The EAA is delighted to announce the recipient of the 2025 Anthony G. Hopwood Award for Academic Leadership

Alfred Wagenhofer, University of Graz

Alfred Wagenhofer is one of the most productive and influential European accounting researchers. His work covers a broad area of topics ranging from financial reporting and standard setting over auditing and enforcement to managerial accounting topics such as transfer pricing and incentive contracting. He is one of the world’s leading accounting theorists, and widely respected for his seminal papers on strategic disclosure (Wagenhofer, JAE 1990), earnings management (Ewert and Wagenhofer, TAR 2005) and impairment (Göx and Wagenhofer, JAE 2009), as well as for his more recent work on audit quality (Ewert and Wagenhofer, JAR 2019) and enforcement (Schantl and Wagenhofer, JAE 2020). In addition to his outstanding track record as an analytical researcher, Alfred has published some empirical research papers in leading accounting journals (Perotti and Wagenhofer, JBFA 2014; Gross, Windisch and Wagenhofer, TAR 2024). He has also written many articles on current accounting issues and standard setting to facilitate the dialogue and knowledge transfer between academia and the accounting profession. Finally, he has authored and co-authored a number of books and textbooks on financial and management accounting.

Throughout his academic career, Alfred has contributed in many ways and in several different roles to the EAA community. He served as president of the EAA (1997-1998), member of the Executive Committee (1993-2003) and of the Publications Committee (1999-2011). In 1997, he organized the 20th EAA Annual Congress in Graz, Austria. He helped to shape and support the careers of many young European accounting researchers as a core faculty member of the EAA Doctoral Colloquium in Accounting (1996-2008) and as co-organizer and faculty of the EDEN course in Analytical Accounting Research (1996-2010). He is also a long-standing Editorial Board member of the European Accounting Review (EAR) and Accounting in Europe (AinE). Last but not least, Alfred Wagenhofer served as a member on the Financial Reporting Standards Committee (2004-2011), demonstrating his enduring engagement for intensifying the ties between the academic accounting community and the accounting profession.

Beyond the EAA, Alfred has worked extensively to develop the accounting community, holding many important official functions in professional bodies and associations. Among others, he serves as a member and currently vice-president of the Austrian Financial Reporting Advisory Committee (AFRAC), as a member of the EFRAG Academic Panel, and as a board member of the Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaft. He also held various functions at the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management (EIASM). He was president of the Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft (VHB), vice-president of the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) and of the American Accounting Association (AAA), and member of the Research Advisory Board, The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Last but not least, Alfred has devoted a large part of his career to training and developing young accounting researchers and assisting them in their exchange with more advanced accounting researchers from various backgrounds at international conferences in order to promote academic dialogue. He successfully established the Doctoral program in Accounting, Reporting and Taxation (DART) at the University of Graz. And he co-founded the EIASM Workshop on Accounting and Economics and established it as a leading European platform for analytical accounting research and successfully co-organized this Workshop for three decades.

The Hopwood Award for Academic Leadership was established in 2005 and renamed to honour Professor Anthony G. Hopwood, who played a prominent role in the creation and development of the EAA. Previous recipients of the Award are Stephen Zeff, Sten Jönsson, Michael Shields, Willem Buijink, John Christensen, Peter Walton, Kari Lukka, David Cooper, Salvador Carmona, Peter Pope and Martin Walker. The Award recognises academic excellence, academic leadership, and contribution to the EAA.

We have outlined here only a few of Alfred’s achievements. We are looking forward to hearing more at the 2025 EAA Annual Congress in Rome, where the Anthony G. Hopwood Award will be formally received