We love to hear stories about professors and students
excelling in their fields, especially when they are our very own. This month,
we sat down with the distinguished and very active Dr. Nicholas Lynch, who is
making big contributions to the emerging area of Corporate Social
Responsibility reporting through his research publications. Dr. Lynch is an
outstanding addition to the Chico State accounting department, and comes to us
having industry experience with a Northeastern regional firm in addition to his
most recent professorial position with Georgia Southern University. He earned
his PhD in Accountancy from Mississippi State University and also holds degrees
from Villanova and Bryant Universities. Even with how busy Dr. Lynch is
professionally and in the campus community, he still makes time for a few of
his hobbies such as swimming, hiking, and especially snowboarding in Tahoe.
Dr. Lynch teaches
primarily in a financial accounting track; however in Fall 2014 he will be
adding an accounting ethics course to his focus that will be available to
students who are completing the newly created professional accounting
certificate offered only at Chico State. PhDs like Dr. Lynch are instrumental in
growing our professional accounting certificate and providing expertise in a
competitive Masters of Accountancy graduate program down the road.
Dr. Lynch’s research has been honored with the Max Block
Distinguished Article Award for Policy Analysis in 2012 for his article entitled
"The Controversy over Private Company Reporting Standards: Recommendations
of the Blue Ribbon Panel and the Financial Accounting Foundation's Response
Spark New Debate." In the article, he explores the creation of GAAP for
private companies and a comprehensive overview of the standards-setting
developments in this area.
His most recent research piece focuses on the field of
sustainability reporting and resonates perfectly with the university ethos. The
article was published and selected as the feature article in the March 2014
issue of the CPA Journal. The CPA Journal is published by the New York State
Society of CPAs, and has been in circulation for nearly 80 years. The CPA
Journal is broadly recognized as an outstanding, technical-refereed publication
aimed at accounting practitioners, educators, regulators, and other financial
professionals. The journal provides analysis, perspective, and debate on the
issues affecting the financial world.
An excerpt from the abstract may be read below:
In today’s global business environment, external pressures
including climate change, scarce resources, population growth, and the
emergence of developing nations are driving businesses to focus on more than
just financial reporting. In the United States and throughout the world,
companies are spending increasing amounts of time and money dealing with issues
of corporate social responsibility including sustainability and reporting the
results of their efforts to stakeholders. Sustainability performance can be
defined as a corporate focus on how a business interacts with its supply chain,
the environment, and society at large to optimize resource allocation while
creating long-term value. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports, which
include sustainability reports, can be issued as a standalone report, as a part
of the annual report, and/or as an integrated portion of the company’s website.
CSR reports include disclosures of material social and environmental issues
such as a company’s climate change risk, corporate governance structure, target
setting and tracking of emissions and waste management, number of environmental
accidents, effective supply chain management such as environmental screenings
of new suppliers, and the level of employee and community involvement in the
companies’ corporate responsibility change strategy.
This upward trend in voluntary CSR reporting by U.S.
companies raises a number of important questions and presents substantial
opportunities for CPAs. CPAs are in a unique position to understand a company’s
business and provide objective advice and reporting on sustainability issues;
thus, they should remain informed of emerging topics such as (1) the lack of a
single set of generally accepted CSR measures and reporting principles, which
creates comparability issues across companies and within industry groups; (2)
the response by management and governance bodies to sustainability issues
within companies, including a discussion of the internal measurement and
control systems necessary to successfully implement a CSR strategy for
improvement or change; (3) the move toward integrated reporting, which involves
a full integration of sustainability measures and disclosures into an
organization’s regular reporting framework so that CSR information is
indistinguishable from other key business information; and (4) the assistance
that CPAs can provide by developing a knowledge base in sustainability
services, such as risk and opportunity analyses, tax incentive and credit
reviews, and attestation for CSR reports.
This article takes an in-depth look at CSR reporting from
both an international and a domestic perspective; and discusses potential
opportunities for CPAs to get involved in the sustainability reporting process.
When it comes to sustainability efforts, many business executives have set
aside regulatory uncertainties and are taking their cues from a broader set of
stakeholders. The time for CPAs to become involved in the sustainability
assurance and attestation market is now.
The Expanding Use of Sustainability Reporting, By:
Lynch, Nicholas C.; Lynch, Michael F.; and Casten, David B. CPA Journal.
Mar2014, p18-24. 7p.
The full publication is accessible through the Business
Source Premier academic database which is available through the university
catalog:
Link: http://bit.ly/1hmQait
The full article is also available on The CPA Journal
website:
We look forward to hearing more of Dr. Lynch's impact on
accounting at large and learning from his success in the classroom.
