Bright Asante-Appiah

Bright Asante-Appiah is an associate professor of accounting at Lehigh University College of Business. He transitioned into academia after 10-plus years’ of experience in industry. His prior public accounting experience includes the “Big 4” firms, auditing SEC registrants in manufacturing, retail, communication and energy sectors. His prior corporate accounting roles include global statutory reporting, SEC reporting, accounting policy development and IFRS conversion at a Fortune 100 company.

Professor Asante-Appiah’s research delves into how corporate governance mechanisms affect financial reporting and audit quality, firm value, ESG (environmental, social and governance) risks and opportunities and managerial myopia. His research is motivated by corporate governance regulatory and practice questions of the day and uses empirical-archival methods that best fit the research question.

His articles have been published in the Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, and the Review of Accounting Studies. Professor Asante-Appiah has also presented his work on major academic conferences, such as the American Accounting Association, European Accounting Association, the Hawaii Accounting Research Conference, and the University of Illinois Symposium on Auditing Research. Professor Asante-Appiah’s research has been covered by the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog, received invited presentation by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and contributed to a response to the SEC’s call for public input on climate change disclosure.

He serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Accounting and the International Auditing Journal. He also reviews papers for Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, and the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy on an ad-hoc basis.

Professor Asante-Appiah’s teaching experience spans across multiple undergraduate and graduate courses, including Financial Accounting, Managerial Accounting, Auditing, Forensic Accounting & Fraud Examination, and Accounting Data Analytics.

Education

• University of Cape Coast, B.Com (Acct.)
• Eastern Illinois University, M.B.A.
• Kennesaw State University, Ph.D.

Certifications

• Certified Public Accountant
• Certified Fraud Examiner
• Chartered Global Management Accountant

Research Interests

• Corporate governance
• Audit and financial reporting quality
• ESG risks and opportunities
• Managerial myopia
• Firm value

• Asante-Appiah, B. (2020). Does the severity of a client’s negative environmental, social and governance reputation affect audit effort and audit quality? Journal of Accounting and Public Policy 39 (3): 106713.
• Asante‐Appiah, B., and D. S. Sharma. (2022). Determinants and consequences of the severity of executive compensation clawbacks. Contemporary Accounting Research 39 (4): 2409-2455.
• Asante-Appiah, B., and T. A. Lambert. (2022). The role of the external auditor in managing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reputation risk. Review of Accounting Studies 1-53. Available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11142-022-09706-z.

Working Papers

• CEO outside board service and managerial short-termism (with Jae Kim and KwangJoo Koo).
• Audit committee disclosure of auditor reappointment factors: Who discloses and does disclosure always indicate vigilant monitoring? (with Hereta Akama).
• Equity-based pay fairness, firm value, and the role of managerial short-termism (with Tamara Lambert).
• Auditor response to management obfuscation on earnings conference calls.

Practitioner Mentions/Contributions

• Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog; Knowledge@Wharton; Foster Research Briefs; Center for Financial Reporting and Analysis Blog. (Available here.)
• Practice contribution: Response to Securities and Exchange Commission’s call for public input on climate change disclosure.
• Invited presentation by Public Company Accounting Oversight Board: The role of the external auditor in managing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reputation risk.