Gavin Cassar

Gavin Cassar is a Professor of Accounting and Control at INSEAD. Before joining INSEAD in 2012 he was a member of The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania faculty and is currently the Research Director of the INSEAD-Wharton Alliance. Gavin received his PhD in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley and his Bachelor of Commerce (with First Class Honours) from the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Professor Cassar's research is centered on the role of information, especially financial, in settings of high uncertainty and opacity. In particular, he explores how entrepreneurs and hedge fund managers use information for their decision making needs and contracting with investors. His research has been published in top-tier accounting, finance, management, and entrepreneurship academic journals including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting & Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Strategic Management Journal and Journal of Business Venturing. He has served as editor of the Journal of Business Venturing and on the editorial boards of Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Small Business Management and Journal of Management Accounting Research.

Professor Cassar primarily teaches management accounting concepts across several programmes and is the recipient of several teaching awards including The David W. Hauck Award for Outstanding Teaching, which is the most prestigious teaching award at Wharton and INSEAD’s Deans’ Commendation for Excellence in MBA Teaching.

PUBLICATIONS

• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Industry and Startup Experience on Entrepreneur Forecast Performance in New Firms - Journal of Business Venturing
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Hedge Funds: Pricing Controls and the Smoothing of Self-reported Returns - Review of Financial Studies
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Discussion of The Value of Financial Statement Verification in Debt Financing: Evidence from Private U.S. Firms - Journal of Accounting Research
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Self-serving Behaviour and the Voluntary Disclosure of Capital Market Performance
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Determinants of Hedge Fund Internal Controls and Fees - The Accounting Review
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Are Individuals Entering Self-employment overly Optimistic? An Empirical Test of Plans and Projections on Nascent Entrepreneur Expectations - Strategic Management Journal
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Initial Retention of External Accountants in Start-up Ventures - European Accounting Review
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Does Self-Efficacy Affect Entrepreneurial Investment? - Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - An Investigation of Hindsight Bias in Nascent Venture Activity - Journal of Business Venturing
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Financial Statement and Projection Preparation in Start-up Ventures - The Accounting Review
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Budgets, Internal Reports, and Manager Forecast Accuracy - Contemporary Accounting Research
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Forecast Rationality in Small Firms - Journal of Small Business Management
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Money, Money, Money? A Longitudinal Investigation of Entrepreneur Career Reasons, Growth Preferences, and Achieved Growth - Entrepreneurship and Regional Development
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Entrepreneur Opportunity Costs and Intended Venture Growth - Journal of Business Venturing
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Longitudinal Analysis of Relationships between Planning and Performance in Small Firms - Small Business Economics
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - The Financing of Business Start-ups - Journal of Business Venturing
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Capital Structure and Financing of SMEs: Australian Evidence - Accounting and Finance
• JOURNAL ARTICLES - Planning Behavior Variables in Small Firms - Journal of Small Business Management

RESEARCH AREAS

Management Accounting, Entrepreneurship, Hedge Funds, Risk Management, Budgeting and Forecasting, Corporate Finance

TEACHING AREAS

Management Accounting with emphasis on: (1) facilitating effective decision making and (2) incentivizing and measuring performance