Le (Hayley) Ma is a Senior Lecturer at Accounting Discipline Group at the University of Technology Sydney Business School. She is a member of the Methodological and Empirical Advances in Financial Analysis Research Group at University of Sydney, a member of Financial Research Network in Australia and a member of Accounting & Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand.

Prior to joining UTS in 2016, Hayley was a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School. Hayley has a PhD in accounting from University of Sydney, which studies the management and economic impact of intangible assets. Hayley was a visiting scholar at ESSEC Business School, Singapore and Renmin University, China in 2023, Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management, US, in 2020, and a visiting scholar at the Smeal College of Business Pennsylvania State University, US, in 2014. 

Hayley's main research expertise is in corporate investment decisions in innovation, their impact on firm performance and value, and how innovation activities are reported and disclosed by firms. She also has extensive research experience in the information environment of capital markets, financial reporting and disclosure, advancing our understanding of investors’ investment decisions and business valuations. Hayley's research is transdisciplinary in nature, integrating knowledge of different disciplines to obtain comprehensive understanding of real business issues and provide practical solutions. Her research has been published in international and national leading journals including Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, International Journal of Production Economics, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Abacus, Accounting and Finance.

Hayley received the UTS Business School Early Career Research Achievement Award in 2021 because of her impact on corporate innovation research and contribution in enhancing the University’s research excellence through international research networks. She has also received internal and external competitive research grants such as Accounting & Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand Developing Researcher Grant and UTS Business Research Grants.

Hayley teaches financial statement and business analysis at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at UTS. She has written three Harvard Case Studies with colleague at Harvard Business School. Hayley has supervised five Accounting Honours students since 2017, and has provided mentoring to the Higher Degree Research students at Accounting Discipline Group at the UTS Business School.

Apart from research and teaching, Hayley is also actively engaged with industry partners and government agencies. She has been invited to present her research at various stakeholder events including IP Australia, Australian Accounting Standards Board Research Forum, Oceania Stata Users Group Meeting.