Dr Veronica Smith | UNSW Research

Keywords

environmental reporting

social and environmental reporting

Chinese foreign direct investment

voluntary disclosure

mining industry

Fields of Research (FoR)

Sustainability accounting and reporting

SEO tags

Sustainability Indicators

Biography

I am a passionate educator with more than 20 years' experience teaching in Australian tertiary institutions of various sizes, with students from diverse cultures and backgrounds. I am currently the Program Director for the myBCom and myMCom programs, which offer Bachelor and Master of Commerce students support in developing professional skills throughout their degree. As an education-focussed academic, I also teach in the Integrated First Year program. My areas of specialisation are Financial Accounting and Corporate Finance. I have a keen interest in cross-disciplinary teaching and believe that an integrated learning environment enhances the employability of our business graduates. My work focuses on programmatic approaches to business education and practical initiatives that support student wellbeing and success.

I completed my PhD in Accounting and Corporate Governance at Macquarie University in 2020. My thesis explored effects on voluntary social and environmental reporting following Chinese foreign direct investment in Australian Public Corporations.

My Qualifications

February 2016- February 2020, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) – Accounting and Corporate Governance (Macquarie University), Thesis: “Effects on Voluntary Disclosure Following Chinese Foreign Direct Investment in Australian Public Corporations”.
February 2014 – November 2015, Master of Research – Accounting and Corporate Governance (Macquarie University), Thesis: “Effects on social and environmental disclosure – a comparative study of Chinese foreign direct investment and domestic acquisitions in the Australian mining industry”.
Jan 2005 – July 2011, Master of Business Administration (MBA), Professional Accounting, (University of Technology, Sydney)
1985-1988, Bachelor of Education (Secondary) (Business Studies) (Melbourne College of Advanced Education/ University of Melbourne Institute of Education)

My Research Activities

My research focuses on voluntary social and environmental reporting (SER) in Australian Company publications. My Master of Research (2015) and PhD (2020) theses investigate how SER changes after Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI). I was motivated by the speed and extent of Chinese FDI in Australia and the polarisation of political and social opinion in response to this. My PhD thesis focuses on management attitudes and corporate accountability towards Australian employees and minority shareholders following Chinese FDI. This has practical implications for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development as well as the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board in their consideration of the impact of Chinese FDI on the national interest.

My Engagement

I participated in the UNSW Education Festival, 2022, co-presenting a session entitled "Supporting group learning with supplementary interactive media in Moodle", based on a hybrid individual/group assessment we developed in COMM1170. This led to a collaboration with UNSW Education Portfolio to produce an instructional video for academics on the theme of collaboration.

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