The Award Committee is pleased to announce that Professor Duane Kennedy has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the George Baxter Award for Outstanding Contributions to the CAAA.

Professor Kennedy has made many notable contributions to the CAAA over several decades. Highlights include serving as President of the CAAA (2018-19); participating as a member of the CAAA executive committee (2017-20; 2000-04); chairing the Canadian Accounting Hall of Fame Task Force (2021-22) and the CAAA Research Committee (2008-10); chairing the selection committee for several CAAA awards (2015-2017; 2010-11); serving as a member of the search committee for the Editor of Contemporary Accounting Research (2002-03; 2012-13); and chairing a CAAA annual conference (1998-99).  For his lifetime of sustained service, the Award Committee determined that Professor Kennedy is a worthy recipient of the 2024 George Baxter Award. 

Over more than 30 years, Dr. Michel Magnan has made significant contributions to accounting research, making him a worthy recipient of the Haim Falk Award for Distinguished Contribution to Accounting Thought. He is one of the rare accounting scholars to have been elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2014). He published, in English and in French, over 130 articles in recognized academic and practitioner journals, and his scholarly work received more than 14,000 citations (as per Google Scholar).

Magnan was one of the first to conduct research on executive compensation in Canada. He then examined extensively issues and mechanisms of corporate governance. His body of work in corporate governance has been recently acknowledged by Royal Society of Canada with the awarding to him of the 2023 Yvan Allaire Medal for an outstanding contribution in governance of public and private organizations.

Magnan is also a leading accounting thinker in environmental accounting and disclosure research. Before this area of research became mainstream, he examined the determinants of environmental disclosure, setting the foundation for a growing stream of accounting research on environmental issues and corporate social responsibility. In total his research has received funding exceeding $1,000,000 (as Principal Investigator) and more than $3,500,000 as a member of the research team. He has mentored over thirty doctoral students who have had initial placements that include Western’s Ivey, York’s Schulich, and McGill’s Desautels among many others.

Magnan has significant experience as an academic journal editor with his term as Editor-in- Chief of Contemporary Accounting Research culminating in the journal being included in the 2010 Financial Times list of significant business journals (FT 50). Magnan is also active in transferring accounting research to practice. He had two terms on the Board of the Canadian Accounting Standards Board 2011-2017 as well as being a Board member for CPA Magazine.

Michel Magnan currently holds the titles of Concordia University Distinguished University Research Professor, the Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair in Corporate Governance, and is a Fellow of L’Ordre des Comptable Professionnels Agréés du Quebec (CPA Quebec). We are pleased to recognize Michel as the 2024 winner of the Haim Falk Award for Distinguished Accounting Thought.

The committee appreciated this simulation as they found it to be an original experiential learning opportunity where students can engage actively in a “real world” issues. Further, the simulation’s innovative qualities were noted by the committee, such as its high degree of realism and integrative nature across different technical competency areas covered in various undergraduate courses. Finally, the committee noted that the simulation provides students with the opportunity to develop their professional judgement as they are presented with issues to which there is more than one correct corse of action.

The Committee selected Ted’s Teas: A Two-Part Accounting and Audit “Crossover Case” as the recipient of the Best Accounting Perspectives Case Award (Award) for cases published in Accounting Perspectives from January 1 to December 31, 2023. The authors, Ana Bullock, Kyla Chisholm, Tammy Crowell, Poppy Riddle and Samantha Taylor, will be recognized during the Canadian Academic Accounting Association Conference to be held in June 2024. 

The Committee evaluated cases including Ted’s Teas: A Two-Part Accounting and Audit “Crossover Case” against factors including, but not limited to: 

• Clarity; 
• Originality; 
• Realism; 
• Interest; 
• Educational value; 
• Currency of technical issues; 
• Diversity of technical issues; 
• Inclusion of enabling competencies; 
• Requirement to prioritize issues, integrate, etc.; 
• Completeness; and 
• Quality of instructor resources 

Based on the evaluations performed by Committee members, Ted’s Teas: A Two-Part Accounting and Audit “Crossover Case” was selected as the recipient of the Award for the following reasons: 

• The case is written with clarity such that it is understandable to the intended undergraduate audience. 
• The design of the case is innovative and provides instructors with flexibility. The diversity of technical issues makes the case suitable for capstone case courses. Alternatively, students are able to assume the roles of an internal accountant and external auditor in intermediate financial accounting and audit courses, respectively. 
• The case provides opportunities for students to develop enabling competencies. 
• The related instructor resources are well written and comprehensive. 
• Student feedback during classroom testing was positive with students highlighting the value added by learning how technical competency areas overlap in the real world. 

The committee was impressed by the authors’ exploration of the relevant topic of auditor expansion into the blockchain field. The authors use both interviews and ethnography to establish their findings using the concept of habitus as a framework. Their work provides deep insight into the challenges of moving into a non-traditional area. In particular, the authors find that auditors’ skills of verification and reputational capital can provide limited benefit without adequate legitimacy. Their study offers interesting insight into the contrasting views of auditors and blockchain engineers, which provides an important caveat for the frictions associated with audit firms moving into new spaces. Overall, the paper was well motivated and well executed.

Erica Pimentel is an Assistant Professor in the Smith School of Business at Queen's University. Her research explores how technological disruption impacts professionals at work. Her broader interest is in thinking about how professions are changing in light of new technologies like blockchain and remote work. A CPA of over a decade, Erica remains connected to the profession through her involvement in working groups at CPA Canada and the AcSB. She is a frequent contributor to the media and has been featured in outlets like the Wall Street Journal, the National Post, the Globe and Mail and many others.

Emilio Boulianne is a Professor at the John Molson School of Business in Montreal. He teaches Strategic Managerial Accounting, Risk Management and Information Technology. He holds the FCPA and ICD.D designations. He sits on the Institute of Financial Planning’ board of directors. Before his academic career, Professor Boulianne worked several years at ScotiaBank. He published in CAR, JIS, MAR and AAAJ. His current interests cover FinTech, Blockchains, Performance Management, Ethics and Accounting Education.

Crawford Spence is Professor of Accounting with broader interests in economic sociology. He has published extensively across a range of accounting, organisational and sociology journals. He sits on the editorial boards of Accounting, Organizations and Society, the Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal and Contemporary Accounting Research.