Professor Jill Atkins
Management School
Chair in Financial Management
+44 114 222 3427
Full contact details
Management School
Room C079
Sheffield University Management School
Conduit Road
Sheffield
S10 1FL
- Profile
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Jill Atkins holds a Chair in Financial Management at Sheffield University Management School and is also a visiting professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She previously worked as a professor at Henley Business School and King’s College London.
Her research focuses on responsible investment, stakeholder accountability, social accounting, integrated reporting and corporate governance. Jill chairs the British Accounting & Finance Association’s Special Interest Group on Corporate Governance and enjoys organising conferences which bring together governance specialists from the academia, corporate and investor communities.
She has recently co-edited a book on The Business of Bees: An Integrated Approach to Bee Decline and Corporate Responsibility as part of a long-term project investigating the role of accounting and responsible investment in preserving biodiversity and addressing the impacts of climate change on business.
Jill’s leading textbook, Corporate Governance and Accountability, is in its 4th edition.
- Research interests
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The over-riding focus of my research is corporate governance, accountability and responsible investment.
My primary research interest over the past 15 years has been institutional investor engagement and dialogue within the context of responsible investment, i.e. investment according to environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.
I also research extensively in the areas of social and environmental accounting and accountability, integrated reporting and sustainability issues in accounting and financial management.
Currently, in collaboration with colleagues at Brunel University, the University of the Witwatersrand and University of Cape Town, I am working on an innovative field which focuses on the threats of climate change, habitat depletion and corporate activity on biodiversity and species extinction.
This has led to the development of an emancipatory ‘extinction accounting framework’, which is useful to companies in preparing disclosures relating to threatened species within their areas of operation, especially where they are producing integrated reports.
We are exploring the potential for this framework to be used to extend the existing Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Principles and to slot into the integrated reporting framework. The framework is also useful to institutional investors engaging with companies on ESG issues and we are sharing the framework with a number of leading investment institutions.
Further, we are exploring the potential for the framework to be used by wildlife NGOs in their corporate engagement programmes on preventing species extinction.
Another important project which I have recently completed is a book, commissioned by Greenleaf publishers, on ‘The Business of Bees: An Integrated Approach to Bee Decline and Corporate Responsibility’.
The book explores the role of corporate accounting, accountability and financial management in slowing the decline in bee populations globally. There is also a focus on the role of responsible investment industry, through engagement and dialogue, in driving corporate accountability for bee decline.
As co-editor, we have organised contributions from accounting and science academics in the US, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Germany and Sweden. We have included chapters from members of the responsible investment community.
The other extensive project for which I am the lead researcher, is a series of practitioner reports, published by ACCA, on integrated reporting, for which we have received funding from ACCA. The first report explored the social, ethical and environmental content of the ‘new’ integrated reports, when they became essentially mandatory in South Africa.
A second report canvassed the reactions of institutional investors in South Africa towards integrated reporting.
The third report, which was published in November 2015 on the ACCA global network, explores the views of the South African auditing community towards the challenges of assuring integrated reports.
These reports have been welcomed by the accounting and integrated reporting community.
I always enjoy the opportunity of publishing research in practitioner-oriented reports as well as in leading international academic journals, as this broadens the potential impact and usefulness of the research findings and extends the readership into the practitioner community as well as the academic community.
- Publications
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Books
- Around the World in 80 Species Exploring the Business of Extinction. Routledge.
- The Chief Value Officer: Accountants Can Save the Planet. Routledge.
- Corporate Governance and Accountability. John Wiley & Sons Inc..
- Corporate Governance and Accountability. John Wiley Inc.
- Corporate Governance and Accountability. John Wiley Inc.
- Corporate Governance and Accountability. John Wiley Inc..
Edited books
- The Business of Bees: An Integrated Approach to Bee Decline and Corporate Responsibility. Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing.
Journal articles
- The Naturalist's Journals of Gilbert White: exploring the roots of accounting for biodiversity and extinction accounting. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal. View this article in WRRO
- Exploring factors relating to extinction disclosures: what motivates companies to report on biodiversity and species protection?. Business Strategy and the Environment Journal. View this article in WRRO
- Developing a Species Protection Action Plan – An Integrated Approach for Taxonomies, Reporting and Engagement for the Financial Services Sector. View this article in WRRO
- Sartrean bad-faith? Site-specific social, ethical and environmental disclosures by multinational mining companies. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 32(1), 55-74. View this article in WRRO
- Integrated extinction accounting and accountability: building an ark. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 31(3), 750-786. View this article in WRRO
- The emancipatory potential of extinction accounting: Exploring current practice in integrated reports. Accounting Forum, 42(1), 102-118. View this article in WRRO
- From the Big Five to the Big Four? Exploring extinction accounting for the rhinoceros. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 31(2), 674-702. View this article in WRRO
- The emergence of integrated private reporting. Meditari Accountancy Research, 23(1), 28-61.
