Management Accounting Section Dissertation Award
Sponsored by the Institute of Management Accountants 
Call for Nominations – AAA MAS Management Accounting Dissertation Award
Purpose: The AAA Management Accounting Section is pleased to announce its 2026 dissertation award competition. The purpose of this competition is to recognize outstanding dissertation research in the field of management accounting. The recipient is honored with a plaque and $1,000; the runner-up is honored with a plaque and $250; and the supervisors of the recipient and runner-up are honored with plaques. The award is generously sponsored by the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA).
Eligibility and Nomination Procedures: An entry may be nominated by either the student who authored the dissertation or one or more members of the dissertation committee. The entry may NOT be simultaneously submitted to other dissertation competitions sponsored by other Sections of the American Accounting Association.
All entries must include a letter from the dissertation chairperson stating that the dissertation
has been completed and accepted by the degree-granting institution between January 1 and December 31
of 2025; that is, a 2026 award recipient must have completed his/her dissertation during 2025.
Dissertations that have been considered for or that have won the AAA/Grant Thornton Doctoral
Dissertation Award (intended to recognize innovative research of third or fourth year PhD students
that have passed their proposal defense at the time of the award) are eligible for this award.
Recipients do not have to be members of the AAA MAS to receive the plaque but must be members to receive the cash prize.
Award Committee and Submission Instructions: By Sunday, March 15, 2026, an electronic copy of the dissertation or a solo-authored working paper from the dissertation and the letter from the dissertation chairperson described above must be emailed to the Chair of the Dissertation Award Committee: Todd Thornock at the University of Nebraska (tthornock2@unl.edu).
While the committee would prefer working paper submissions, no advantage will be given to submissions in that form. Nominations will be evaluated by a Committee of faculty appointed by the MAS President.
Presentation of Award: The Awards will be presented during the Management Accounting Section Business Meeting and Reception at the AAA Annual Meeting in August 2026.
Management Accounting Section Dissertation Award Recipients
| 2025 |
2025 Recipient: Bret Sheeley, University of Pittsburgh
(PhD-granting institution: University of Nebraska-Lincoln); Advisor: Todd
Thornock 2025 Runner Up: Marte Abts, Erasmus University Rotterdam
(PhD-granting Institution: KU Leuven); Advisor: Sabra Khajehnejad |
|
| 2024 |
2024 Recipient: Ewelina Forker Chair: Karen
Sedatole 2024 Runner Up: Fangbin Lin Chairs: Mandy Cheng and
Kerry Humphreys |
|
| 2023 |
2023 Recipient: Grazia Xiong Chair: Andrew
Newman 2023 Runner Up: Aishwarrya Deore Chair:
Ranjani Krishnan |
|
| 2022 | 2022 Recipient: In Gyun Baek, Chair:
Ella Mae Matsumura " Essays On the Relation Between Telecommuting Policies and Employee Performance" 2022 Runner Up: Harihan Ramasubramanian Chair: Ranjani Krishnan "Operating Decisions in the Afterglow of Spike in Business Activities: Evidence from Banks" 2022 Runner-Up: Ryan Summerfeldt, Co-Chairs: Laura Wang and Michael Williamson "Who Gets Stitches? The Effects of Rewarding Whistleblowing and Protecting Their Identity on Subsequent Cooperation" |
|
| 2021 | 2021 Recipient: Wei Cai – Columbia Business School;
Chair: Dennis Campbell "Formalizing the Informal: Adopting a Formal Culture-fit Measurement System" 2021 Runner-Up: Fiona Yingfei Wang – National University of Singapore; Chair: S. Mark Young "Innovation Orientation and Employee Non-wage Compensation" |
|
| 2020 | 2020 Recipient: Victor Van Pelt, “Asymmetric
Adjustment of Control” (Dissertation Chairs: Eddy Cardinaels, Bart
Dierynck). 2020 Runner-Up: Hyun Hwang, “Organizational Structure, Voluntary Disclosure, and Investment Efficiency” (Dissertation Chairs: Carlos Corona, Pierre Liang). |
|
| 2019 | 2019 Recipient: Carolyn Deller PhD from Harvard Business
School “Beyond Performance: When Potential Matters to Employee Career Outcomes”
Professors Tatiana Sandino and Dennis Campbell 2019 Runner-Up: Joseph Burke PhD from Indiana University-Bloomington “The Role of Social Bonds in Understanding the Pre- and Post-Recognition Effects of Recognition on Visibility” Professor Gary Hecht |
|
| 2018 | 2018 Recipient: Eunhee Kim PhD from Carnegie Mellon
University “The Market for Reputation: Repeated Career Concerns and Matching”
Professors Carlos Corona and Jonathan Glover for Supervisions Eunhee Kim’s
Dissertation 2018 Runner-Up: Henry Eyring PhD from Harvard Business School “Disclosing Physician Ratings: Performance Effects and the Difficulty of Altering Ratings Consensus” Professor Dennis Campbell For Supervising Henry Eyring’s Dissertation |
|
| 2017 | 2017 Recipient: Shelley Xin Li PhD from Harvard Business
School “Boss, Cut Me Some Slack: Control and Innovation in a Multitasking
Environment” Professor Dennis Campbell For Supervising Dennis Campbell’s
Dissertation 2017 Runner-Up: Jason Xiao PhD from University of Pennsylvania “Diffusion of Corporate Governance from Influential Adopters” Professor Wayne Guay For Supervising Jason Xiao’s Dissertation |
|
| 2016 | 2016 Recipient: David Tsui PhD from University of
Pennsylvania “Risk-Return Tradeoffs and Managerial Incentives “ Professor Wayne
Guay For Supervising David Tsui's Dissertation 2016 Co-Runner-up: Jeremiah Bentley PhD from Cornell University “Decreasing Operational Distortion and Surrogation through Narrative Reporting“ Professor Robert Bloomfield For Supervising Jeremiah Bentley’s Dissertation |
Journal
Journal of Management Accounting Research
The mission of the Journal of Management Accounting Research (JMAR) is to advance the theory and practice of management accounting through publication of high-quality applied and theoretical research, using any well-executed research method. JMAR serves the global community of scholars and practitioners whose work impacts or is informed by the role that accounting information plays in decision-making and performance measurement within organizations.