Brendel, Janja

Biography

Professor Janja Brendel has been an Assistant Professor at the School of Accountancy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School, since 2021.

She earned her PhD in Accounting from Humboldt University of Berlin, part of the German Universities Excellence Initiative, and holds a Master’s and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Professor Brendel’s interest in accounting and finance began during her time as a banking apprentice at Deutsche Bank. She is passionate about teaching the language of accounting and understanding its economic foundations. Her teaching experience includes courses in financial accounting, valuation, and auditing. She has also served as a Research and Teaching Assistant at Humboldt University and is a Research Fellow of TRR 266 Accounting for Transparency.

Before pursuing her PhD, she worked as an investment banking analyst, specializing in M&A and restructuring deals, gaining experience at Greenhill, Lehman Brothers, BNP Paribas, and Deutsche Bank. Additionally, she worked at Deutsche Bank’s Chinese Joint Venture in Beijing, which enriches her ability to connect research and teaching to real-world issues.

Professor Brendel aims to have a tangible impact through her work, addressing relevant issues that have been featured in the Financial Times. Her primary research interests lie in empirical financial accounting, with a focus on firms’ financial reporting and the role of information in capital markets. Recently, her research has concentrated on activist investors, including short-sellers, and the cryptocurrency markets. Her work has been published in leading journals, including The Journal of Accounting Research and the Review of Accounting Studies. Additionally, she has received two government grants in Hong Kong to support her innovative research initiatives.

Teaching Area

Financial Accounting

Research Interests

Activist Investors and Actors in Capital Markets, including Short-sellers
Information Acquisition and Processing in Capital Markets
Short Selling
Fintech and Crypto Markets

• Publications & Working Papers
  • Thomas Bourveau, Janja Brendel, and Jordan Schoenfeld (2024), “Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Assurance: Early Evidence,” Review of Accounting Studies, 29(3), 2209-2253.
  • Janja Brendel and James Ryans (2021), “Responding to Activist Short Sellers: Allegations, Firm Responses, and Outcomes,” Journal of Accounting Research, 59(2), 487-528.