Vita
Niklas Letmathe is an Assistant Professor (tenure track) at the Department of Accounting at Copenhagen Business School (CBS). He completed his doctorate at the Chair of Management Accounting at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2026 under the supervision of Professor Marc Wouters. During his doctoral studies, he was a visiting scholar at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, hosted by Professor Eva Labro.
Niklas earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering and Management from KIT. Before beginning his academic career, he worked in digital transformation consulting, advising accounting departments on the design and implementation of digital workflows.
Research
Niklas Letmathe’s research lies at the intersection of management accounting and sustainability. He examines how companies can measure, verify, and use carbon information to support managerial decision-making and corporate decarbonization.
One stream of his research focuses on the design of credible carbon accounting systems, including product-level carbon footprints, inherent emissions, allocation mechanisms, and the validation of emissions data. A second stream studies how carbon information can be incorporated into capital budgeting, internal markets, management control, and energy cost accounting. A third stream explores how sustainability governance and disclosure practices shape organizational responses to environmental challenges.
Across these projects, his aim is to develop rigorous carbon accounting approaches that support credible reporting and managerial action.
Publications:
D. Wörner, N. Letmathe, M. Jovanovic & T. Friedli (2025). Structuring Private Sustainability Governance: Combining Rule-Based and Goal-Based Mechanisms. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-025-06024-7
M. Wouters, & N. Letmathe (2025). Investments for Carbon Footprint Reduction: An Instructional Case. Accounting Perspectives.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3838.12404