Associate Professor Lili Dai

Lili Dai

Associate Professor | Director of Postgraduate Program

School of Accounting - CA | PhD, Nanyang Technological University | MA, Humboldt University of Berlin | BSc, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

About Lili

Lili Dai is an Associate Professor in Accounting at the UNSW Business School. Before joining UNSW, he held academic positions at the Australian National University and Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands. 

His research interests are in the areas of capital markets-based research in accounting, auditing, and financial issues. His work has been published in The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Financial Studies, Review of Accounting Studies, European Accounting Review, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, British Accounting Review, Journal of Corporate Finance, and Journal of Banking and Finance. Lili currently serves as an Editor of Corporate Governance: An International Review (CGIR) and a Deputy Editor of Accounting and Finance, as well as serving as an Editorial Board Member and Ad Hoc Associate Editor for British Accounting Review. His research work has been recognised by the UNSW Business School Research Excellence Award, the Dean’s Research Fellowship, and the Best Paper Awards at the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand Annual (AFAANZ) Conference. 

Lili is also a passionate educator. He has initiated and led the design of the Accounting Data Analytics Module for one core postgraduate course, making it the 1st accounting course at UNSW in which students are learning how to use programming and coding to analyse big accounting data in the real capital market. As the School’s Postgraduate Program Director, he is leading and overseeing multiple postgraduate programs, including the Master of Professional Accounting (MPA) Program, the Accounting Specialisation in Master of Commerce (MCom) Program, and the Master of Financial Analysis Program. This leadership role involves educational activities such as the Assurance of Learning for Business School Accreditation, the Professional Accreditation for the Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand and CPA Australia, the Curriculum Refresh of MCom Program, the Academic Program Review of MPA Program, and the oversight of various teaching and learning issues at the School and across the Business Faculty. 

As part of Lili's leadership role in the perspective of collegiality and engagement, he has developed and led the CPA Pathway Postgraduate Programs at UNSW, which aimed to provide students with a rich professional experience aligning with the rigorous standards set by CPA Australia and offer students hands-on opportunities to apply their learning in real-world professional settings to enhance their employability. This is the 1st CPA Program among the Group of Eight Australia's leading universities. Leveraging on his research expertise and editorial roles, Lili has acted as a mentor at the International CGIR Junior Scholar Consortium, edited a Special Issue of Accounting and Finance, corroborating with the International Accounting Standards Board for the theme of the Implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards, and provided comments to the Australian Accounting Standards Board on the Exposure Draft of the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards.

Find more information about Lili's recent research work on his personal website.