Simmons School of Management

Associate Professor
F: 617-521-3880
lori.holderwebb@simmons.edu

Ph.D, Accounting, Texas A&M University; B.B.A, Accounting, University of Texas at San Antonio

Specialization

Finance, accounting, management

Bio

Dr. Lori Holder-Webb joined the faculty at Simmons School of Management from the faculty of the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and earned her Ph.D. in Accounting and Organizational Economics from Texas A&M University. Her research is engaged at the intersection between organizational behavior and non-financial and financial reporting. Her work in this area has been funded by major regulatory agencies for the United States securities markets (NASD, now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) as well as by the University of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Dr. Holder-Webb has published extensively in this area in top-rated domestic and international journals such as the Journal of Accounting Research, Contemporary Accounting Research, and the Journal of Business Ethics. She has also written on curriculum issues and developed case material that has been published in Issues in Accounting Education.

Her teaching interests lie in corporate reporting and disclosure, including traditional financial reporting, non-financial reporting, and sustainability reporting. She has served on the editorial board of Issues in Accounting Education, a publication of the American Accounting Association. Her expertise in this area has elicited interviews by the media and she has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, the Wisconsin State Journal, and National Public Radio.

Prior to joining the academic community, Dr. Holder-Webb provided information technology consulting and software development to regional businesses in Texas, as well as acting as a research coordinator for a major academic publishing concern.

Publications

• “A Survey of Governance Disclosures among U.S. Firms” (with J. Cohen, L. Nath, and D. Wood) (forthcoming at Journal of Business Ethics)
• “The Effects of Perceived Fairness on Opportunistic Behavior” Contemporary Accounting Research, Winter 2007 (Vol. 24, No. 4), with J. Cohen, D. Sharp, and L. Pant. 
• “The Role of Disclosure in Differentiating the Success and Failure of Distressed Firms” Journal of Business Ethics, October 2007 (Vol 75, No. 3), with J. Cohen). 
• “Providing a Tool for Evaluating Managements’ Discussion and Analysis" Advances in Accounting Behavioral Research, 2007 (Vol. 10).
• “The Hole in the Donut: Form vs. Substance at Krispy Kreme” Issues in Accounting Education, August 2006, with M. Kohlbeck.
• “Rethinking the Influence of Agency Theory in Accounting Education” Issues in Accounting Education, February 2006, with J. Cohen.
• “Do Restructurings Improve Operating Performance?” Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, December, 2005 (Vol. 24, No. 4), with T. Lopez and P. Regier.

Working Papers

• “Auditing Intangible Assets and Evaluating Fair Market Values – The Case of Reacquired Franchise Rights” (with J. Cohen and M. Kohlbeck) (under revision for Issues in Accounting Education)
• “The Supply of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosures among U.S. Firms” (with J. Cohen, L. Nath, and D. Wood) (Under revision for Journal of Business Ethics)
• “The Effect of Governance on Credit Decisions and Perceptions of Reporting Reliability” (with D. Sharma) (under review at Behavioral Research in Accounting)
• “Rhetoric or Reality? Isomorphism in Codes of Ethics”
  

Awards & Accolades

• Member of interdisciplinary, interuniversity research team awarded $295,000 by National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) Investor Education Foundation (now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority [FINRA]) for researching non-financial disclosures, 2005
• Awarded $15,314 by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (Wisconsin Graduate School Competition for Faculty), 2005
• Awarded $30,000 by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (Wisconsin Graduate School Competition for Faculty), 2003
  

Work in Progress

• “An Experimental Analysis of the Impact of Non-financial ESG Disclosures” (with J. Cohen, L. Nath, and D. Wood, part 3 of NASD-funded project)
• “Corporate Reporting of Industry Cohort Information: A Sampling of Discretionary Disclosure Practices among U.S. Firms” (with J. Cohen and L. Nath)
• “Dual-Class Shares and Auditor Changes” (with S. Khalil and J. Cohen)
• “Fairness of Management Controls and Opportunistic Behavior” (with J. Cohen and A. Shulz)
• “Gender and Race Effects on Investor Use of Non-Financial Information” (with L. Nath)
• “Retail Investors’ Use of Attestation Services for Non-Financial Information (with J. Cohen and L. Nath)
• “The Effect of Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility Information on Investment Decisions: An Experimental Analysis” (with S. Khalil and J. Cohen)
• “The Impact of MD&A Quality on Audit Judgment and Decision-Making” (with J. Cohen)
  

Speaking Engagements

Research Presentations

• Third Alternatives Perspectives on Accounting Research Conference April 2008: “Rhetoric or Reality? Isomorphism in Codes of Ethics”, Universite Laval, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
• American Accounting Association, Annual Meeting August 2006, Teaching and Curriculum Section: “The Hole in the Donut: Form vs. Substance at Krispy Kreme”, Washington, DC.
• Invited Workshop, March 2006: “A Note on the Effects of Perceived Fairness on the Agency Problem” Baylor University.
• Workshop, December 2005: “Unstructured Problem-Solving in Accounting Education” University of Wisconsin – Madison.
• Field Research in Accounting and Auditing: A North American Focused Workshop, September 2005: “Non-financial Disclosures and Retail Investors”, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
• Critical Perspectives Conference, April 2005: “Mediating Effects of Situational Ethics on the Agency Problem”, New York, NY.
• Invited Workshop, November, 2004: “Do Restructurings Improve Operating Performance?” University of Massachusetts – Amherst.
• Invited Workshop, November, 2004: “Mediating Effects of Situational Ethics on the Agency Problem” Case Western Reserve University.
• American Accounting Association, Annual Meeting August 2004, Accounting, Behavior, and Organizations Section: “Mediating Effects of Situational Ethics on the Agency Problem”, Orlando, FL.
• Boston Area Research Colloquium, November 2003: “The Role of Disclosure in Differentiating the Success and Failure of Distressed Firms”, Suffolk University.
• American Accounting Association, Annual Meeting August 2003, Financial and Reporting Section: “The Strategic Use of Disclosure Policy”, Honolulu, HI.

Discussions and Other Presentations

• Discussant, 2007 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. “Intra Big-4 Auditor Quality,” R. D. Fuerman.
• Discussant, 2006 Auditing Mid-Year Meeting, Los Angeles, CA. “Were Former Andersen Clients Treated More Leniently than Other Clients? Evidence from Going-Concern Modified Opinions”, J. Krishnan, K. Raghunandan, and J. S. Yang.
• Discussant, 2005 Auditing Mid-Year Meeting, New Orleans, LA. “Auditor Tenure, Auditor Quality, and Firm Age: An Analysis of Auditor Going-Concern Reports”, W. R. Knechel and A. Vanstraelen.
• Discussant, 2004 International Symposium on Audit Research, Maastricht, The Netherlands. “The Impairment of Auditor Credibility: Stock-Market Evidence from the Enron-Andersen Saga”, R. Doogar, T. Sougiannis, and H. Xie.
• Moderator, 2004 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting, Financial Reporting, Orlando, FL.
  

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