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Jackie Zeyang Ju

PhD Candidate in Accounting
Gatton College of Business and Economics
zeyang.ju@uky.edu



Short Bio

Welcome! I am Jackie Zeyang (pronounced “Zuh-Yahng”) Ju, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in accounting at the Von Allmen School of Accountancy, University of Kentucky. I use archival method and textual analysis to understand digital technology and sustainability issues (artificial intelligence, climate commitments, and human capital) from the perspective of accounting information. As sole instructor, I infuse artificial intelligence and data analytics into accounting education.

Before pursuing my doctoral studies, I worked as a research associate and taught business statistics at the Australian National University, where I received two summer research fellowships. I earned a research master’s degree with Chancellor’s Commendation for Academic Excellence from the Australian National University and a bachelor’s degree from Beijing Institute of Technology.

Please feel free to reach out via zeyang.ju@uky.edu!



Research

[5] Caught up in the AI rat race: Does technological peer pressure fuel AI washing or hushing?, Single-authored dissertation
  • Dissertation committee: Brian Bratten (Co-Chair), Sean Cao (Maryland), Brent Harrison (Kentucky CS), Tyler Kleppe, Hong Xie (Co-Chair)
  • “Faced with technological peer pressure, firms engage in AI washing to appear more tech advanced and attract capital.”
  • Best Paper Award at 2025 Rutgers Accounting Doctoral Symposium; 2025 JAAF Symposium Travel Grant
  • Presentations: 2024 Kentucky Accounting Colloquium; University of Kentucky^2; Junior Accounting Scholars Organization; 2025 Rutgers Accounting Doctoral Symposium; 2025 AAA Deloitte Foundation/J. Michael Cook Doctoral Consortium; 2025 Graduate Research Accounting Conference Emory; 2025 ABR-Fudan Joint Conference; The 18th ABFE Annual Meeting; 2025 JAAF Symposium plenary; 2025 Boston Accounting Students Symposium; 2026 Hawai'i Accounting Research Conference; 2026 AAA MAS Midyear Meeting; 2026 AAA Joint Midyear Meeting of the AIS and SET Sections (Scheduled); Zhejiang University; University of International Business and Economics; University of Queensland; Monash University; University of Arizona; Chinese University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen; Shanghai University of Finance and Economics; China Europe International Business School
[4] The effects of asymmetric cost behavior on corporate environmental commitments and actions, with Clara Chen (UIUC), Hong Xie (Kentucky), and Detian Yang (Fudan)
  • “Cost sticky firms initially commit less to environmental initiatives because they cannot deploy multi-year resources to sustain committed initiatives especially during future downturns.”
  • Presentations: University of Kentucky Brownbag (Ju); 2024 Kentucky Accounting Colloquium (Ju); University of Kentucky (Ju); Chinese University of Hong Kong (Chen); Early Career Researchers Support Network (Ju); 2025 Hawai'i Accounting Research Conference (Ju); 2025 AAA MAS Midyear Meeting (Ju); 2025 AAA Current Issues in Sustainability Conference (Ju); University of Cincinnati (Xie); Fudan University (Yang); The 47th Annual Congress of European Accounting Association (Yang); 2025 JAAF Symposium (International) on ESG, AI, and Big Data (Yang); 2025 CAAA Annual Conference (Ju); 2025 AFAANZ Conference (Ju); 2025 AAA Annual Meeting (Ju); 2026 AAA IAS Midyear Meeting (Xie); 2026 AAA FARS Midyear Meeting (Xie, scheduled)
  • Developed from an accounting seminar proposal
  • “Employment protection empowers employees to resist managers’ misreporting directives and curbs managers’ incentives to solicit employee collusion, making misreporting difficult to execute.”
  • Revise and resubmit at Review of Accounting Studies
  • Best Paper Award at JAAF Symposium on ESG 2024
  • Presentations: University of Kentucky Brownbag (Ju); University of Kentucky (Ju); University of Kansas (Li); Early Career Researchers Support Network (Ju); 2024 CAPANA Annual Research Conference (Xie); Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (Xie); Chongqing University of Technology (Xie); Chongqing Technology and Business University (Xie); The 7th Dragon-Horse Accounting and Finance Symposium keynote (Xie); 2024 Graduate Research Accounting Conference Emory (Ju); 2024 JAAF Symposium on ESG plenary (Ju); 2025 Hawai'i Accounting Research Conference (Ju); 2025 AAA Auditing Section Midyear Meeting (Ju); 2025 AAA Current Issues in Sustainability Conference (Xie); 2025 CAAA Annual Meeting (Ju); 2025 AFAANZ Conference (Ju); 2025 AAA Annual Meeting (Ju)
  • Developed from second-year summer paper
[2] Constituency statutes and voluntary disclosure: Evidence from major customer identities, with Jenny Tucker (Florida) and Hong Xie (Kentucky)
  • “Legal recognition of stakeholder orientation nudges managers towards improving non-owner stakeholders' information environment.”
  • 2025 Gatton Doctoral Research Excellence Award
  • Presentations: University of Kentucky Brownbag (Ju); Texas Christian University (Tucker); Concordia University (Tucker); University of Toronto (Tucker); University of Florida (Tucker); 2023 AAA Doctoral Student/Faculty Interchange SE (Ju); 2023 Graduate Research Accounting Conference Emory (Ju); Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Xie); Lingnan University (Xie); Shanghai National Accounting Institute (Xie); University of Texas at Arlington (Tucker); 2024 AAA FARS Midyear Meeting (Ju); 2025 Gatton Doctoral Research Excellence Series (Ju); 2025 AAA Current Issues in Sustainability Conference (Ju); 2025 CAAA Annual Conference (Ju); HEC Lausanne (Tucker); 2025 AFAANZ Conference (Ju); 2025 AAA Annual Meeting (Ju)
  • Developed from first-year summer paper
[1] Corporate disclosure in the presence of financially constrained competitors, with Lingwei Li (ANU) and Steven Wu (ANU)
  • “When peer firms become financially constrained, focal firm discloses its value-relevant information more and mention its competition threats less.”
  • Presentations: Australian National University (Ju); 2020 AFAANZ Conference (Wu); The 47th European Finance Association Annual Meeting (Wu); University of Kentucky Brownbag (Ju); 2024 AAA Spark Meeting (Ju); The 36th Asian Finance Association Annual Meeting (Ju)
  • Developed from masters thesis



External Presentations



Teaching