Prof. Dr. Tobias Steindl

Academic profile

Prof. Dr. Tobias Steindl studied International Business & Economics at the University of Innsbruck and the BI Norwegian Business School. He then completed his doctorate as part of a cotutelle programme at the Catholic University (KU) Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Dr. rer. pol.) and Macquarie University Sydney (Ph.D. in Accounting and Corporate Governance). During his time as a postdoctoral researcher at the KU Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, he was a visiting scholar at Seattle University and the Universidad de Salamanca. Since May 2022, he has been a Professor of Corporate Social Responsibility Control, Reporting and Governance at the University of Regensburg. From January to April 2025, Prof. Steindl was a Visiting Scholar at San Diego State University (SDSU).

In his previous third-party funded projects, Prof Steindl cooperated with interdisciplinary and international research institutions as well as with companies.

Practical experience

Prof. Steindl gained several years of practical experience at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB). In particular, he dealt with topics such as sustainability reporting, regulatory reporting, and digitalisation, with a particular focus on the adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI).

Main areas of research

Prof. Steindl's research focuses on current issues at the interface between

• corporate social responsibility (CSR),
• corporate reporting and governance, and
• digitalisation.

Key Publications

Artificial intelligence and corporate social irresponsibility, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 2026, forthcoming. Link (external link, opens in a new window)

AI-assisted teams outperform AI-led teams but not human-only teams in assessing research reproducibility in quantitative social science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 2026, Vol. 123, No. 22, e2524747123, with A. Brodeur et al. Link (external link, opens in a new window)

The informational content of key audit matters: Evidence from using artificial intelligence in textual analysis, Contemporary Accounting Research, 2025, Vol. 42, No. 4, 2392-2423, with S. Küster und M. Göttsche. Link (external link, opens in a new window)

Pricing firms’ biodiversity risk exposure: Empirical evidence from audit fees, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2025, Vol. 29, No. 3, 828-845, with S. Küster und S. Hartlieb. Link (external link, opens in a new window)

Stock Market Reactions to a Sovereign Wealth Fund's Broad-based Public Sustainability Engagement: European Evidence, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2025, Vol. 231, 106915, with F. Habermann. Link (external link, opens in a new window)

Carbon disclosures and information asymmetry: Empirical evidence on the importance of text in understanding numerical emission allowance disclosures, Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2024, Vol. 28, No. 6, 1883-1899, with F. Habermann und S. Küster. Link (external link, opens in a new window)

Cultural Rule Orientation, Legal Institutions, and the Credibility of Corporate Social Responsibility Reports, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 2021, Vol. 28, No. 1, 310-331. Link (external link, opens in a new window)

The Usefulness of Non-IFRS Segment Data, Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, 2021, Vol. 43, No. 2, 100382, with M. Göttsche und S. Küster. Link (external link, opens in a new window)

To Reveal or Not to Reveal? The Influence of Cultural Secrecy on Discretionary Disclosure Decisions, The International Journal of Accounting, 2020, Vol. 55, No. 3, 2050012, with M. Göttsche und S. Küster. Link (external link, opens in a new window)

Do Customers Affect the Value Relevance of Sustainability Reporting? Empirical Evidence on Stakeholder Interdependence, Business Strategy and the Environment, 2016, Vol. 25, No. 3, 149-164, mit M. Göttsche und S. Gietl. Link (external link, opens in a new window)