Bentley University accountancy professor Jean Bedard is a top ranked researcher among her academic peers, according to the just released study, Individual Accounting Faculty Research Rankings By Topical Area and Methodology. The study by researchers from Brigham Young and Utah State Universities was created to rank research productivity in the most recent six, 12, and 20-year windows, expanding on previous rankings in two important ways: by providing separate rankings for each accounting topical area and methodology; and developing a measure to examine the contribution of individual faculty to their respective institutions.

Overall, Jean Bedard, Timothy B. Harbert Professor of Accountancy at Bentley, ranks No. 4 in the six-year span, No. 8 in the 12-year and No. 9 in the 20-year. Within auditing, her primary research specialty, Bedard ranks No. 4 in the six-year span, and No. 3 in the 12- and 20-year spans. Also, in the AIS category, she ranks No. 5 in the six-year, No. 11 in the 12-year, and No. 16 in the 20-year span. 

The study's goal is to enhance the quality of individual rankings by taking into consideration research focus, type of contribution, and time.

"This ranking notes the current affiliation of the faculty and measures research production recently, as well as over the longer term," Bedard notes. "Thus, it highlights faculties of universities that are trending upward in terms of commitment to research."

According to the study's authors, the research is of interest to potential doctoral students and current faculty, as well as accounting department, business school, and university administrators as they make decisions based on individual faculty member's research productivity. Rankings are based on publication counts from 1990 to 2009 in the following eleven journals: The Accounting Review (TAR); Journal of Accounting Research (JAR); Journal of Accounting & Economics (JAE); Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR); Review of Accounting Studies (RAST); Accounting, Organizations, and Society (AOS); Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory (Auditing); Journal of the American Taxation Association (JATA); Journal of Management Accounting Research (JMAR); Journal of Information Systems (JIS); and Behavioral Research in Accounting (BRIA).

The research of Jean Bedard focuses primarily on audit quality, particularly in regard to the individual auditor and how decision aids and systems assist the auditor's effectiveness. Other studies focus on a more macro level, examining how audit firms judge the risk of companies in making decisions to engage in or discontinue serving as the company's auditor. She has also studied how investors and lenders make decisions using financial information.