From July 1 to July 2, 2026, the 2026 CAPANA Annual Research Conference was successfully held at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen). Hosted by the School of Management and Economics (SME), the conference attracted over 230 renowned scholars and young doctoral students from home and abroad. The participating scholars shared cutting-edge research achievements in the field of accounting and conducted multi-dimensional and in-depth discussions focused on hot topics in current accounting and related fields. This conference aimed to build a high-level exchange platform for scholars and researchers in the accounting field, promote the collision of academic ideas, and further push forward future research cooperation and disciplinary development.
The conference was chaired by Professor Yakun Wang, Vice President of the North American Chinese Accounting Professors Association and Associate Head of Accounting at the School of Management and Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. Professor Wang extended a warm welcome to all participating guests on their arrival.
Professor Susan Shu, President of the North American Chinese Accounting Professors Association and Professor at Boston College, delivered the opening address. She noted that this year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the North American Chinese Accounting Professors Association. Since its establishment in 1976, the association has grown steadily, with members now spread across the globe and its scope is no longer limited to Chinese scholars. She extended a special welcome to the keynote speaker, Professor Regina Wittenberg Moerman from Northwestern University, USA, for her participation in this conference, and expressed gratitude to the School of Management and Economics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen for their contributions to the preparation of the conference. At the same time, she extended sincere thanks to the experts and scholars who actively submitted papers, appreciated the rigorous review work by members of the conference committee, as well as the active participation of paper presenters and discussants. She closed by wishing the conference every success.
In his address, Professor Tianyu Zhang, Head of Accounting at the School of Management and Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, welcomed all guests to the university and thanked the staff for their support in the successful organization of the conference. He noted that this is the second time that the School of Management and Economics at CUHK-Shenzhen has hosted the Annual Academic Conference of the North American Chinese Accounting Professors Association, and he expressed expectation that scholars will take this conference as an opportunity to further deepen academic exchanges and share research insights. In addition, he briefly introduced the achievements made by the School of Management and Economics in terms of research output in the accounting field.
Professor Regina Wittenberg Moerman from Northwestern University (USA) explored research related to debt markets under the theme “Debt Contracting Research: New Perspectives”, focusing on cutting-edge academic topics concerning institutional investors and fintech lenders.
She first introduced the syndicated loan market, pointing out that the core motivation for institutional investors to participate in lending is to obtain private information from borrowers, which they may then use to trade and profit in the stock market. However, the emergence of alternative big data sources, such as satellite imagery, has effectively substituted for traditional private information, thereby reducing institutional participation in lending. Additionally, in response to the information advantage held by dual holders of both equity and debt, borrowing firms will strategically increase voluntary disclosures such as earnings forecasts to maintain information fairness in the market.
In the second part of her speech, she extended her perspective to developing economies and informal markets. She noted that in environments with relatively underdeveloped formal financial institutions and severe information asymmetry, the application of digital credit and big data can serve as an important channel to improve access to credit for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and households. Overall, traditional credit theories based on developed economies often struggle to directly explain the operational logic of informal markets. Future research on debt contracting urgently needs to further expand theoretical frameworks that span different markets and institutional environments.
After the paper presentation session, the conference held an on-site vote to select the Best Paper and Best Discussant of this conference. After evaluation, the research “To Hide or Highlight? How Borrowing Firms Summarize Their Loan Contracts” by Xiangyu Li, a PhD candidate at the University of Southern California, was awarded the Best Paper Prize; Professor Christopher Stewart from the University of Chicago was named Best Discussant. Professor Susan Shu, President of the North American Chinese Accounting Professors Association and Professor at Boston College, and Professor Tianyu Zhang, Head of Accounting at the School of Management and Economics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, presented the awards to the winners respectively.
In addition, the conference also organized participating guests to visit BYD. During the visit, guests actively exchanged ideas with enterprise representatives, gained an in-depth understanding of the company’s development trajectory, business layout, technological innovation, and latest product achievements, which further promoted exchanges, mutual learning, and cooperative links between academia and industry.
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