Recently Awarded Grants 

World Bank: Effect of COVID on mining communities in Africa
Dr Abigail Hilson (Co-I), 2020, Value: £47,851. 

Walton Foundation: Feasibility of shrimp insurances in Indonesia
Dr Hirbod Assa (PI), 2019-2020, Value: £36,000. 

ESRC: The new financial reality
Dr Nikolaos Voukelatos (Co-I), 2014-2016, Value: £29,554. 

British Academy/Leverhulme: FinTech strategies and bank performance
Dr Timothy King (Co-I), 2018, Value: £9,986 

 Newton Fellowship: Empowering rural female entrepreneurs with basic accounting skills to enable sustainable livelihoods
Dr Abigail Hilson (Co-I), 2019-2021, Value: £6,000. 

Impact

Market first insurance 

Dr Hirbod Assa assisted the start-up Stable Group Ltd in designing and launching a new market first insurance product to provide financial security to food and farming businesses. This was the first ever price insurance approved by global underwriters Lloyd’s of London. The project was backed by an investment of USD 52,500,000 and resulted in 30 jobs created in London, Amsterdam and Chicago.  

Effect of COVID on mining communities in Africa 

Dr Abby Hilson has worked with the World Bank to assess the impact of and opportunities created by Covid-19 on women in artisanal and small-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Feasibility of shrimp insurances in Indonesia 

Dr Hirbod Assa has teamed-up with international and local partners, including the Walton Foundation (owners of Walmart and ASDA), to study the feasibility of introducing insurance contracts on shrimp losses in Indonesia. The project, which is the first in the world to use actuarial techniques to provide educational knowledge on shrimp insurances, has the potential to help a $1.5 billion industry to evolve into a $10 billion industry and be exported to other countries, including China, Vietnam, Mexico and Taiwan. It can also significantly improve the shrimp farmers’ livelihood all around the world and have a direct impact on shrimp production in terms of quantity and quality.  

The new financial reality 

Within this ESRC-funded project, Dr Nikolaos Voukelatos and his colleagues organised a series of research seminars where experts from the industry and academia presented their research on the new financial landscape that emerged after the 2008 financial crisis. 

FinTech strategies and bank performance 

Dr Timothy King empirically assessed whether banks apply for patents as defensive (prevent litigation) or aggressive business strategies (increase market share by hindering competition). He also considered whether banks pursue inorganic growth through strategic acquisitions of FinTech firms. The main goal of this British Academy/Leverhulme-funded project was to investigate how FinTech strategies impact bank performance including risk. 

Industry engagement 

Insights from the research projects carried out by our academics have been applied by top financial institutions such as Eurobank (Greece and Romania) or Analysis Group Inc (USA). Our academics have also provided consultancy services to well-known companies and NGOs, including Channel Capital Advisors, McGraw-Hill, Natural Resource Defence Council (USA), Oxford Analytica, Oxfam and Resource Consulting Services. 

 Recognition of the Department’s research standing 

The co-authored papers “Accounting for Jewish ‘Bare Life’ in the Fossoli Concentration Camp 1943-44” (Professor Warwick Funnell and Dr Michele Bigoni) and “Accounting for the Banality of Evil: Expropriation of Jewish Property in Fascist Italy 1939-1945” (Professor Warwick Funnell) have been accepted as part of the permanent collection of Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. 

 The co-authored book “A History of British National Audit” (Professor Warwick Funnell) was launched in the Palace of Westminster in London by the British Comptroller and Auditor General and the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee. The Comptroller and Auditor General also wrote the Preface to the book. 

 The co-authored book “Disruptive Technology in Banking and Finance: An International Perspective on FinTech” (Dr Timothy King) has brought together both academics and practitioners in the increasingly important area of FinTech. The book has seen contributions, among the others, from the Senior Economist of the World Federation of Exchanges and the CEO of Channel Capital LLP.  

Awards

The members of the Accounting and Finance Department have been awarded several prestigious prizes, including: 

• the American Accounting Association’s Hourglass Award (Professor Warwick Funnell) 
• the American Accounting Association’s Barbara D. Merino Award (Professor Warwick Funnell) 
• the American Accounting Association’s Margit F. and Hanns Martin Schoenfeld Scholarship (Dr Michele Bigoni) 
• the Italian Society of Accounting history’s Antonio Bisaschi Prize (Professor Warwick Funnell and Dr Michele Bigoni) 
• the Spanish Accounting and Business Administration Association’s Enrique Fernandez Pena Prize (Professor Warwick Funnell). 

 

Editorships

Dr Abigail Hilson is an Editor-in-Chief for the journal World Development Sustainability and a Subject Editor for the journal Social Sciences & Humanities Open. She is also a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal The Extractive Industries and Society. 

Professor Warwick Funnell is a member of the Editorial Board for Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal and Accounting History.  

Dr Michele Bigoni is a member of the Editorial Board for Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.  

Dr Timothy King is a member of the Advisory Board for the Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance. 

Dr Abdullah Iqbal is a member of Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management. 

Dr Hirbod Assa is a member of Editorial Board of the Agricultural Finance Review. 

Plenary/Key-Note Talks

Professor Warwick Funnell 
14th International Accounting History Research Seminar, Seville (Spain), 27-28 June 2019. 

Dr Michele Bigoni 
14th International Accounting History Research Seminar, Seville (Spain), 27-28 June 2019. 

Dr Vasileios Pappas
LUMS-SUBS 2021 Conference, Online, June 2021 

Dr Abdullah Iqbal
International Conference on Administration Management and Social Studies (ICAMSS), Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), 13-14 September 2019.
8th South Asian International Conference (SAICON), Islamabad (Pakistan), 24-26 August 2016.