Fei Du

Associate Professor of Accountancy and Associate Academic Director for the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society and Arthur Anderson Fellowship in Accountancy and Teaching and Learning Faculty Innovation Scholar

Biography

Fei Du is an associate professor of accountancy at Gies College of Business and serves as the associate academic director of the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society. Fei is interested in archival managerial accounting research. Her research focuses on the design of incentive systems and managerial decision making. Her research has appeared in top academic journals, including The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies, Contemporary Accounting Research, Academy of Management Journal, and Journal of Management Accounting Research. She won the American Accounting Association’s Notable Contribution to Management Accounting Literature Award in 2016 and its Impact on Management Accounting Practice Award in 2018. She recently cowrote a book titled Creative Data Analytics: Computational Recipes to Gain Insights into Businesses, published by Wolfram Media in June 2023. In 2024, she was honored with the Wolfram Innovator Award for her innovative contributions in both her book and her teaching on business data analytics.

Contact

298 Wohlers Hall

1206 S Sixth St

Champaign, IL 61820

Listings

Educational Background

Ph.D., Accounting, University of Southern California, 2011
B.A., Accounting, Beijing Technology and Business University, 2003

Positions Held

Associate Academic Director for the Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society, Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2023 to present
Associate Professor of Accountancy, Accountancy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020 to present
Assistant Professor of Accountancy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017-2020
Assistant Professor of Accountancy, University of Hong Kong, 2011-2017

Recent Publications

Du, F., Wang, S., & Luo, J., O'Dea, X & Ng. D. (Ed.) (2024). From Data to Story: Leveraging LLM-powered Chatbots for Learning Business Data Analytics and Visualization in Mathematica Effective Practices in AI literacy Education: Case Studies and Reflections Cambridge, MA: Emerald. link >
Du, F., Mischo, K., & Mo, D. (2023). Creative Data Analytics: Using Computational Recipes to Gain Insights into Business. Wolfram Media. link >
Cheng, Q., Du, F., Wang, X., & Wang, Y. (2019). Do Corporate Site Visits Impact Stock Prices. Contemporary Accounting Research, 36 (1), 359-388.
Wang, D., Du, F., & Marquis, C. (2019). Defending Mao's Dream: How Politicians' Ideological Imprinting Affects Firms' Political Appointment in China. Academy of Management Journal, 62 (4), 1111-1136.

Other Publications

Articles

Xu, D., Zhou, K., & Du, F. (2019). Deviant versus Aspirational Risk Taking: The Effects of Performance Feedback on Bribery Expenditure and R&D Intensity. Academy of Management Journal, 62 (4), 1226-1251.
Dai, N., Du, F., Tang, G., & Young, M. (2018). Seeking Legitimacy through quality CSR Reporting: Evidence from China. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 30 (1), 1-29.
Du, F., & Xu, K. (2018). The Path to Independence: Board Cohesion, Cognitive Conflict, and Information Sharing. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 30 (1), 31-54.
Du, F., Erkens, D., Young, M., & Tang, G. (2018). How Adopting New Performance Measures Affects Subjective Performance Evaluations: Evidence from EVA Adoption by Chinese State-Owned Enterprises. The Accounting Review, 93 (1), 161-185.
Cheng, Q., Du, F., Wang, X., & Wang, Y. (2016). Seeing is Believing: Analysts' Corporate Site Visits. Review of Accounting Studies, 21 (4), 1245-1286.
Young, M., Du, F., Dworkis, K., & Olsen, K. (2016). It's All about All of Us: The Rise of Global Narcissism and Its Implications for Management Control System Research. Journal of Management Accounting Research, 28 (1), 39-55.
Du, F. (2016). Discussion of 'The Impact of IFRS Goodwill Reporting on Financial Analysts' Equity Valuation Judgments: Some Experimental Evidence'. Accounting and Finance, 56 159-164.
Du, F., Tang, G., & Young, M. (2012). Influence Activities and Favoritism in Subjective Performance Evaluation: Evidence from Chinese State-owned Enterprises. The Accounting Review, 87 (5), 1555-1588.
Young, M., Van der Stede, W., Gong, J., Sandino, T., & Du, F. (2008). The Business of Selling Movies. Strategic Finance, 35-41.

Honors and Awards

Wolfram Innovator Award, Wolfram Research, 2024 to present
Arthur Andersen Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2019 to present
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent By Their Students, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2023, 2024
Teaching and Learning Faculty Innovation Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2023-2024
Dean's Impact Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2023-2023
Excellent Reviewer Award, Contemporary Accounting Research, 2021-2022

Service

Editorial Board Member, Management Accounting Research, 2023 to present
Editorial Board Member, The Accounting Review, 2023 to present
Editorial Board Member, Journal of Management Accounting Research, 2019 to present
Editorial Board Member, Contemporary Accounting Research, 2023-2025
Section Liaison for Management Accounting Section, American Accounting Association, 2021-2022

Teaching Interests

Fei’s business storytelling course (BDI513) combines computational thinking and AI mash-up to teach practical problem-solving skills. Students gain hands-on experience in collecting real-world data (e.g., from company websites, social media, and financial filings), processing multi-format data like text, images, videos, and website structures, and breaking down business challenges using coding logic alongside business logic. The AI mash-up component focuses on creative problem-solving: students integrate tools like Wolfram Mathematica, large language models (LLMs), and APIs to tackle data questions. By the end, they master building data-driven narratives through powerful visualizations and actionable insights.

Fei cowrote a book titled Creative Data Analytics: Computational Recipes to Gain Insights into Businesses, published by Wolfram Media in June 2023. With each chapter a de facto, user-friendly app, Fei's data analytics book tackles a specific business analytics question per chapter. In the e-book environment, students can input their own data, often as easy as providing a web URL, and then click "Run Analysis" to see instant results. This interactive e-book blends embedded apps for real-time computation and coding examples which require no coding experience. In 2024, Fei was awarded the Wolfram Innovator Award for her data story-telling class and her recent book. The selection criteria was "to see creativity and technology in projects that break boundaries and push others to ask 'what's possible?' "

Research Interests

Fei's research focuses on the interplay between users and designers of management controls. In the case of performance evaluation, those being evaluated are influenced by oversight from evaluators, but it's important to note that the overseers are also susceptible to interactions with those they are evaluating. Fei's research has examined how users and designers of management controls can influence each other in different contexts like evaluations, promotions, board meetings, and site visits. Fei's current research focuses on using field archival data to examine management control practices such as performance evaluations and promotions.