Stefan Sundgren appointed professor of accounting at Hanken

Sundgren earned his PhD at Hanken in 1995 and subsequently worked as a senior assistant and professor at the School until 2005. For almost 20 years he went on to carry out research and teaching at Umeå University, also within Hanken’s double degree programme run in cooperation with Umeå University.

– Hanken as an organisation has developed a great deal since I was last here. We now have clearer goals, a strong focus on quality, and a very positive atmosphere, says Sundgren.

Early in his career, Sundgren primarily researched bankruptcies, insolvency, and corporate restructurings from a legislative perspective. His current research focus is more on audit quality and auditor behaviour, for example on what characterises companies and auditors that more frequently receive warnings from supervisory authorities.

– We have, for example, studied how auditors report when companies encounter financial difficulties. According to the regulations, auditors should then issue a warning in the audit report by including a going-concern qualification. We have subsequently used this as a measure of audit quality.

Sundgren also conducts research on economic crime in connection with auditing. A few years ago, the statutory audit requirement for small companies in Sweden was abolished, and it was assumed that this would lead to increased criminal activity in these firms. Sundgren initiated an interdisciplinary research project together with researchers in business administration and law at Umeå University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, focusing specifically on the link between auditing, bankruptcies, and economic crime.

– Our results do not support such a direct link. Instead, it appears that other factors underlie criminal activity in these cases. Individuals who are generally more inclined to commit wrongdoings are also those who choose to opt out of auditing, says Sundgren.

According to him, the findings suggest instead that other forms of control are more effective in reducing crime, such as increased oversight by tax authorities.

Sundgren is currently teaching the master’s-level course International Accounting. The course covers the IAS and IFRS accounting frameworks for listed companies, an area he has worked with a lot over many years, also at Umeå University.

– Interaction with students is a valuable part of the job. It is nice to see that the students are motivated to learn and work diligently. That is really rewarding, Sundgren concludes.

Text: Marlene Günsberg
Photo: Dennis Ståhl