel and Manuel Szekely (University of Zurich) give an overview of the reporting by European companies on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Their research shows that reporting on the SDGs is basically still in its infancy, whereby both financial and non-financial stakeholders are driving the reporting. The article has been accepted for publication in the journal “Accounting in Europe” and is available as a working paper under the following link (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3411017).
On January 1st, 2021, Professor Hummel took over the newly established Accounting & Reporting department.
Here you can find a link to the press release:
https://www.wu.ac.at/presse/presseaussendungen/presseaussendung-details/detail/zwei-neue-professorinnen-an-wu