During a May luncheon, Associate Professor of Accounting Mikhail Pevzner received the Merrick School of Business's Black & Decker Outstanding Article award for calendar year 2015 for co-authoring the paper, "When firms talk, do investors listen? The role of trust in stock market reactions to corporate earnings announcements," which was published last July in the Journal of Financial Economics. The journal is on the Financial Times’s list of top scholarly publications worldwide, and exemplifies research excellence in the accounting field.

The paper provided a previously documented link between a company's debtholders and the behavior of the company's accountants in crafting a conservative path regarding the reporting of profits and loss has been further strengthened in research conducted in part by a University of Baltimore business professor. The result is an article in the prestigious Journal of Accounting Research, followed by the prestigious Black & Decker award.

"Our study examined whether the level of trust in a country affects investors' perception and utilization of information transmitted by firms through financial disclosure," Pevzner said. "My colleagues, Fei Xie, associate of finance at the University of Delaware, and Xiangang Xin, associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong, and I specifically investigated the effect of societal trust on investor reactions to corporate earnings announcements.

We tested two competing hypotheses: On the one hand, corporate earnings announcements are perceived as more credible by investors in more trusting societies and, therefore, elicit stronger investor reactions. This was a truly joint effort of the co-authors, whom I greatly thank for their contributions. We combined our unique strengths in this highly challenging project, and my getting this award would not be possible without this excellent collaboration. I'd like to deeply thank Black & Decker and my fellow colleagues at Merrick for their support in sustaining high-quality research in the University of Baltimore."

Learn more about Prof. Pevzner and UB's undergraduate accounting specialization and its M.S. in Accounting and Business Advisory Services.

In addition to the Outstanding Article Award, the School of Business announced professorships, chairs and annual teaching awards for the academic year 2015-16 at the school’s May awards ceremony:

Professorships / Chairs

• Veena Adlakha, professor of management, awarded the CSX Leadership Chair
• Regina Bento, professor of management, awarded the Baltimore Gas and Electric Chair
• Mikhail Pevzner, associate professor of accounting, continues to hold the Ernst & Young Chair in Accounting
• Dennis Pitta, professor of marketing, continues to hold the J. William Middendorf Distinguished Professor
• Eusebio Scornavacca, assistant professor of information systems, continues to hold the John P. & Margaret M. Thompson Professorship in MIS
• Jaya Singhal, professor of decision science, continues to hold the Frank Baker Chair for Research Excellence
• Kalyan Singhal, professor of supply chain management, continues to hold the Doris and Robert McCurdy Chair
• Lourdes White, professor of accounting, awarded the Lockheed Martin Chair
• Nafeesa Yunus, associate professor of finance and real estate, awarded the Harry Y. Wright Chair

Annual Teaching and Service Awards

• Lisa Stickney, associate professor of management, and Eusebio Scornavacca, assistant professor of information systems, received the Dean Clifford C. James Chair for Distinguished Teaching
• Jan Williams, associate professor of accounting, and Mikhail Pevzner, associate professor of accounting, received the Yale Gordon Chair for Distinguished Teaching
• J.C. Weiss, senior lecturer in finance and entrepreneurship, received the T. Rowe Price Teaching Award and the Turner Medallion
• Dong Chen, associate professor of finance, received the Chase Manhattan Bank Research Award
• Frank van Vliet, executive-in-residence in marketing and entrepreneurship, received the G. Maxwell Armor Professorship