Faculty Profile

Education: BS, Southern Oregon State University, 1985; MBA, Seattle Pacific University, 1994; PhD, University of Washington, 2002. At SPU since 2006.

Kimberly Sawers returned to Seattle Pacific University as assistant professor of accounting in 2006. Previously, Dr. Sawers spent 12 years in SPU’s finance office as controller (1985–95) and as director of finance (1995–97). She also served in the School of Business as an adjunct accounting instructor and later a visiting assistant professor of accounting. Prior to returning to SPU, Dr. Sawers was an assistant professor of accounting at University of California, Riverside. While there, she served on the executive committee to the Anderson Graduate School of Management. 

Dr. Sawers’ research focuses on decision making within a managerial accounting context and draws on theories from accounting, economics, psychology, and organizational behavior. Her publications include a paper published in Contemporary Accounting Research Journal on the topic of choice avoidance in capital investment judgments; two papers in Behavioral Research in Accounting on the topics of (1) the influence of risk bearing and problem framing on managerial risk-taking behavior and (2) the influence of trust on non-professional investor decisions under rule-based and principle-based standards; and a paper in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes on the topic of the impact of risk and affect on information search efficiency. 

Dr. Sawers primarily teaches managerial accounting at the undergraduate and graduate level. She also teaches intermediate accounting, spirituality in business, and has recently developed an undergraduate accounting research course. In addition, Dr. Sawyer provides extensive advising to undergraduate accounting students on the academic and professional requirements of the accounting profession and the requirements for the CPA exam.

Dr. Sawers has received academic accolades, including the American Accounting Association’s 2002 Outstanding Doctorial Dissertation Award, SBE Scholar of the Year Award (2011), and SBE Teacher of the Year Award (2012). In addition, she routinely acts as a reviewer for multiple academic journals as well as for sections of the American Accounting Associate for conference papers. Further, she has extensive service with the American Accounting Association serving as the Western Regional Representative for the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations (ABO) section and for the Governmental and Not-for-Profit section and the 2010 Conference Coordinator for the ABO mid-year conference. She is currently serving as the president for the ABO section.

In addition to Dr. Sawers’ service to her guild, she has served the SPU community in a number of roles from mentor (new faculty and Ames Scholar), to SBE representative of Faculty Council, to the University Retirement Investment Committee, to various SBE committees.

Selected Publications

• Sawers, K. "Evidence of Choice Avoidance in Capital Investment Judgements." Contemporary Accounting Research. Winter 2005, Volume 22, Issue 4.
• Sawers, K., A. Wright and V. Zamora. "Does Greater Risk-Bearing in Stock Option Compensation Reduce the Influence of Problem Framing on Managerial Risk-Taking Behavior?" Behavioral Research in Accounting, Winter 2011, Volume 23, Issue 1.
• Bailey, W. and K. Sawers. "In GAAP We Trust: Examining How Trust Influences Nonprofessional Investor Decision Under Rule-Based and Principle-Based Standards." Behavioral Research in Accounting, Winter 2012, Volume 24, Issue 1.
• Blay, A., K. Kadous and K. Sawers. "The Impact of Risk and Affect on Information Search Efficiency." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, January 2012, Volume 117, Issue 1.

Please view Dr. Sawers' CV (PDF) for additional publications.