Sustainable accounting and finance – meet Professor Jill Atkins

Please introduce your area of research

My research falls under the broad umbrella of governance and accountability. My main research area is the role of institutional investors in enhancing environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices in companies they buy shares in and hold in their portfolios.

By institutional investors, I refer to pension funds, insurance companies and other large financial institutions. I am especially interested in what we call investor ‘engagement and dialogue’, in other words the face to face meetings between companies and their investees where the investors ask questions about ESG strategy and can to some extent influence company behaviour.

I also research accounting and finance for biodiversity protection and nature restoration, which is increasingly important given the environmental and ecological challenges facing the world today. As part of this research I developed the concept of ‘extinction accounting’ which provides a framework for organisations to report on how they are protecting biodiversity and preventing species extinctions in their business activities.

What first attracted you to study this research area?

After completing my PhD in Finance in Manchester University in the 1990s I came to Cardiff as a lecturer and became interested in what was known at the time as ‘ethical investment’, basically the way investors integrate their ethics and morals into investment decision-making.

The main reason I was keen to work in this area was that I felt I could potentially ‘make a difference’. By identifying ethical investment practices and researching the way investors can improve companies’ social and environmental behaviours I thought it would be possible to produce work which would be useful to the investment industry, as well as being able to contribute to the academic literature in accounting and finance in this relatively young research area.

What does public value mean to you?

When I think of ‘public value’ I think of the ways in which our research and lecturing can enhance societal welfare and the natural environment. This means improvements in the social and environmental outcomes for broad stakeholder groups in society as well as to the natural world.

All my research and teaching focuses on aspects of public value and it is core to everything I do in the university. Recently, with colleagues, I have established a new research group at Cardiff Business School which focuses on environmental and ecological issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. This group will act as a focus for research that will add to public value in relation to climate, nature and biodiversity.

What makes Cardiff Business School different?

Having spent time working in several other universities, I returned to Cardiff in 2022. I would say one distinguishing feature of our business school is the way people treat each other. There is respect, consideration and also kindness in the way colleagues are with each other.

I also think that Cardiff Business School is more embedded in local business and the local community. We are fortunate to be based in the Welsh capital I guess, with relatively easy access to government and an ability to contribute to Welsh policy as well as to the UK more broadly.

What is your biggest achievement to date? This can be inside or outside academia.

This is not an easy question to answer. I could mention books or papers that I have been thrilled to see published, or the recent establishment of our new research group. Outside of academia I have spent around 7 years training as a lay pastoral visitor for the Church in Wales and was finally licensed in this role last year, something which I consider an honour rather than an achievement.

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