Staff profile

Dr. Russell Craig is an internationally recognised scholar who is Professor in Accounting at the Durham University Business School. He is also an honorary adjunct professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand; and at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia.  

Russell’s main research interests are in analysing diverse aspects of corporate financial reporting, management education, accounting history, accountability discourse of CEOs, and research misconduct. He explores the role and impact of accounting in its social context and seeks to expose the folly of unquestioning acceptance of measures contained in published accounting reports and in narrative accounts by CEOs. A central quest in much of Russell’s research is to make accounting and financial reporting better.  

Russell is the author of about 225 research papers, research monographs and book chapters. His two major scholarly books are CEO-Speak: The Language of Corporate Leadership (MQUP 2006, with Joel Amernic); and John Croaker: Convict Embezzler (MUP 2000, with John Booker). 

He is the author of articles published in leading scholarly journals in accounting and cognate fields. These include in scholarly journals such as Accounting Organizations and Society, Research Policy, British Journal of Management, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Human Relations, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Journal of Business Ethics, European Accounting Review, Business History, British Accounting Review and Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal. Russell has also published in leading international practitioner journals in accounting: CPA Journal and Journal of Accountancy. He has held many appointments as an editorial board member of leading scholarly journals.

In 2000, Russell Craig was awarded the Australian National University Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. He has contributed strongly to the scholarship of teaching through his authorship of research papers and teaching materials.

Mini-Biography

Russell was awarded his Ph.D by the University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia. He joined Durham University in 2019, having previously held professorial appointments at The Australian National University, University of Canterbury (Christchurch, NZ), Victoria University (Melbourne), and the University of Portsmouth. His major visiting appointments have been at Portland State University and the University of Toronto.

• • corporate accounting and financial reporting
• • management education
• • accounting history
• • accountability discourse of CEOs
• • research misconduct

• Accounting Department
• Leadership and Followership
• Organisations and Society

Chapter in book

• Tourish, D., Craig, R. & Amernic, J. (2017). A mania for assessment: How an audit culture undermines the purpose of universities. In The Corporatization of the Business School: Minerva Meets the Market. Huzzard, Tony Benner, Mats. & Kärreman, Dan. 34-55.

Journal Article

• Costa Oliveira, Helena, Lima Rodrigues, Lúcia & Craig, Russell (2023). Reasons for Bureaucracy in the Management of Portuguese Public Enterprise Hospitals – An Institutional Logics Perspective. International Journal of Public Administration 46(5): 344-353.
• Amernic, J. & Craig, R. (2022). Evaluating Assertions by a Wells Fargo CEO of a ‘Return to Ethical Conduct’. Leadership 18(3): 400-426.
• Rodrigues, L.L. & Craig, R. (2022). Using historical institutional analysis of corporatism to understand the professionalization of accounting in Latin America. Accounting, Organizations and Society 97: 101330.
• Smieliauskas, Wally, Craig, Russell & Amernic, Joel (2022). Elevating Financial Reporting Beyond a Mere Compliance Instrument*. Accounting Perspectives 21(1): 61-100.
• Craig, Russell Pelosi, Tony & Tourish, Dennis (2021). Research misconduct complaints and institutional logics: The case of Hans Eysenck and the British Psychological Society. Journal of Health Psychology 26(2): 296-311.
• Guerreiro, M., Rodrigues, L.L. & Craig, R. (2021). Institutional Theory and IFRS: An Agenda for Future Research. Spanish Journal of Finance and Accounting 50(1): 65-88.
• Craig, R & Amernic, J (2020). The language of leadership in a deadly pandemic. Strategy and Leadership 48(5): 41-47.
• Craig, R., Oliveira, H. & Rodrigues, L. L. (2020). Bureaucracy and the balanced scorecard in health care settings. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance 33(3): 247-259.
• Craig, R., Cox, A., Tourish, D. & Thorpe, A. (2020). Using retracted journal articles in psychology to understand research misconduct in the social sciences: What is to be done? Research Policy 49(4): 103930.
• Craig, R. & Amernic, J. (2020). Autobiographical Vignettes in Annual Report CEO Letters as a Lens to Understand How Leadership is Conceived and Enacted. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal 33(1): 106-123.
• Craig, R & Amernic, J (2019). Benefits and pitfalls of a CEO’s personal Twitter messaging. Strategy and Leadership 48(1): 43-48.
• Costa Oliveira, Helena, Lima-Rodrigues, Lúcia & Craig, Russell (2019). The Presence of Bureaucracy in the Balanced Scorecard. Revista de Contabilidad 22(2): 218-224.
• Cox, Adam, Craig, Russell & Tourish, Dennis (2018). Retraction statements and research malpractice in economics. Research Policy 47(5): 924-935.
• Rodrigues, L.L. & Craig, R. (2018). The role of government accounting and taxation in the institutionalization of slavery in Brazil. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 57: 21-38.
• Tourish, D. & Craig, R. (2018). Research Misconduct in Business and Management Studies: Causes, Consequences, and Possible Remedies. Journal of Management Inquiry
• Thorpe, A., Craig, R., Hadikin, G. & Batistic, S. (2018). Semantic tone of research 'environment' submissions in the UK's Research Evaluation Framework 2014. Research Evaluation 27(2): 53-62.
• Craig, R. & Amernic, J. (2018). Are there Language Markers of Hubris in CEO Letters to Shareholders? Journal of Business Ethics 149(4): 973-986.
• Thorpe, A., Craig, R., Tourish, D., Hadikin, G. & Batistic, S. (2018). ‘Environment’ Submissions in the UK's Research Excellence Framework 2014. British Journal of Management 29(3): 571-587.
• Araújo, W.G., Rodrigues, L.L. & Craig, R. (2017). ‘Empire as an imagination of the centre’ The Rio de Janeiro School of Commerce and the development of accounting education in Brazil. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 46: 38-53.
• Gonçalves, R., Lopes, P. & Craig, R. (2017). Value relevance of biological assets under IFRS. Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation 29: 118-126.
• Amernic, J. & Craig, R. (2017). CEO speeches and safety culture: British Petroleum before the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 47: 61-80.
• McBride, Karen, Hines, Tony & Craig, Russell (2016). A rum deal: The purser’s measure and accounting control of materials in the Royal Navy, 1665–1832. Business History 58(6): 925-946.
• Chabrak, N., Craig, R. & Daidj, N. (2016). Financialization and the Employee Suicide Crisis at France Telecom. Journal of Business Ethics 139(3): 501-515.
• Chabrak, N., Craig, R. & Daidj, N. (2016). Nouveau riche, old guard, established elite: Agency and the leadership of Vivendi Universal. Leadership 12(4): 398-419.
• Yang, H.H., Craig, R. & Farley, A. (2015). A review of Chinese and English language studies on corporate environmental reporting in China. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 28: 30-48.
• Guerreiro, M.S., Rodrigues, L.L. & Craig, R. (2015). Institutional Change of Accounting Systems: The Adoption of a Regime of Adapted International Financial Reporting Standards. European Accounting Review 24(2): 379-409.