From outer space to debit and credit: 

the opportunities of bid data and machine learning for accounting / finance research. 

This seminar was hosted by Professor Anne-Laure Mention, Director, Global Business Innovation Enabling Capability Platform (GBI ECP), RMIT | Chief Investigator OpenInnoTrain Project. Acknowledgements to the OpenInnoTrain Project, RMIT University, the University of Vaasa (OpenInnoTrain Consortium Partner).

About this Seminar: The ongoing digital revolution, with technologies like machine learning and blockchain, is expected to radically change the existing business models and challenge the ways in which work is carried out in contemporary organizations. The same revolution also affects business research and opens numerous new possibilities for scholars. Big, alternative data sources, like social media and satellite data, allow researchers to collect completely new kinds of information, for example, about companies that have not been previously available. Furthermore, different machine learning technologies allow researchers to efficiently analyze these vast new unstructured data sources and design models that consider aspects like nonlinearities and interactions. In the presentation, Mikko discussed the possibilities these new data sources and technologies open for accounting/finance research.

This hybrid seminar attracted attendees both online and in-person and the Q&A at the end was extremely engaging and conversations continued over a light lunch following the seminar for in-person attendees, provided by GBI ECP. New networks and collaborations were made as a result. 

Dr. Mikko Ranta is an assistant professor of accounting (tenure track) at the School of Accounting and Finance and a member of the Digital Economy research platform at the University of Vaasa, Finland. His research interests include data analytics, FinTech, and machine learning and their impact and applications on the accounting profession and research. He has published in top-tier journals, including Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, European Accounting Review, International Journal of Finance & Economics, and Business Strategy and the Environment.