- Integrated reporting in South Africa in 2012: Perspectives from South African Institutional Investors. Meditari Accountancy Research, 23(2), 197-221.
- “Good” news from nowhere: imagining utopian sustainable accounting. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 28(5), 651-670.
- Accounting for rituals and ritualization: The case of shareholders’ associations. Accounting Forum, 39(1), 34-50.
- The adoption of the materiality concept in social and environmental reporting assurance: A field study approach. British Accounting Review, 47(1), 1-18.
- Section 45 of the Auditing Profession Act: Blowing the whistle for audit quality?. The British Accounting Review, 46(3), 248-263.
- Whistle-blowing by external auditors in South Africa: Enclosure, efficient bodies and disciplinary power. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 27(5), 834-862.
- Whistle-blowing by external auditors: Seeking legitimacy for the South African Audit Profession?. Accounting Forum, 38(2), 109-121.
- A Habermasian model of stakeholder (non)engagement and corporate (ir)responsibility reporting. Accounting Forum, 37(3), 163-181.
- Problematising accounting for biodiversity. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 26(5), 668-687.
- Impression management, myth creation and fabrication in private social and environmental reporting: Insights from Erving Goffman. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 38(3), 195-213.
- Private climate change reporting: an emerging discourse of risk and opportunity?. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 24(8), 1119-1148.
- Stakeholder inclusivity in social and environmental report assurance. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 23(4), 532-557.
- Social and environmental report assurance: Some interview evidence. Accounting Forum, 34(1), 20-31.
- Satanic Mills? An Illustration of Victorian External Environmental Accounting?. Accounting Forum, 33(1), 74-87.
- Corporate governance, accountability and mechanisms of accountability: an overview. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 21(7), 885-906.
- The abandoned mandatory OFR: a lost opportunity for SER?. Social Responsibility Journal, 4(3), 324-348.
- Corporate Governance: Rating of the EU Member States Guidelines. Corporate Ownership and Control, 4(3).
- Private social, ethical and environmental disclosure. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 19(4), 564-591.
- Is private social, ethical and environmental reporting mythicizing or demythologizing reality?. Accounting Forum, 29(1), 27-47.
- Can the UK Experience Provide Lessons for the Evolution of SRI in Japan?. Corporate Governance, 12(4), 552-566.
- The Operating and Financial Review 2005. European Financial Services Regulation(16), 7-8.
- Assessing the Potential Impact of the Revised Combined Code on Corporate Governance. International Company and Commercial Law Review, 15(4), 99-104.
- The Evolving Function of the Board of Directors in Taiwanese Companies. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 11(3), 235-248.
- Guest Editorial: Developments in International Corporate Governance and the Impact of Recent Events. Corporate Governance, 11(1), 1-7.
- Explaining the Recent Growth in UK Socially Responsible Investment. Journal of General Management, 28(3), 32-53.
- A Conceptual Framework for Corporate Governance Reform in South Korea. Corporate Governance, 10(1), 29-46.
- The Role of Institutional Investors in Corporate Governance Reform in South Korea: Some Empirical Evidence. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 10(3), 211-224.
- Who Would be a Trustee? The Growth of SRI in UK Pension Funds. New Academy Review, 1(4), 98-104.
- Research Insights into Corporate Social Responsibility. New Academy Review, 1(3), 39-54.
- Socially Responsible Investment in the UK: Drivers and Current Issues. Journal of General Management, 27(3), 1-13.
- Modelling Changes in the Stock Indices of UK Financial Institutions and Exchange Rates. International Quarterly Journal of Finance, 1(2, 3 & 4), 185-203.
- A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR CORPORATE RISK DISCLOSURE EMERGING FROM THE AGENDA FOR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE REFORM. The British Accounting Review, 32(4), 447-478.
- Which corporate hedging motives are appropriate? An institutional shareholders' perspective. International Journal of Finance & Economics, 5(4), 339-347.
- Institutional Investors' Views on Corporate Governance Reform: policy recommendations for the 21st century. Corporate Governance, 8(3), 215-226.
- Future policy directions fordoi moiin Vietnam. Global Economic Review, 29(2), 117-133.
