Honorary doctorate for Yves Gendron

Yves Gendron, an iconic figure of qualitative research in the field of accounting, will be awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa on August 19, 2026 from Université de Montréal, upon the recommendation of HEC Montréal.

Professor Yves Gendron, who has been teaching at Université Laval since 2006, initially worked as an auditor in two major firms – Samson Bélair, Deloitte & Touche – after receiving his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (specialization in accounting) at Université du Québec à Rimouski. He became a Chartered Accountant in 1987, obtained his PhD in Administrative Sciences at Université Laval in 1997, and completed his post-doctoral studies the following year at the University of Alberta, where he began his academic career before returning to Quebec.

An innovative scientific approach

Since then, he has distinguished himself through not only the quality of his teaching but also his innovative research. As a thesis supervisor, he mentored ten new PhD students in accounting who now work as faculty members at universities in Quebec, Ontario and Brazil. Yves Gendron was the Co-Editor in Chief of Critical Perspectives on Accounting from 2014 to 2026. He is currently the Editor of The Accounting Review and oversees qualitative submissions. He was also the Editor of Contemporary Accounting Research (2010-2022) and Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory (2014-2020). He has published over 100 research articles. His work has been cited more than 13,000 times in accounting literature (Google Scholar, June 2026), making him the most internationally recognized researcher in his field from Quebec.

He has successfully revolutionized the world of qualitative research by providing, for instance, a unique insight into the daily lives of chartered accountants, their decision-making processes and their identity development. He has also been involved in research on the functioning of corporate governance, focusing on the role of audit and compensation committees. He has conducted several epistemological studies as well on the relationship between research and practice, the emergence of interpretive paradigms of accounting research, and the extent of performance pressures in the modern academic world.

An award-winning academic and scientific career

Yves Gendron has received numerous honors throughout his prolific career, for both his teaching and his research.

• Université Laval presented him with the Research Award (Médaille de la recherche) 17 years in a row for the quality of his publications, the Socrate Award (Distinction Socrate) 12 times for the quality of the courses he taught, as well as 2 Hermes Awards for excellence (Prix Hermès d’excellence) in teaching or research.
• The Canadian Academic Accounting Association presented him with the 2019 Haim Falk Award for Distinguished Contribution to Accounting Thought.
• He also received the 2018 Award for Outstanding Service (as an Associate Editor) to Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory.

A close relationship with the School

Yves Gendron has forged important ties with HEC Montréal over the years. In addition to authoring several publications as well as a case study with faculty members from the School, he has conducted many scientific seminars there. Since 2023, Yves Gendron and Professor Caroline Lambert from HEC Montréal have been working closely together to organize the Association francophone de comptabilité’s interpolar academic writing workshops, which take place both virtually (in simultaneous mode) and in person across three continents.