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Cris­ti­ana Par­isi

Associate Professor

Subjects
Management Circular economy Budget Accounting Sustainability Public sector

Primary research areas

Man­age­ment Ac­count­ing and Per­form­ance Meas­ure­ment
I in­vest­ig­ate how or­gan­isa­tions design and im­ple­ment per­form­ance man­age­ment sys­tems, with a par­tic­u­lar fo­cus on the en­abling and con­strain­ing ef­fects of man­age­ment con­trol tech­no­lo­gies. My work ex­am­ines both the ante­cedents and con­sequences of ma­na­geri­al tools and prac­tices across sec­tors.
Sustain­ability Ac­count­ing and Ac­count­ab­il­ity
My re­search ex­plores so­cial and en­vir­on­ment­al ac­count­ing prac­tices, sustain­ability meas­ure­ment, and ac­count­ab­il­ity mech­an­isms with­in or­gan­isa­tions and across value chains. This in­cludes how sustain­ability goals are em­bed­ded in man­age­ment con­trol and re­port­ing routines.
Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy Im­ple­ment­a­tion
I study how the cir­cu­lar eco­nomy can be op­er­a­tion­al­ised at or­gan­isa­tion­al, value chain, and urb­an levels. My work em­phas­ises the trans­la­tion of cir­cu­lar eco­nomy con­cepts into prac­tice, in­clud­ing so­cial im­plic­a­tions and gov­ernance mech­an­isms.
Tech­no­logy and Man­age­ment Prac­tices
I ex­am­ine how ad­vanced tech­no­lo­gies, in­clud­ing data-driv­en tools and dis­trib­uted ledger tech­no­lo­gies (DLT), re­shape ma­na­geri­al con­trol sys­tems, de­cision-mak­ing, and the im­ple­ment­a­tion of sustain­ability and cir­cu­lar­ity ini­ti­at­ives.
Pub­lic Sec­tor and Urb­an Man­age­ment Ac­count­ing
My re­search ana­lyses how man­age­ment ac­count­ing, per­form­ance meas­ure­ment, and ac­count­ab­il­ity sys­tems op­er­ate in the pub­lic sec­tor, es­pe­cially at the city level. I in­vest­ig­ate how pub­lic en­tit­ies, in­clud­ing mu­ni­cip­al­it­ies, gov­ern sustain­ability trans­itions, in­clud­ing cir­cu­lar eco­nomy ini­ti­at­ives, through ac­count­ing prac­tices.

Driv­ing sustain­ability and so­cial im­pact through ac­count­ing

My research focuses on how organisations design and use management accounting and performance measurement systems, with a particular focus on how management control influences behaviour, decision-making, and organisational performance. I study the enabling and constraining effects of these practices and the conditions that shape their adoption across sectors. 

An important part of my work explores how sustainability and circular economy ambitions are translated into organisational and inter-organisational practices. I investigate how accounting tools help operationalise these ambitions within companies, value chains, and public organisations, including municipalities. 

I also investigate how digital technologies affect management control and reshape organisational practices, especially in relation to sustainability and circularity initiatives. 

Through collaboration with companies, public organisations, and policymakers, I aim to provide insights that advance both effective management practices and broader societal goals. 

Publications

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March 2025

Co-creating Sustainability Performance Accounts in Cities via Tinkering and Bricolage

Cri­sti­a­na Pa­ri­si, Associate Professor

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2025

The Value of Research Activities “Other Than” Publishing Articles

Reflections on an Experimental Workshop Series

Yasmine Chahed

Robert Charnock

Sabina Du Rietz Dahlström

Tommaso Palermo

Cri­sti­a­na Pa­ri­si, Associate Professor

Dane Pflueger

Andreas Sundström

Dorothy Toh
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13 June 2023

Co-construction of Performance Indicators for a Circular City and Its Relation to a Local Action Net

Cri­sti­a­na Pa­ri­si, Associate Professor

Go to publication

Recent research projects

RE­FLOW – Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy in European Cit­ies

EU-fun­ded Ho­ri­zon 2020 pro­ject (€10M) and the largest pro­ject of this kind ever ob­tained by CBS. I served as over­all co­ordin­at­or and PI, guid­ing six European cit­ies in de­fin­ing and im­ple­ment­ing cir­cu­lar eco­nomy solu­tions.

ht­tps://blog.cbs.dk/re­flow/
https://reflowproject.eu/

Sus­tain­able Ship Re­cyc­ling

Part of the in­ter­na­tion­al col­lab­or­a­tion Gov­ernance and In­nov­a­tion for a Sus­tain­able Mari­time Sup­ply Chain (SSHRC, $2.5M CAD). My pro­ject ex­am­ines how sus­tain­able ship re­cyc­ling can be op­er­a­tion­al­ised and scaled.

Outside activities

Cur­rently, I have no out­side em­ploy­ments or activ­it­ies

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