Michael Werner has been employed as tenured Associate Professor of Accounting Information Systems (AIS) at the University of Amsterdam since August 2020.

He studied information systems at the University of Hamburg and at the University of Münster in Germany. In addition he graduated in Management at the University of Wollongong in Australia. After having finished his PhD at the University of Hamburg Michael worked as a Senior Lecturer for AIS at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand and as an Associate Professor in AIS at the Copenhagen Business School. Before his academic career he worked as a Senior Consultant and Operations Manager at PwC Germany from 2006 to 2011 dealing with IT and business process audits.

His research focusses on data science in the context of accounting and auditing. He investigates how novel data analysis techniques can be developed and applied particularly in the context of statutory audits. His research on process mining for financial statement audits was awarded the American Accounting Association’s AIS Section Outstanding Dissertation Award, and he received several scholarships related to his work. His research was published by the International Journal of Accounting Information Systems (IJAIS), the Journal of Information Systems (JIS), the IEEE Transactions on Services Computing (IEEE TSC), the proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) and the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS) among others. Due to his research focus he serves as an academic advisor to the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) as a member of its Data Analytics Project Advisory Panel.

Michael participated in and managed several research projects related to the automation of process audits in the context of financial audits, as well as research projects in cooperation with the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). He was the chairman for the DIN committee NA 159-01-17 AA “Outsourcing”. He wrote and supervised main parts of the ISO Standard 37500 “Guidance on Outsourcing” while acting as the Head of the German Delegation. He was also as the chairman and deputy chairman for several other research projects com-pleted in cooperation with the DIN.

His research is mainly related to practical problems and carried out in close cooperation with partner companies and organizations. This includes EY, PwC, KPMG, Zapliance, Financial Experts Association, INTERACTIVE Solutions, avendi, Gutes Consulting, HDP Management Consulting, LEXTA, maturity, NOVEDAS, noventum, pliXos, Capgemini, Bertelsmann, Cognizant, Deutsche Bank, IBM.

• Data Science for Accounting and Auditing
• Data Analytics for Financial Statement Audits
• Process Mining
• Accounting Information and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems
• Design Science Research

Currently I am looking for students who are interested in doing research during their bachelor or master thesis in one of the following topics:

• How does the phenomenon of Big Data affect accounting and auditing?
• What is the impact of artificial intelligence on the accounting and auditing profession?
• How can accounting and auditing constructs such as financial accounts and internal controls be integrated into accounting information system modelling?
• How can the concept of materiality be applied to business processes?
• How can the complexity of mined process models for financial statement audits be reduced?
• How can deep data analytics be used for process mining?
• How can virtual reality be used for financial reporting and auditing?
• Which impact does Shadow IT have on internal control systems?
• What is the role of cybersecurity risks for internal and external auditing?
• What kind of skills do auditors require in the age of Cloud-Computing and Big Data?
• What is the current status of information technology usage for external auditing?

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested on any of these or related questions.