My research interests in accounting can be divided into three areas

1. Group accounting (Consolidated financial reporting),

After receiving my doctorate in 2002, I wrote and published some articles based on international group accounting as a continuation of my doctoral thesis project. I also published the second edition of the book Group Accounting from a theoretical perspective 2014 as a follow up in group accounting.

2. Nordic and international accounting,

A second research area started in 2003 on the history of the Nordic countries development in both financial and management accounting. This was an attempt to broadening my research profile. After editing two books in the Nordic countries development we published a paper based on literature (attached). The Nordic project continues with interviews of Nordic senior professors to gather data of the modern development of accounting. This study has another focus than previous studies since it focus on new models rather than the political dimension of standard setting. As an attempt to take a further step into international accounting I edited two more books in International Accounting.

3. Accounting theory for Property companies and Sustainable accounting

My third research interest is in analysis of financial information from the Swedish property market and the link to level of rent in housing. New legislation 2013 gave room for new interpretation of the cost model used in the negotiations. I have developed a new model of calculations of the Swedish housing market rents.

Summary of research activities

I have during the last years worked with development of a theoretical research framework for Integrated Reporting (How to integrate financial accounting with sustainable reports a working paper presented in Uppsala March 2011).

One of my driving forces in research is to understand accounting theory. This interest has during the last year been expressed in the development of a project that started during fall 2015 in the area of sustainable accounting. A short summary of this project:

This project has a starting point in sustainable operations both on the company level and on the investor level. Sustainable operations (going concern principle) can be illustrated in four dimensions, human (social), environmental, financial and technological. A company can be sustainable only in long term if there is a balance between the four dimensions and “going concern” exists in all four dimensions. Sustainable reporting today is under development with efforts from different standard setting bodies (GRI etc.) and from academic research. The major obstacle in the development can be observed as lack of enforcement of the different standards. The companies seem to prefer “Cherry picking” and give information that give a bright picture of their operations.

This project rests on a long-term foundation: “Rome was not built in one day” and starts with actual accounting practice today and try to extend the use of information already produced by the use of limited additional information for example environmental costs and investments. The Swedish accounting standard setting organizations (BFN) and the government will change the accounting legislation and include sustainable reporting from 2018. Consequently this research has a normative aim in order to improve the sustainable reporting in Swedish industry and the use of the reports by investors. The preliminary results of the study have been presented in articles publication in Balans, professional auditor journal, and have been accepted for presentation in conference papers and international journals.