Colin Ferguson

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Biography

Colin Ferguson is Professor of Business Information Systems in the Department of Accounting at The University of Melbourne. In 2006-2007, he was the Associate Dean - Research in the Faculty of Business and Economics. He is currently a director of the Centre for Accounting and Industry Partnerships.

Professor Ferguson has published widely in professional journals as well as in internationally reviewed academic journals including the International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, the Information Systems Journal, Accounting Horizons, Accounting and Finance, ABACUS, and the Communications of the AIS.

He holds a number of professional qualifications and affiliations. He is:

• A Certified Practising Accountant
• A Chartered Accountant
• A Member of the Australian Computer Society
• A Member of the Australian Institute of Management
• A Charter Member of the Association for Information Systems

Professor Ferguson started his career working in the audit division of KPMG (then Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co) in Melbourne. He is engaged regularly as a consultant to the profession and industry. For example, he was part of a consultancy that undertook an Asia Development Bank corporate and financial governance project for the Royal Kingdom of Nepal and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nepal. He has also provided consulting advice to the Thai Comptroller Generals Department.

Since 2004, Professor Ferguson has worked with the KPMG Forensic group on researching the magnitude and incidence of fraud in corporate Australia. The early part of this research was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant. He has also been a member of number research teams that have also won ARC Linkage grants, one partnering CPA Australia to investigate the supply of and demand for accounting and allied services in rural and regional Australia; another partnering the South West Alliance of Regional Health services to investigate the implementation of virtual health services in Western Victoria; another partnering CPA Australia, Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, Tasmanian Audit Office to investigate the role information technology audit methodologies in the Australian public sector in addressing mandatory requirements of international accounting and auditing standards; and, most recently, a project with CPA Australia working on its archives.

Professor Ferguson was a board member of the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand for six years and was President of AFAANZ in 2004-2005. He was a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Academic Board for three years and also recently finished a five-year period as a member of CPA Australias Professional Qualifications Advisory Committee.

Research Interests

• Business Information Systems
• Fraud and Corporate Governance
• Auditing
• Business Forensics

Publications

2008
Ho S, Pan G & Ferguson C. (2008). "The Information Systems - Accounting Nexus: Lessons from an Australian Institution." Communications of the Association of Information Systems. 22: 197-210.

Chapple L, Ferguson C & Kang D. (2008). Corporate governance and misappropriation. Journal of Forensic Accounting: auditing, fraud, and taxation. 9 (2): 0.

Coram P, Ferguson C & Moroney R. (2008). Internal Audit, Alternative Internal Audit Structures and the Level of Misappropriation of Assets Fraud. Accounting and Finance. 48 (4): 543-560.

2006
Coram P, Ferguson C & Moroney R. (2006). "The value of internal audit in fraud detection." In Stewart J & Hay D(eds). Papers Being Presented at the 2006 AFAANZ Conference. 1-32. Australia: Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand.

Ho S & Ferguson C. (2006). "Understanding the Impact of Expert Systems on Auditors' Information Processing and Decision Outcomes." In Stewart J & Hay D(eds), Papers Being Presented at the 2006 AFAANZ Conference. 1-20. Australia: Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand.

Morris P, Lee K, Mahler B, Ferguson C, Geddes K & Chapple L. (2006). Fraud Survey 2006. Report No 7 for KPMG. Melbourne, Australia: KPMG.

2005
Davern MJ, Ferguson CB & Pinnuck ML. (2005). "The Pervasiveness of Information and Communication Technology: Its Effects on Business Models and Implications for the Accounting Profession." Australian Accounting Review. 15.3 (Supplement to Issue 37): 39-43.

Ferguson CB, Finn FF & Hall J. (2005). "Electronic commerce investments, the resource-based view of the firm, and firm market value." International Journal of Accounting Information Systems. 6 (1): 5-29.

Lim N & Ferguson CB. (2005). "E-Literacy in Pacific Asia." In Cheung W & Du T(eds), Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Electronic Business. 452-456. Hong Kong: International Consortium for Electronic Business.

Lim N & Ferguson CB. (2005). "E-literacy in Pacific Asia." Report. Department working paper series. Melbourne, Australia: Department of Accounting and Business Information Systems.

Lim N & Ferguson CB. (2005). "The impact of perception and knowledge on the usage of digital certificate." Report. Department seminar series. Melbourne, Australia: Department of Accounting and Business Information Systems.

O'Keefe T, Holmes S, Ferguson CB & Hall J. (2005). "The effect of audit cost variances by type upon realization rates on cost variances." In Stewart J & Hay D(eds), Conference Proceedings - http://www.afaanz.org/web2005/LinkedProgram.pdf. (2005)1-33. Carlton, Australia: The Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand.

2004
Ferguson CB, Newlan A & Vanhomrigh A. (2004). KPMG Fraud Survey 2004. Report No . Melbourne, Australia: KPMG.

2003
Bowen P, Ferguson C, Lehmann T & Rohde F. (2003). "Perceptions, intuition and database queries: Personality factors affecting database query performance." International Journal of Accounting Information Systems. 4 (4): 251-273.

Clarkson P, Ferguson C & Hall J. (2003). "Auditor conservatism and voluntary disclosure: Evidence from the Year 2000 systems issue." Accounting and Finance. 43 (1): 21-40.

Awards

Research Grants

• The University of Queensland New Staff Research Grant for 1996 (awarded Nov. 1995). Project Title: The economic determinants of the firm's decision to outsource accounting information production: Evidence from the banking industry. Amount: $14,216.00 (with Fiona Rohde).
• The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia IT Chapter Research Grant 1996 (awarded March 1996). Project Title: An inventory of audit information technologies by stage of audit and by type of audit firm. Amount: $6,400.00 (with Terry O'Keefe, University of Oregon).
• The University of Queensland Small ARC Grant for 1997 (awarded Nov. 1996). Project Title: An investigation of the economic effects of the World Wide Web on capital markets. Amount: $9,840.00 (with Frank Finn and David Morrison.
• Australian Research Council Linkage-Projects (Round One, 2003 for funding commencing in 2004) Project Title: Modelling the relations between the incidence of within-firm fraud and the quality of corporate governance structures. Industry Partner: KPMG. Total Cash Amount: $270,000.00 (with The University of Queensland).
• The University of Melbourne Faculty of Business and Economics Research Grant 2004. roject title: Corporate fraud, audit committees, and internal auditors. Amount: $9,000.00 (with Robyn Moroney and Paul Coram).
• Accounting Association of Australia and New Zealand Research Grant 2005. Project Title: Effectiveness of Decision-Making Aids: An Empirical Examination of its Antecedents. Amount: $6,500.00 (with Susannah Ho).
• Australian Research Council Linkage-Projects (Round Two, 2005 commenced July 2006). Project Title: Modelling factors affecting the long-term demand for and supply of accounting firm services in rural and regional Australia. Industry Partner: CPA Australia. Total Cash Amount: $288,025.00 (with Deakin University and RMIT University).
• Australian Research Council Linkage-Projects (Round One, 2006 commencing January 2007) Project Title: Modelling the adoption and use of virtual services technologies for rural and regional healthcare: Economic and quality of care perspectives. Industry Partner: South West Alliance of Rural Health. Total Cash Amount: $242,000 (with Deakin University).
• AFAANZ Research Grant (2006/2007) (with Dr Susanna Ho)
• Project Title: Modeling the Factors for Sucessful Adoption of eXtensible Business Markup Language (XBRL): An Empirical Study.

Teaching responsibilities 2012

Semester One

• ACCT90026 Forensic Business Processes