Professors Win National Accounting Ethics Award
A collaboration between University of Scranton philosophy professor Daniel Haggerty, Ph.D., (right) and accounting professor Douglas Boyle, DBA '88 that leverages the work of Aristotle and Plato to fight fraud through developing virtue, won the prestigious 2025 Curt Verschoor Ethics Feature of the Year Award from the Institute of Management Accountants’ Committee on Ethics and Strategic Finance. The award-winning article highlights Scranton’s Jesuit tradition and the fact that “humanities are not disconnected from the practical interests and concerns of business, people and society today,” said Dr. Haggerty. This marks the third time that Dr. Boyle has received this national award.To better understand the ethical challenges of today, two University of Scranton professors turned to the ancient past. And, it served them well.
Douglas M. Boyle, D.B.A.'88, professor and chair of the Accounting Department and director of the University’s Ph.D. program, and Daniel P. Haggerty, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Philosophy Department and director of the University’s Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Honors Program, recently co-authored a paper on philosophy and professional ethics that earned the prestigious 2025 Curt Verschoor Ethics Feature of the Year. Selected by the Institute of Management Accountants’ Committee on Ethics and Strategic Finance, the article “Aristotle and Accounting: Building Virtue to Fight Fraud,” was written by Dr. Boyle, Dr. Haggerty, and Dana R. Hermanson, Ph.D., of Kennesaw State University.
This is the third time Dr. Boyle has won this prestigious national award, that annually recognizes one article “that focuses on the importance of ethics in business as a whole and finance and accounting in particular.” Dr. Boyle also won this coveted prize in 2020 and 2024.
The article draws “from the work of Aristotle and Plato, as well as research in psychology, to offer another approach to fighting fraud by developing employees and leaders with virtue,” seeking to “move anti-fraud tools beyond traditional approaches of punishment and internal controls.”
Referencing Aristotle, the article explains that “becoming virtuous requires practicing the virtues. … Practicing the virtue of courage, for example, is a matter of repeatedly aiming to hit the mark, … Such practices form character and consistent moral motivation. When you become proficient at hitting the bullseye, you can be counted on, and you can count on yourself to hit or come close to the mark reliably. Similarly, when you become habituated to the virtues, you can count on yourself and others can count on you to do the right thing, the honorable thing, consistently and reliably. Your moral motivation and discernment become habituated so that you do not even seriously entertain the idea of acting or living otherwise.”
The article includes comprehensive, practical guidance to promote virtue in organizations.
“Connecting philosophical reflection and insight, along with broader work in the humanities, to practical application and vocational purpose in service of the common good has been a hallmark of Jesuit education for nearly 500 years,” said Dr. Haggerty. He noted that the recognition this project received affirms that “the humanities are not removed from the practical interests and real-world concerns of business, individuals, and society today, but are, in fact, deeply relevant to them – as St. Ignatius said, to help souls and advance the greater glory of God.”
“Both in our undergraduate and graduate education at our Catholic, Jesuit institution, our faculty teach the importance of infusing our institutional values and commitment to the liberal arts into how our students are called to think, analyze, and conduct scholarship,” said Carolyn McNamara Barry, Ph.D., dean of the University’s College of Arts and Sciences. “ Drs. Haggerty’s and Boyle’s award-winning publication nicely illustrates their truly interdisciplinary and mission-filled commitment to the study of ethics, and in turn, practicing what they preach to our students.”
Dr. Haggerty has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, papers and book reviews. His research includes studies of classical theorists as well as contemporary thinkers in both the analytic and continental traditions. His publications in moral psychology, ethics and epistemology deal with such topics as emotions, affectivity, justification, virtue and reasons for acting. He has also received several grants to foster undergraduate research and publication in philosophy.
An award-winning teacher, Dr. Haggerty, Ph.D., was named Teacher of the Year by The University of Scranton’s Class of 2018. Dr. Haggerty received the University’s 2011 Alpha Sigma Nu Teacher of the Year Award (formally the Edward Gannon, S.J., Award for Teaching) and the Excellence in Adapting Classic Principles of Jesuit Pedagogy into the Curriculum: The Magis Award in 2016. Earlier in his teaching career, he received a Commendation for Outstanding Service and Dedication from St. Mary’s Seminary and University, among other awards and recognition.
Dr. Haggerty joined the faculty at Scranton in 2005 and has served as the director of the University’s Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Honors Program since 2010. He earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Saint Joseph’s University and his doctorate in philosophy from Syracuse University.
Dr. Boyle is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant with more than 30 years of industry executive experience. He has served in executive roles in startup, middle market, and Fortune 500 companies, where he has held the positions of board chair, chief executive officer, president, chief operations officer and chief financial officer. An award-winning teacher and prolific researcher, Dr. Boyle ranked No. 2 in the world for accounting education publication volume in the past six years, according to the 2024 Brigham Young University Accounting Rankings. He was selected as the IMA Research Foundation Distinguished Scholar in 2022, awarded the Outstanding Accounting Educator of the Year Award from the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants in 2015, and an Outstanding Lecturer Award from the Cultural Mission of the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in 2012. At Scranton, Dr. Boyle earned Provost Excellence Awards for University Service and Leadership in 2021, the Scholarship of Teaching in 2014 and Scholarly Publication in 2012, and the Faculty Senate’s Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award in 2019. He was named the Kania School of Management’s (KSOM) Alperin Teaching Fellow for 2015 to 2018 and received the KSOM Advisory Board’s Award for Curriculum Innovation for 2017-2018. He received the KSOM Faculty Research Award for 2019 – 2020 and was twice recognized as the KSOM Teacher of the Year. He is the founder and director of the University’s Nonprofit Leadership Certificate Program and recently worked with a team of alumni, colleagues and family members to open the West Scranton Youth Center, which provides free athletic and art programs for area children and teens.
Dr. Boyle earned a bachelor’s degree from The University of Scranton, an MBA from Columbia University and a doctorate from Kennesaw State University.
“Aristotle and Accounting: Building Virtue to Fight Fraud” was published in Strategic Finance in March of 2025.
