Areas of expertise
Biography
Jan Pfister is a Swiss academic who holds the position of Associate Professor of Management Accounting at the Department of Accounting and Finance at Turku School of Economics. He is also an Affiliated Researcher at the House of Innovation (HOI) and the Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets (Misum) at Stockholm School of Economics.
Jan leads an international research project, funded by a half-million-euro grant from the Research Council of Finland (2022-2026), aimed at introducing a new paradigm in performance management theory and practice. This project challenges the widely ingrained assumptions of "economic man" (“homo economicus”) by promoting prosociality as a key driver of organizational performance and sustainability, drawing on evolutionary science for its foundation.
Specializing in interdisciplinary qualitative field research, he utilises psychology, sociology, and anthropology to interpret empirical data and bridge the gap between theory and practice. A career highlight was his publication of the first interpretive qualitative field study in The Accounting Review, a leading U.S. journal typically focused on quantitative positivist research.
He contributes to the academic community as a reviewer for over eighteen journals and serves on the editorial boards of the Accounting, Auditing, and Accountability Journal and the Journal of Accounting and Organizational Change. Additionally, he is a member of the International Committee of the Management Accounting Section (MAS) of the American Accounting Association (AAA), a member of the New Paradigm Coalition, and chairs the Seminar in Interdisciplinary Accounting Research (SIAR).
Jan offers executive modules on performance measurement and management, serves as a keynote speaker, and has been teaching at various levels. He has been supervising several PhD students and welcomes new ones, particularly those interested in exploring the prosocial paradigm (see below).
Before joining the University of Turku, Jan held a permanent position at Lancaster University Management School and spent two years as a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a Docentship from the University of Jyväskylä and earned his Doctorate from the University of Zurich. His dissertation, published as a book by Springer, included an award-winning paper recognized by the American Accounting Association and Financial Executives International.
Teaching
Research
He is involved in several international research collaborations, focusing on theoretical, empirical, and methodological topics related to performance measurement and management.
PhD Candidates: The Management Accounting team welcomes applications from ambitious PhD candidates, both Finnish and international, who are dedicated to conducting high-quality qualitative research using interpretive and/or critical methodologies. Strong English proficiency is essential, and preference will be given to candidates whose research interests align closely with the faculty’s areas of expertise, such as investigating the recently proposed prosocial paradigm of performance management and/or related sustainability topics. For further reading, see our recent paper on this paradigm here.
There are two PhD application periods each year, one in spring and one in autumn. For details on deadlines and application requirements, please see the admission criteria and instructions.