Stephen Taylor inducted into Accounting Hall of Fame

 

Distinguished Professor Stephen Taylor. Image: supplied

In recognition of his exceptional and distinguished contribution to the field of Accounting, UTS Distinguished Professor Stephen Taylor has been inducted into the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame at an awards ceremony in Melbourne on 8 March. 

Dean of UTS Business School, Professor Carl Rhodes, said this significant honour was an acknowledgement of Professor Taylor’s contribution to the field of Accounting at the highest level, outlined on the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame website.

“This award is a testament to how, over nearly four decades, Stephen has contributed to the accounting discipline as a leading international accounting researcher, accounting educator, senior administrator and accounting standard setter.

“His role has included being member of the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB), where he has played a leading part in the development of a new international standard setting body for sustainability reporting,” said Professor Rhodes.

Professor Taylor said it was a great honour to be inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame, and a recognition of the impact of his work over many decades.

“I am very grateful for this recognition from my peers, and I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have had great mentors, co-authors and colleagues, and a wonderful environment to work in. For the last 15 years that has been UTS Business School, which has been a great place.

“I can’t believe how much I have enjoyed my career, particularly the ability to work on research that is directly motivated by practical business, economic and regulatory concerns. I also enjoy teaching research skills to our future researchers, and seeing students grasp difficult concepts,” said Professor Taylor.

Professor Taylor joined UTS Business School in 2008, where his research has focused on the economics of auditing, capital markets and information, and the links between governance mechanisms and the quality of accounting information.

“The future of the future the accounting profession is an increasingly broad one. People are turning to the accounting profession to produce wider environmental, social and governance information that is outside the traditional narrow financial reporting model. Researchers, practitioners, auditors and regulators all face that issue going forward,” he said.

“The most fundamental reason for pursuing a career in accounting, is that it really is the language of business. If you want to do something that has an impact on the way business functions or government functions, then there's no better training than an accounting degree. That was true 40 years ago when I was an undergraduate, and it's true now.”

Over his career, Professor Taylor has consistently maintained the view that researchers based in Australia should primarily focus on Australian (and regional) centred research.

As a result, he has been one of the few Australian accounting researchers conducting Australian-centred archival-empirical research in accounting. He has published extensively in the leading international and Australian regional accounting and finance journals.

His most recent publication (2023), in the The Accounting Review, examined how the effects of auditing extend beyond statutory accounting disclosures to voluntarily disclosed performance measures, often known as “non-GAAP” results.  He currently leads an Australian Research Council grant directed at understanding how external reporting impacts management investment decisions.