Rong Zhao

Rong Zhao is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Haskayne School of Business. She obtained her PhD from the University of Iowa and was previously an Assistant Professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia. She has taught financial accounting both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She has been nominated many times by students for teaching awards and received the MBA Society Outstanding Teaching and Learning Award in 2019. Her primary research interests are in the financial accounting area. Her current research topics include analyst and management forecasts, limitations of financial reporting, and supply chain information. She is the recipient of Deloitte Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in 2007 and several CPA Alberta research grants since 2013. Prior to her academic career, she was a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Texas and worked as a tax accountant and business systems analyst at the RIA division of Thomson Reuters.

Selected Publications

Govindarajan V., A. Srivastava, and R. Zhao. 2021. Mind the GAAP? Harvard Business Review (May 4, 2021).

Gleason, C., Z. Ling, and R. Zhao. 2020. Selective Disclosure and the Role of Form 8-K in the Post-Reg FD Era. Journal of Business Finance and Accounting.

Rajgopal, S., A. Srivastava, and R. Zhao. 2020. Do Digital Technology Firms Earn Excess Profits? California Management Review (Nov 19, 2020).

Acito, A., D. Folsom, and R. Zhao. 2019. Management Sales Forecasts and Firm Market Power. Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance.

Zhao, R., R. Mashruwala, S. Pandit, and J. Balakrishnan. 2018. Supply Chain Relational Capital and the Bullwhip Effect: An Empirical Analysis Using Financial Disclosures. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.

Frank, M. M, L. Lynch, S. Rego, and R. Zhao. 2018. Are Corporate Risk-Taking Practices Indicative of Aggressive Reporting Practices? Journal of the American Taxation Association. 

Patro, S., L. Zhang, and R. Zhao. 2018. Director Tenure and Corporate Social Responsibility: The Tradeoff between Experience and Independence. Journal of Business Research.

Zhao, R. 2017. Revenue Benchmark Beating and the Sector-Level Investor Pricing of Revenue and Earnings. Accounting Horizons.

Johnson, B.J., and R. Zhao. 2012. Contrarian Share Price Reactions to Earnings Surprises. Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance.

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