Academy Fellow

Mandy Cheng (PhD UNSW, FCPA) is a Professor in Accounting at UNSW Business School. She is a leading scholar in behavioural accounting research (that is, the study of the behavioural implications of accounting information and system, primarily in management accounting). Mandy publishes frequently in leading accounting journals including The Accounting Review, Accounting, Organization and Society, Contemporary Accounting Research, Management Accounting Research and Auditing: a Journal of Practice and Theory. Her work has attracted research funding from Australian Research Council and professional bodies.

Mandy has made many contributions to academia in her various editorial roles and academic leadership roles (including being a director of Accounting and Finance Association in Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ, 2011-2014), international council member-at-large in American Accounting Association (2019-2022), and the Head of School of Accounting, UNSW (2015-2021)). She is also actively involved with various academic research committees, working groups and conference organisation.

Mandy’s research focuses on understanding the implications of financial, nonfinancial and sustainability performance information and accounting systems on individuals’ judgments, decisions, and behaviours. By combining psychology and economic theories, her work contributes to the accounting field of knowledge IN three related areas. First, her research informs how internal and external performance reporting influence the cognitive structure, and therefore decision quality, of report users. This research has implications on how managers use balanced scorecard (BSC) to facilitate strategy evaluation, strategic risk assessment and citizenship behaviour, and how externally reported nonfinancial and ESG (economic, social and governance) information influences the judgments of auditors and investors. By focusing on both internal performance frameworks such as the BSC and external reporting frameworks such as Integrated Reporting, Mandy’s research has implications for managers, auditors, accountants and standard setters. Second, her research examines how management accounting controls and incentive systems can “nudge” managers to behave in an honest, responsible manner that aligns with organisational goals, as well as to “look behind the metrics” when making decisions to achieve more desirable outcomes. A third area of Mandy’s research explores decision making in an inter-personal context, and demonstrates how accounting information and practices plays a critical role in facilitating trust and collaboration in intra- and inter-firm interactions.

Mandy also actively contributes to professional accounting bodies such as CPA Australia and CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants). She is a member of CPA Australia’ PEAC (Professional Education Advisory Committee) and has been the Chair of CIMA’s Australasia Research Centre of Excellence. 

FCPA (CPA Australia Fellow)

1. Anderson, S. W., M. M. Cheng, and Phua, Y. S. (forthcoming in Nov 2022). Influence of control precision and prior collaboration experience on trust and cooperation in inter-organizational relationships. The Accounting Review. https://doi.org/10.2308/TAR-2019-0514

2. Green, W. and Cheng, M. M. 2019. Materiality judgments in an Integrated Reporting setting: the effect of strategic relevance and strategy map. Accounting, Organizations, and Society. 73:1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2018.07.001

3. Cheng, M. M., K. A. Humphreys, and Zhang, Y. Y. 2018. The interplay between strategic risk profiles and presentation format on managers’ strategic judgments using the balanced scorecard. Accounting, Organizations and Society. 70: 92-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2018.05.009

4. Chang, L, M. M. Cheng and Trotman, K. 2013. The effect of outcome and process accountability on customer-supplier negotiations. Accounting, Organizations, and Society. 38: 93-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.12.002

5. Cheng, M. M., and Humphreys, K. A. 2012. The differential improvement effects of the strategy map and scorecard perspectives on managers’ strategic judgments. The Accounting Review 87(3): 899-924