On August 18, the School of Accountancy (SoA) hosted the fourth annual Colorado Accounting Research Symposium (CARS) which brings together accounting scholars from universities along the Front Range to share their research and connect with their colleagues. CARS was started in 2014 by SoA Assistant Professor Dr. Philipp Schaberl after attending other regional conferences, specifically looking at the Boston Accounting Research Colloquium as a model. CARS is designed to have one guest presenter from out-of-state and one presenter from the five schools that sponsor: Colorado State University, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Denver, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and the University of Denver. This year, new SoA faculty member Dr. Anthony Holder presented his paper “Is Audit Quality Associated with Big Data Risk?” at CARS representing the University of Denver.
CARS takes place every year in late August, after most accounting professionals attended the American Accounting Association Annual Meeting (AAA) and most of those who present have received feedback on their working paper in order to make their research closer to being published. Dr. Schaberl created CARS with the intention of establishing this conference a place where scholars could garner feedback on papers, establish connections, and potentially form partnerships that could lead to collaboration on future research. This year, Dr. Victoria Dickinson [The University of Mississippi], served as the guest lecturer and presented, “Leaders vs Laggards: Operating and Market Performance Using a New Measure Based on Life Cycle.”
CARS is distinctive because of the relationships that are created and the community-feel that has been established in these past years. This year, there was one PhD candidate who presented a paper and was able to gain some valuable practice and feedback from her future peers. CARS allows sponsoring schools the ability to designate their own presenters, which fosters a dedication to craft space for unique and engaging research to be shared.
By attending CARS, the accounting professionals are able to earn five Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits and learn about the research that is being conducted by their peers locally. Dr. Schaberl would like to increase awareness of CARS in order to enhance the research profile of the SoA. This goal will not only make the University of Denver more recognizable but this will provide further validation to those professionals who present their work.
Dr. Schaberl has created something that accounting professionals can appreciate, but the symposium has been attended by Finance professionals in the past as well. This outstanding program is more impactful because it’s intended for faculty and showcases the prominent research that is being conducted in the Front Range. The School of Accountancy was thrilled to have another successful symposium and looks forward to what other exciting research will be presented next year at CARS.