Anna Cianci
Bettering Judgement

Anna Cianci’s education isn’t typical of most accounting professors. 

She holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Villanova University and a doctorate in accounting from Duke University. But she also earned a master’s degree in pastoral theology from St. Joseph’s College and a master’s in psychology from Wake Forest University.

Yet that background is perfect for a researcher whose work focuses broadly on judgement and decision-making in accounting. “My overall big umbrella is studying what kinds of things make people do the right thing or the wrong thing,” says Cianci, who joined the School of Business faculty in 2010 and is currently the Thomas C. Taylor Faculty Fellow and an associate professor of accounting. “How do personal and environmental factors — such as incentives, likeability, ethicality, corporate governance — impact decision-making among audit professionals, financial and managerial accounting professionals (e.g., CEOs and CFOs), and students.”

For example, one line of inquiry examines how testosterone levels affect decision-making, a topic she says hasn’t been studied in the accounting realm. Preliminary results suggest that testosterone is positively associated with less ethical accounting decisions particularly when a decision maker is oriented toward self-gain. 

Cianci’s research has been published in journals including Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory; Accounting, Organizations and Society; Academy of Management Journal; and the Journal of Applied Psychology. 

Her current research follows a few strands, with one looking at grit. “Grit is perceived to be a pretty good quality, right? It’s about resilience and persevering through setbacks or disappointments,” Cianci says. “But grit can actually have some negative effects. 

There can be times when grit can be a hindrance to better decision-making.” Cianci indicates that “Preliminary results suggest that people with a high degree of grit may persevere through an obstacle by making less ethical decisions”.

Another strand focuses on diversity initiatives and whether accounting firms and other companies follow their peers in terms of implementing various diversity initiatives. 

“It seems that companies do fall in line with their peers in terms of diversity initiatives, but they don’t seem to want to exceed those initiatives,” Cianci says. “In other words, they want to meet their peers’ initiatives and don’t want to be left behind,” she says, “but they also aren’t looking to get ahead or to be a leader, so there seem to be follower effects.” 

“And then we’re also looking at ideological diversity,” she says. “We often think of diversity as gender and race and religion, but ideological diversity captures thought diversity and that’s something different than the other categories of diversity we typically think about.” In that research, she’s using a measure of ideological diversity based on where people earned their undergraduate degrees.

Cianci originally pursued her degrees in accounting as a practical matter and acknowledges that early on, the subject didn’t engage her as much as some others. But a job as an international internal auditor for Rohm & Haas, now part of Dow, showed her how creative and dynamic the field can be. That’s something she tries to convey to the students she teaches in undergraduate and master’s accounting courses. And, in keeping with her research interests, she also helps them to understand their own cognitive biases and the importance of being grounded in ethical principles.

She appreciates that Wake Forest University is student-centered, “focused on educating the whole person.” “I like the balance of the teacher-scholar model,” she says. “It’s a philosophy that really resonates with me, and I haven’t been at another university that comes close to that model.”

She also values the School of Business’ holistic approach to high-quality research. 

“The interdisciplinary culture at Wake Forest is really in tune with the nature of my research which crosses disciplines and involves multiple methods,” she adds. “Collaboration is encouraged by the leadership. 

The culture is ‘Everybody has something unique to bring to the table and it’s best to work together. In this way, we can all do interesting things and make meaningful intellectual contributions.’”