Chair in Accounting, Sustainability and Governance
Roles and Responsibilities
Afshin joined the University of Edinburgh Business School in 2021 as professor and chair in accounting. He was previously associate professor at the accounting department of HEC Paris.
Background
Afshin trained as a medical doctor in Iran and also holds an MBA and a PhD in Management. His research is broadly in the genealogy of ideas and the sociology of quantification in transnational governance, with focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) regulation. The empirical fields in which he has explored these concerns include financial regulation, socially responsible investments, access to medicines, sovereign wealth funds. More recently he has conducted research projects exploring the implications of the rise of big data and AI in governance through research on the PUBG online gaming platform, and the Chinese social credit systems. Afshin is a member of the editorial board of Accounting, Organizations and Society. Prior to joining academia, he worked for many years in design and implementation of environmental, social and governance multi-stakeholder ratings and rankings of firms in healthcare and nutrition. Afshin teaches courses in responsible investments, business ethics, governance, environmental & social reporting but also PhD courses in epistemology/methodology.
Research Interests
Performance measurement in governance/regulation
Responsible investments
Transnational governance of accounting
Construction of rankings
AI/Big data and their implications for accounting
Accounting systems in online gaming platforms