Shannon W. Anderson

Ph.D., Harvard University

Research Expertise
Empirical analysis of quantitative and qualitative field-based data as well as survey data to study performance management and cost accounting in and at the boundaries of the firm (e.g., lean production, supplier performance management, customer profitability and lean consumption), integration of strategy, operations management and management accounting practices, and design of cost accounting systems, cost allocation mechanisms, and cost-based transfer pricing policy

Professor Emerita Shannon Anderson is an expert on the design and implementation of performance measurement and cost control systems. Her research spans the fields of management accounting and operations research. Anderson’s research has been funded by grants from professional accounting organizations such as the AICPA, the IIA, the IMA and CIMA, and from national research organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council. 

Anderson joined the Graduate School of Management faculty in June 2010 and retired in November 2022.

Professor Anderson is an expert on the design and implementation of performance measurement and cost control systems. Her research spans the fields of management accounting and operations research. Anderson’s research has been funded by grants from professional accounting organizations such as the AICPA, the IIA, the IMA and CIMA, and from national research organizations such as the National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council.

She was named the first recipient of the Michael and Joelle Hurlston Presidential Chair in December 2017.

Anderson’s co-authored research on activity-based costing won the 2006 American Accounting Association’s Notable Contribution Award. She has won the AAA Management Accounting Section’s Notable Contribution to the Literature Award three times, in 2012, 2006 and 2003. Her research has been published by The Accounting Review; Accounting, Organizations and Society; Production and Operations Management; Management Science; Manufacturing and Service Operations Management; Accounting Horizons; and the Journal of Management Accounting Research.

She co-authored the award-winning book Implementing Management Innovations (Springer, 2001) and the textbook Fundamentals of Cost Accounting (McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 4th ed., 2014).

Anderson serves on seven editorial boards, including Accounting, Organizations and Society; the Journal of Management Accounting Research; Management Accounting Research. Previously she as served as associate editor or editor for The Accounting Review, Management Science, and Production and Operations Management. She has served on numerous committees for the American Accounting Association and the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association.

Most recently, Anderson served as a 2019 Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. She held a visiting faculty member appointment at the University of Melbourne from 2007 until 2013. She also taught at the University of Michigan and at Rice University.

At the Graduate School of Management, she taught courses in management accounting and control, and in strategic cost management.

She received a doctorate and master’s degree in business economics at Harvard University and a B.S.E. in civil engineering at Princeton University.

Awards

• Michael and Joelle Hurlston Presidential Chair (2017-2022)
• David Solomons Prize, Management Accounting Research, "When one size does not fit all: Using ex post subjective ratings to provide parity in risk-adjusted compensation," (with H. Dekker, K. Sedatole, E. Wiersma), Management Accounting Research, 2020.
• Teacher of the Year, Notable Contribution to the Management Accounting Literature Award.
• Greatest Influence on Practice Award, American Accounting Association’s Management Accounting Section, “Management Control for Market Transactions: The relation between transaction costs, incomplete contract design and subsequent performance,” (with H. Dekker), Management Science, 2010.
• Class of 2007 Teaching Excellence Award, Jones Student Association, Rice University.
• Notable Contribution to the Management Accounting Literature Award, American Accounting Association’s Management Accounting Section, “Using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to Improve the Efficiency of Accounting Transactions,” (with W. Lanen),The Accounting Review, 2006.
• Wiess College Distinguished Faculty Associate, Conferred by the president of Rice University for distinguished service to an undergraduate college, 2006.
• IBM Best Paper Award Honorable Mention, Service Operations track of Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) Annual Research Conference, “Customer Satisfaction during Service Operations Failures: The role of attributions of blame,” (with S. Baggett and S. Widener), 2006.
• Best Paper Award, American Accounting Association’s Management Accounting Section Annual Research Conference, “Negotiated Goals and Pay-for-Performance: A field study investigation of how incentive compensation and goal negotiation affect financial performance,” (with H. Dekker and K. Sedatole), 2006.
• Notable Contribution to the Management Accounting Literature Award,  American Accounting Association’s Management Accounting Section, Implementing Management Innovations: Lessons Learned from Activity Based Costing in the U.S. Automobile Industry (with M. Young), 2003
• MBA Teaching Award Nominee, University of Michigan, 1999.
• Doctoral Program Teaching Award Nominee, University of Michigan, 1999.
• Eugene B. Power Junior Faculty Early Career Achievement Award, University of Michigan, 1996.
• Career Development Award, awarded by the President of the University of Michigan, 1995.
• Arthur Andersen Faculty Fellowship, University of Michigan, 1994.
• Best Dissertation Award, American Accounting Association’s Management Accounting Section, 1994.
• George B. Dantzig Dissertation Award Honorable Mention, Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS), 1994.
• Dissertation Grant, Institute of Management Accountants, 1991.
• State Farm Companies Doctoral Dissertation Award in Business, 1991.
• European Accounting Association Doctoral Consortium, selected representative of the American Accounting Association, 1990.
• American Accounting Association Doctoral Consortium, selected representative of Harvard Business School, 1989.
• Doctoral Fellowship, Peat Marwick Foundation, 1988.