He is author or editor of 32 books and has written more than 150 articles and comments. He serves on the editorial board of 15 research journals edited in nine countries, and he was until recently the book review editor of The Accounting Review for nine years. He has been a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, University of Chicago, Harvard Business School, Northwestern University, and the University of Texas at Austin, and at universities in Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands.

For his dedication to teaching and for his research in the area of international accounting, Dr. Zeff received the 1999 Outstanding International Accounting Educator Award by the International Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association (AAA). In 2017, the AAA gave him its Lifetime Service Award. In 2002, he was inducted as the 70th member of the Accounting Hall of Fame, at The Ohio State University. A past editor of The Accounting Review and a past president of the American Accounting Association, Dr. Zeff was also active in several European organizations. From 1991 to 2019, he was the only non-British member of the academic panel of the Financial Reporting Council of the United Kingdom, and from 1981 to 2009 he was the only non-European on the executive committee/board of the European Accounting Association. From 1991 to 2002, he was the International Research Adviser for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, which recognized him as its Honorary Research Fellow in 2003. In 2009, he was made an honorary member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England Wales, only the fourth such distinction the Institute has conferred and the first to an American.

In May 2023, he gave the invited Yuji Ijiri Lecture on Foundations of Accounting at the annual congress of the European Accounting Association in Espoo, Finland.

Drawing on his extensive fund of knowledge acquired from researching the standard-setting process in eight countries, Zeff imbues his classes with a political perspective that can't be gained from textbooks. "I try very hard to give students a sense of the dynamics by which standards are set," he explains. "It makes the subject come alive. Students realize that it's not just a cold process by which rational accountants come together and say, 'This is the way it's going to be.'"

Zeff's office door is always open to MBA students, and he is generous in providing job connections through his European and American network. At Rice since 1978, he is proud to be affiliated with the business school. "Our students are excellent and well motivated. My colleagues are capable and conscientious: good researchers as well as committed teachers. The administration is enlightened; they not only appreciate quality, but reward it," he said. "It's also a very attractive campus. The university stands for excellence in everything it does."

Teaching Interests:

Accounting theory
Financial accounting

Research Interests:

Comparative historical development of the setting and enforcement of accounting standards
Biographical studies in accounting
History of accounting thought and practice

Journal Article

(with S. Hoffmann) “‘American Bookkeeping’ in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries Which Was Not American,” Accounting History Review 34 (1-3), 2024: 109-122.

Journal Article

“Tracing Intellectual Origins in Accounting,” Accounting Historians Journal, 2024, 51 (1): 111-125

Journal Article

“AirTouch Communications’ Innovative Disclosure: ‘Proportionate Financial Data’,” Accounting Historians Journal, 2023, 50 (1): 77-83.

Journal Article

(with K. Becker, H. Daske and C. Pelger) “IFRS Adoption in the United States: An Analysis of the Role of the SEC Chairs,” Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 2023, 42 (3): 1-19..

Journal Article

(with P.D. Wedemeyer) “Organization and Development of Arthur Andersen & Co.’s Public Review Board – The Minow Years, 1974-1983,” Accounting Horizons, 2023, 37 (2): 217-232

Journal Article

“A Note on the SEC’s Decision in 1964 to Remove Differences between Its Filing Requirements and Companies’ Annual Reports to Shareholders,” Accounting Historians Journal, 2022, 49 (2): 129-134

Journal Article

“Arthur Andersen & Co. Thrice Petitioned the SEC to Reform Accounting Principles and Practice, 1954-1965,” Accounting Historians Journal, 2022, 49 (1): 61-82.

Journal Article

“Evolution of U.S. Regulation and the Standard-Setting Process for Financial Reporting: 1930s to the Present,” Foundations and Trends in Accounting, 2021, 15(3): 263-372.

Journal Article

Zeff, S.A. (2021). The IAPC’s International Auditing Guidelines and its Controversial IAG 13 on the Auditor’s Report. Accounting and Business Research, 51.

Journal Article

Zeff, S.A. (2021). The FASB’s Approach Toward Reviewing, Conducting and Sponsoring Academic Research and to Engaging Academics. Accounting Horizons, 35(3).

Journal Article

Zeff, S.A. & T.R. Dyckman. (2020). Accounting and Business Research: The First 50 Years, 1970-2019. Accounting and Business Research, 50(4), 360-395.

Journal Article

Zeff, S.A. (2019). A Personal View of the Evolution of the Accounting Professoriate. Accounting Perspectives, 18(3), 159-185.

Journal Article

Zeff, S.A. & T.R. Dyckman (2018). A Historical Study of the First 30 Years of Accounting Horizons. Accounting Historians Journal, 45(1), 115-131.

Journal Article

Zeff, S.A. (2018). An Introduction to Corporate Accounting Standards: Detecting Paton’s and Littleton’s Influences. Accounting Historians Journal, 45(1), 45-67.

Journal Article

Zeff, S.A. (2018). The Omnipresent Influence of the SEC in the Work of the Accounting Principles Board, 1959-1973. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 37(3), 254-263.

Journal Article

Camfferman, K. & Zeff, S.A. (2018). The Challenge of Setting Standards for a Worldwide Constituency: Research Implications from the IASB’s Early History. European Accounting Review, 27(2), 289-312.