- Empirical Evidence of Long‐Termism and Shareholder Activism in UK Unit Trusts. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 7(3), 288-300.
- DO INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS IN THE UK ADOPT A DUAL STRATEGY FOR MANAGING FOREIGN EXCHANGE RISK?. The British Accounting Review, 31(2), 205-224.
- Corporate governance and stock market duration for South Korea and the USA. Global Economic Review, 27(3), 76-92.
- A Practical Application of Accounting for Biodiversity: The Case of Soil Health. Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 1-29.
- Interpreting site-specific social, environmental and ethical disclosures through Sartrean ‘bad faith’ and ‘nothingness’. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.
- Exploring the evolution of qualitative research in financial markets and corporate governance: Identifying potential paths for future research. Qualitative Research in Financial Markets. View this article in WRRO
- Interpreting banks’ sustainability initiatives as reputational risk management and mechanisms for coping, re-embedding and rebuilding societal trust. Qualitative Research in Financial Markets.
- Conservation through Conversation? Therapeutic Engagement on Biodiversity and Extinction between NGOs and Companies. Business Strategy and the Environment.
Chapters
- An ecological auto ethnography of a Monarch Butterfly In Atkins J & Atkins B (Ed.), Around the World in 80 Species: Exploring the Business of Extinction (pp. 324-334). Routledge View this article in WRRO
- The historic, cultural and philosophical context of bee decline, The Business of Bees: An Integrated Approach to Bee Decline and Corporate Responsibility (pp. 19-42).
- Bee accounting and accountability in the UK, The Business of Bees: An Integrated Approach to Bee Decline and Corporate Responsibility (pp. 198-211).
- An integrated approach to bee decline: Making a bee line for the future?, The Business of Bees: An Integrated Approach to Bee Decline and Corporate Responsibility (pp. 331-346).
- Bee decline: An integrated approach, The Business of Bees: An Integrated Approach to Bee Decline and Corporate Responsibility (pp. 2-18).
- The historical, cultural and philosophical context of bee decline In Atkins JF & Atkins BC (Ed.), The Business of Bees An Integrated Approach to Bee Decline and Corporate Responsibility (pp. 20-43). Greenleaf Publishing
- Responsible Investment in the United Kingdom In Hebb T, Hawley J, Hoepner A, Neher A & Wood D (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Responsible Investment Routledge
- Accounting for Nature in 19th Century Britain: William Morris and the defence of the fairness of the Earth In Jones M (Ed.), Accounting for Biodiversity Routledge
- Biodiversity Reporting: Exploring its Anthropocentric Nature In Jones (Ed.), Accounting for Biodiversity Routledge
- Accounting for biodiversity in nineteenth century Britain: William Morris and the defence of the fairness of the earth, Active Ageing in Asia (pp. 267-286).
- The Transformation of Socially Responsible Investment In Young S (Ed.), Contemporary Issues in International Corporate Governance Australia: Tilde University Press.
- Corporate Governance in South Korea In Tarantino (Ed.), Governance, Risk, and Compliance Handbook John Wiley & Sons
- Evidence of a Global Compromise in Corporate Governance In Jeong KY & Choo J (Ed.), East Asian Economy Reconsidered Republic of South Korea: ORUEN Publishing House.
- Around the World in 80 Species Routledge
- Accounting for Biodiversity Routledge
Reports
- Should Accounting for Bees be a Core Element of Integrated Reports
- How Can Corporate Narrative Reporting Prevent Extinction?
- The Challenges of Assuring Integrated Reports: Views from the South African Auditing Community
- South African institutional investors’ perceptions of integrated reporting
- Pension Fund Trustee Payment Debate
- Trustees Shun SRI
- Integrated Reporting: The Influence of King III on Social, Ethical and Environmental Reporting
- Pension Funds and Climate Change: One Year On
- Directions for Corporate Governance
- Pension Fund Trustees and Climate Change
- Shareholder Activism Impacts Remuneration Policy
- Around the World in 80 Species Exploring the Business of Extinction. Routledge.
- Research group
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- The development of corporate governance practice in emerging economies
- The evolution and spread of integrated reporting in an international context
- Responsible investor engagement and dialogue
- Teaching interests
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Jill's specialist teaching subject is corporate governance and she enjoys delivering lectures on all aspects of governance, accountability, responsible investment and sustainability reporting.
Lecturing and running workshops with students provides an excellent forum for learning and dialogue where the lecturer learns as much as the students, if not more at times.
Up to date illustrations from practice and case studies are often used to enliven the topics and their delivery.