Peter Skærbæk

Professor , PhD, MSc
Peter Skærbæk

Department of Accounting and Auditing

Solbjerg Plads 3, C 4.22
2000 Frederiksberg
Denmark

Tel.: +45 3815 2409
Fax:+45 3815 2321
E-mail: ps.acc@cbs.dk

Link to this homepage: uk.cbs.dk/staff/peter_skaerbaek

Peter Skærbæks research is oriented towards the understanding of how accounting and auditing tools are used in creating markets, i.e. how they are used to enact organizational strategy and the dynamics involved with the effects they produce. He focuses on empirical research applying a variety of methods (from case studies to more interpretive/qualitative and ethnographic field work) in the study of traits and effects of accounting tools for performance management and accountability. He operates within the area of accounting conducting studies that relates both to management accounting, financial accounting and auditing. He dominantly studies these issues in a public sector context. Recent research projects relate to performance auditing, risk management, (accounting) consultancy and outsourcing.

Peter Skærbæk is a reviewer to a variety of accounting journals, like Management Accounting Research; Financial Accountability and Management; Accounting, Organizations and Society, Contemporary Accounting Research and Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal

Teaching and Course Design

M.Sc.:
- Accounting Theory (Management, Accounting and Control)
- Social Context of Accounting
- Performance Management and Communication
MPA/MHM:
- Public Sector Accounting

Research in Progress

The translations of EU regulation on CSR disclosure
The roles of experts to accounting systems.
The roles of accounting to strategy.
Risk management in the public sector.
Auditing and blame games in the Danish parliamentary system

Primary research areas

Public Management
Accounting and Communication
Economic sociology
Actor-network theory
Accounting and strategy
Management accounting and motivation
Performance Auditing
Public scandals
Accounting and arts
Implementation of management accounting systems

Selected publications

1.	Christensen, M. and Skærbæk, P. (2010). Consultancy outputs and the purification of accounting technologies. Accounting, Organizations and Society. Vol. 35, No. 5, pp. 524-545.
2.	Justesen, L. and Skærbæk, P. (2010). Performance Auditing and the narrating of a new auditee identity. Financial Accountability and Management. Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 343.
3.	Skærbæk, P. (2009). Public sector auditor identities in making efficiency auditable: The National Audit Office of Denmark as independent auditor and modernizer. Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 34, pp. 971-987.
4.	Skærbæk, P. and Tryggestad, K. (2010). The role of accounting devices in performing corporate strategy. Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 108-124.
5.	Skærbæk, P. and Thorbjørnsen, S. (2007). The commodification of the Danish Defence and the troubled identities of its officers, Financial Accountability and Management, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 243-268.
6.	Christensen, M. and Skærbæk, P. (2007). Framing and overflowing of public sector accountability innovations - a comparative study of reporting practices, in Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 101-132.
7.	Justesen, L. and Skærbæk, P. (2005). Performance Auditing and the Production of Discomfort, in Accounting in Scandinavia - The Northern Lights, (Eds.) Jönsson, S and Mouritsen, J., Liber & Copenhagen Business School Press, pp. 321-343.
8.	Skærbæk, P. (2005 ). Annual reports as interaction devices: The hidden constructions of mediated communication, Financial Accountability and Management, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 385-411.
9.	Skærbæk, P. and Melander, P. (2004). The Politics of the changing forms of accounting - A field study of strategy translation in a Danish government-owned company under privatization, in Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Vol 17, No. 1, pp. 17-40.
10.	Skærbæk, P. and Thisted, J. A. (2004). Unit costs in central government annual reports - a critical appraisal of the practices developed, in European Accounting Review, No. 1, pp. 7-38 .
11.	Skærbæk, P. (1998). The Politics of Accounting Technology in Danish central government, in European Accounting Review, 7:2, pp. 209-236.
12.	Christiansen, J. K. and Skærbæk, P. (1997). Implementing budgetary control in the performing arts: games in the organisational theatre, in Management Accounting Research, pp. 405-438.