Dr Ozlem Arikan
PhD
Management School
Lecturer in Accounting
Full contact details
Management School
Sheffield University Management School
Conduit Road
Sheffield
S10 1FL
- Profile
-
Ozlem's research interest in a broad sense entails the judgement and decision making of stakeholders in a financial reporting and accountability setting. She is particularly interested in organisational accountability within the context of social responsibility and how managers use linguistic tools to shirk their responsibilities, as well as how stakeholders react to this behaviour. Although she uses different methodologies to answer her research questions, she is one of the few experts in the UK and the rest of Europe in experimental methodology within her area.
Her teaching interests focus on financial reporting, financial analysis and financial management. Ozlem has various teaching awards from different universities she has served throughout her academic career. Before joining Sheffield University Management School, she worked at the University of Warwick and Aston University. She was the director of an MSc programme in accounting and finance at Aston University between 2019 and 2022.
- Qualifications
-
PhD - University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy
- Research interests
-
Judgement and Decision Making
Language is a flexible communications tool and managers use that flexibility in a strategic way to promote what they want to promote and hide what they want to hide. Ozlem’s research finds that while reading management's reports stakeholders indeed often reach to different judgements on the same information when it is conveyed using slightly different wording. Nonetheless, this does not mean that managers get what they want with their strategic use of the language. The implications of these strategies are often counter-intuitive.
Social Responsibility
The bottom-line figure most stakeholders focus on in accounting reports is profitability, a focus which is bringing the world to an end. Are there better ways to measure performance? When companies focus on social responsibility, what works, what doesn't work and why? What can we do to encourage organisations to engage more in social responsibility?
Accountability
Accounting systems in organisations are used to facilitate accountability, however they often have unintended consequences for organisations and individuals. What can we do to prevent such consequences?
- Publications
-
Journal articles
- The interaction of hierarchical and socializing accountability and the emergence of intelligent accountability in a classroom – a critical analysis. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal.
- The effect of boilerplate language on nonprofessional investors’ judgments. Accounting and Business Research, 52(4), 417-442.
- Primacy in stock market participation: the effect of initial returns on market re-entry decisions. The European Journal of Finance, 25(10), 883-909.
- Financial estimates against investors’ preferences: anchoring, denial and spillover effects. Accounting and Business Research, 48(3), 299-320.
- Signposts or Weathervanes? The Curious Case of Corporate Social Responsibility and Conflict Minerals. Journal of Business Ethics, 146(3), 469-484.
- Benefit corporation certification and financial performance: Capital structure matters. European Financial Management.
- Experimental Research in Accounting, 1-4.
Chapters
- Playful learning in accounting education, Games, Simulations and Playful Learning in Business Education (pp. 195-204). Edward Elgar Publishing
- The interaction of hierarchical and socializing accountability and the emergence of intelligent accountability in a classroom – a critical analysis. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal.
- Teaching interests
-
Ozlem has taught in undergraduate, postgraduate, doctoral and executive levels and is a passionate educator. A focus on the 'big picture' underpins her teaching activities as the vast amount of details in financial reporting rules can prevent students to miss the main purpose of these rules when that focus is absent. She aims to make learning as enjoyable and as engaging as possible, and she uses playful learning tools to reach that aim. She is the author of the 2021 book chapter 'Playful Learning in Accounting Education'.
Her teaching practice has been recognised with awards from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Warwick, and Aston University. In addition to teaching financial reporting, financial analysis, and financial management, Ozlem enjoys teaching survey, experimental and quasi experimental research designs to postgraduate and PhD students.
- PhD Supervision
I am interested in PhD projects which use experimental methodologies in accounting. I am also interested in projects that focus on social responsibility and accountability.