Dr Xia Shu

(she/her)

BSc, MSc, PhD, AFHEA

Research

Xia’s research pathway has been inspired and influenced by the Frankfurt School; in particular, the work of Jürgen Habermas. She sees modern accounting systems as organisational languages whose ‘terms’ and ‘sentences’ find meanings in the historical, organisational and societal contexts where they are used. Her work reflects on the role and importance of accounting and accountants through a broader social perspective that goes beyond financial and economic viewpoints. Throughout her research work, she incorporated a reflexive and interdisciplinary theoretical framework drawing from the areas of political economy, sociology, psychology, dialogic theory, and evaluation theories. Methodologically, she is open to a diverse range of research methods that allow researchers to understand, discover and alter the social meanings which adhere to accounting systems. 

Publications:

Shu, X., Smyth, S., Dey, C., & Haslam, J. (2025). Accounting and conflict in the city: the Sheffield tree campaign, counter-accounts and Bakhtinian dialogics. Forthcoming in Financial Accountability & Management.

Shu, X., Smyth, S., & Haslam, J. (2024). Understanding absences and ambiguities of Post-decision Project Evaluation in the UK's PPPs: drawing from the sociology of ignorance. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 37(1), 363-392. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-03-2020-4451

Shu, X., Smyth, S., & Haslam, J. (2021). Post-decision Project Evaluation of UK Public-private Partnerships: Insights from Planning Practice. Public Money & Management, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 477-486. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2021.1909887

Research Grants: 

Carnegie Trust for the University of Scotland’s Research Incentive Grant for the project titled “Unfolding contractual dynamics in PPP operation practice: interplay amongst contract psychologies, psychological contract and legal contract” (Awarded £2,807, Principal Investigator).

BAFA Public Services & Charity SIG Seedcorn Grant for the project titled “The Role of Counter Accounts in Contested Discourse over the Use of Private Finance in Landscape-scale Ecological Restoration” (Awarded £1,796, Principal Investigator).

Dundee University Business School’s Strategic Development and Impact Grant for the project titled “Arriving At The End Of The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Contractual Journey: Is Scotland Ready?” (Awarded £3,141, Principal Investigator).

PRME UK & Ireland Seed Grant for the project titled “Mapping Funding Flows and Obstacles For Social Entrepreneurs In Scotland”.

Royal Society of Edinburgh Small Research Grant for the project titled “The Price Of Inclusion: Exploring The Hidden Costs Of Living With Disability In Scotland”.

Teaching

Teaching Commitments 

• BS2516 Corporate Reporting (Co-module leader)

Biography

Dr Xia Shu joined Cardiff Business School as a Lecturer in Accounting in 2024. Prior to this, she was a lecturer at the School of Business, University of Dundee since September 2021. She completed her PhD from Sheffield University Management School and was awarded in early 2022.

Xia has a broad interest in both praxis and theories involved in critical social analysis of accounting with particular focuses on the use of PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships) to deliver public infrastructure, the adoption of private finance in natural restoration and rewilding practices, governance and psychologies in hybrid organisations and partnership works, dialogic accounting and counter accounts. Her work has been published in leading accounting and/or public management journals. Her research projects have been funded by multiple funding bodies including BAFA, Carnegie Trust for Scottish Universities, UDSB, PRME and RSE.

Over the years, she has presented her work in a variety of conference settings, including the 9th Asia-Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting Conference (APIRA, 2019), the 17th Biennial Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research Conference (CIGAR, 2019), British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA 2020-2023) Annual Conferences, International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM 2022, 2023) Annual Conference, and the American Accounting Association Annual Meeting (2022).

Xia has six years’ experience of teaching at both UG and PG levels and has gained Associate Fellow status at the Higher Education Academy (HEA) in 2020. She has taught on a number of modules including Corporate Social Reporting, Corporate Governance, Research Methods, Contemporary Issues in Accounting, Management Accounting, Financial Accounting, Financial management and Financial Statement Analysis.