Theresa Spandel, M.Sc.

Theresa Spandel is a PhD candidate and research associate at the professorship of Accounting, which is part of the Research Group on Sustainable Finance at the University of Hamburg. Theresa completed her Bachelor (B.Sc.) in International Business with a Major in Accounting at Maastricht University in 2014, and her Master (M.Sc.) in Accounting, Organizations and Institutions at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 2015. Subsequently, Theresa gained two years of practical experience as an audit consultant in a big four firm, where her responsibilities included audits on non-financial disclosures and the implementation of the EU Directive on Non-Financial Disclosure (Directive 2014/95/EU). Theresa is currently a visiting research student at the Department of Accounting at the LSE.

Theresa’s research interests lie at the intersection of accounting and sustainability. In particular, Theresa is concerned with the consequences of non-financial reporting standards and regulation. In this context, she focuses on the concept of financial materiality of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, and thereby investigates the dynamics between financial and non-financial firm disclosures and performance. Her research is motivated by an urge to elevate the understanding on how the private sector can play a role in tackling global sustainability challenges and achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Theresa has presented her research projects at several conferences and seminars, including the following:

• 40th Strategic Management Society (SMS) Annual Conference: parallel session presentation, 2020
• PhD seminar Accounting, Organisations and Society (London, UK): Visiting research student and presenter, 2020
• 31st International Congress on Social and Environmental Accounting Research and 6th Emerging Scholars Colloquium (St. Andrews, UK): PhD stream presentation, 2019
• 23rd Annual Conference Financial Reporting and Business Communication (FRBC) (Reading, UK): PhD stream presentation, 2019
• EDEN Doctoral Seminar on Empirical Financial Accounting Research (Lisbon, Portugal): participant, 2018

In parallel to her research interests, Theresa teaches courses and supervises Bachelor and Master theses in the areas of sustainability accounting as well as conventional cost accounting and controlling. Her classes include Business Valuation under consideration of non-financial aspects, Introduction to Sustainability Accounting, Cost Accounting, Controlling and an Interdisciplinary Introduction to Research Methods.