PhD Candidate in Accounting

Office: CBA 5.334Z  phone: 512-471-1671

Margaret.Christ@phd.mccombs.utexas.edu

Brief Bio:

Margaret is a doctoral candidate of Accounting in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.  She received her BS in Accounting with a concentration in Internal Audit at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA.  She is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and is certified in production and inventory management (CPIM).  Prior to her doctoral work, Margaret worked as an internal auditor for a big five public accounting firm and an independent risk consulting firm.

Margaret's research focuses on control systems, risk management and interorganizational collaborations.  She recently presented on-going research examining the "right-size" of internal audit functions (co-authored with U. Anderson and K. Johnstone) at the Institute of Internal Auditors International Conference in Amsterdam.  In 2006 she presented a working paper "All Control is Not Equal: The Effect of Control System Type on Trust and Cooperation in Strategic Alliances" (co-authored with K. Sedatole and K. Towry) at the European Academic Conference on Internal Audit and Corporate Governance, where it won the IIA Netherlands Outstanding Working Paper Award.  In addition, she has recently published a whitepaper for the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation entitled "Managing Strategic Alliance Risk: Survey Evidence of Control Practices in Collaborative Inter-organizational Settings" (co-authored with S. Anderson & K. Sedatole), which is available for download from the IIA's website.  Margaret is currently working on her dissertation which focuses on the impact of control systems on the controlling party's unwarranted risk-taking behavior.

Margaret's teaching interests include Managerial Accounting, Auditing and Internal Auditing. She recently taught Fundamentals of Management Accounting (ACC312) at the University of Texas.  She uses a combination of lecture and case-based teaching and was nominated for the Fred Moore Assistant Instructor Award for Teaching Excellence.