Accounting

Heather L. Pesch is an Assistant Professor of accounting at Oregon State University College of Business.

Prof. Pesch received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin's School of Business in 2011. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as an auditor at Deloitte and in various financial reporting roles at three different Fortune 500 companies. Prof. Pesch has worked as a professor at the University of WIsconsin-Whitewater, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prof. Pesch has taught auditing courses, introductory and intermediate financial reporting courses and cost accounting courses. 

Prof. Pesch's research focuses on how cognitive and social forces influence judgment and decision making, particularly with respect to social responsibility, misconduct and whistle-blowing. She is particularly interested in how individual behaviors and strategies within an organization can lead to emergent macro-level properties (e.g., organizational norms). Her research methods include experimentation and agent-based modeling (a type of computer simulation).

Accepted Papers:
"Selection benefits of below-market pay in social-mission organizations: effects on individual performance and team cooperation" with Clara Chen and Laura Wang. Accepted for publication at The Accounting Review

"Fraud dynamics and controls in organizations" with Jon Davis, 2013. Published in Accounting, Organizations and Society 38 (6-7) 469-483

Working Papers & Work in Process:
"The impact of internal controls on corrupt organizational norms". Preparing for submission to The Accounting Review.

"P-hacking and the quality of research in the top accounting journals"

"Understanding the impact of below-market pay in social-mission organizations" with Patrick Hurley

"Control systems and editorial times affecting the quality of research and academic careers in accounting" with Patrick Hurley and Ronen Gal-Or

"Executive charitable giving, occupational fraud, and whistle-blowing program" with Jeremy Lill and Brent Garza

"Forgiveness and its impact on organizational norms and fraud" with Pam Murphy

"Gender differences organizational citizenship behavior and related compensation" with Daisung Jang

"Performance measures: when to strive for control over the uncontrollable" "with Gary Hecht