Associate Professor Lili Dai

Lili Dai

Associate Professor | Deputy Head of School (Research)

School of Accounting, Auditing & Taxation - CA | PhD, Nanyang Technological University | MA, Humboldt University of Berlin | BSc, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

About Lili

Lili Dai is an Associate Professor in Accounting and the Deputy Head of School (Research) of the School of Accounting, Auditing & Taxation at UNSW. Before joining UNSW, he held academic positions at the Australian National University and Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. 

His research interests are in the areas of capital markets-based research in accounting, auditing, and financial issues. His work has been published in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Financial Studies, Review of Accounting Studies, Review of Finance, European Accounting Review, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, British Accounting Review, Journal of Corporate Finance, and Journal of Banking and Finance. Lili currently serves as an Associate Editor of British Accounting Review, an Editor of Corporate Governance: An International Review (CGIR), and a Deputy Editor in Chief of Accounting and Finance, as well as serving as an Editorial Board Member for Journal of International Accounting Research. His research work has been recognised by the UNSW Business School Research Excellence Award, the UNSW Business School Dean’s Research Fellowship (2 times), and the Best Paper Awards at the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand Annual (AFAANZ) Conference (3 times). 

Lili is also a passionate educator. When serving as the Accounting Postgraduate Program Director of UNSW Business School, he led and oversaw multiple postgraduate programs, including the Master of Professional Accounting (MPA) Program, the Accounting Specialisation in the Master of Commerce (MCom) Program, and the Master of Financial Analysis Program. This education leadership role involved educational activities such as the Assurance of Learning for Business School Accreditation, the Professional Accreditation for the Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand and CPA Australia, the Curriculum Refresh of MCom Program, the Academic Program Review of MPA Program, and the oversight of various teaching and learning issues at the School and across the Business Faculty. Lili has also initiated and led the design of the Accounting Data Analytics Module for one core postgraduate course, making it the 1st accounting course at UNSW in which students are learning how to use programming and coding to analyse big accounting data in the real capital market.

Lili is currently leading and managing the research portfolio of the School of Accounting, Auditing & Taxation, aiming to build a supportive research environment for colleagues. Leveraging on his research expertise and editorial roles, Lili has been the Chair of Outstanding International Accounting Dissertation Award of American Accounting Association, served on the Research Committee of AFAANZ, acted as a mentor at the International CGIR Junior Scholar Consortium, corroborated with the International Accounting Standards Board to edit a special issue of Accouting and Finance with the theme of International Financial Reporting Standards, and provided comments to the Australian Accounting Standards Board on the Exposure Draft of the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards. Also, as part of Lili's leadership role in the perspective of collegiality and engagement, he developed and led the CPA Pathway Postgraduate Programs at UNSW to provide students with a rich professional experience aligning with the rigorous standards set by CPA Australia, which is the 1st CPA Program among the Group of Eight, Australia's leading universities. 

Find more information about Lili's recent research work on his personal website.