Minzhi is a lecturer in accounting at the University of Newcastle. She completed her Bachelor of Finance (Honours in accounting) and PhD at CBE in 2012 and 2018 respectively.
Minzhi’s research interests range from financial to management accounting and include the impact of security analysts in capital markets, corporate strategy and cost accounting. Her expertise lies in the area of analyst behaviour, in particular, analyst forecast accuracy, forecast and recommendation bias, and analyst expertise and valuation. Minzhi’s work has been published in the Journal of Business Ethics. She has also served as a reviewer for multiple top-rated journals, including Abacus and Journal of Business Ethics. Minzhi teaches intermediate financial accounting and financial statement analysis at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Here are Minzhi’s responses to some questions that may interest you.
Can you talk us through your thesis and research at CBE?
I completed my PhD with CBE’s Research School of Accounting in 2018. My supervisor was Professor Mark Wilson. My thesis examined the impact of security analysts in capital markets, corporate strategy and cost accounting. Therefore, the title of my PhD thesis was “Corporate Strategy and Analyst Behaviour”. During my time at CBE, I developed knowledge in the area of analyst behaviour, specifically analyst forecast accuracy, forecast and recommendation bias, and analyst expertise and valuation.
Why did you choose to work in academia over industry?
I believe life is a journey. To be honest, I did not plan to work in academia when I first started my PhD; I gradually became interested in research. It was in 2015, after attending a research conference, that I decided to pursue a career in academia.
My choice of career was not made based on a comparison between academia and industry, and the corresponding cost and benefit analysis. Instead, I chose academia because of the interest and passion that I had developed in research. In my opinion, passion is crucial to persevere through the challenges that inevitably arise in any type of work.
How do you discover new research ideas and develop your research network?
I think being open minded and receptive are key to developing new research ideas. I understand the need to cultivate an expertise in one or multiple areas of research during the PhD, but this is only a starting point. Research areas are interrelated, especially in the area of business. I will not label myself as a researcher in the area of financial accounting and simply not be interested in topics in management accounting or other disciplines such as finance and management. I suggest current PhD candidates talk to their peers and colleagues, even those from other disciplines, as this will help generate new research ideas and expand their research network; everything starts by talking to people and exchanging ideas.