In response to the urgent demand for high-end accounting talents in the digital intelligence era, and to enhance the quality of training for professional doctoral students in accounting (hereinafter referred to as “D.Prof. in Accounting”) as high-level application-oriented professionals, a faculty-student team from the School of Accounting visited Dayang Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter “Dayang Group”) on April 23, 2026 for a thematic field study. The visit focused on corporate digital and intelligent transformation and the cultivation of new quality productive forces. Participants included D.Prof. in Accounting candidates, Professor Xiaodong ZHANG (Associate Dean of the School of Accounting), Associate Professor Wenzhang SUN (Director of the Professional Degree Education Center), along with several Ph.D. and professional master’s students in accounting. The delegation was accompanied throughout by Ms. Dongmei HU, Party Secretary and General Manager of Dayang Group, and Mr. Yong ZHI, Director of the Strategic Development Department.

The first stop of the research team was Dayang Group’s smart factory, where they systematically examined the reconfiguration logic of traditional manufacturing production processes. They gained detailed insights into the core modules of the intelligent fabric transfer suspension system, the digital operation of automatic cutting tables, and the RFID-based digital identity for garments. During the visit, General Manager Dongmei HU explained: “From customer order placement to final product delivery, the digital link achieves seamless integration across the entire process – this is the core of Dayang's ‘one-person-one-pattern’ personalized tailoring service.”

At a subsequent symposium, Associate Dean Xiaodong ZHANG expressed gratitude to General Manager Dongmei HU for her long-standing support to the School's professional degree talent cultivation, and the two sides exchanged views on the strategic considerations behind corporate digital and intelligent transformation. General Manager Dongmei HU noted that the impetus for transformation arises from both internal and external pressures – on one hand, meeting stringent international market demands for supply chain flexibility and green sustainability; on the other hand, coping with continuously rising labor costs. To address these challenges, Dayang Group not only deepens its core business of custom suits but also innovatively expands into value-added services such as “fabric repair,” while establishing a diversified, company-wide performance appraisal and incentive mechanism. She particularly emphasized that “going global” is not the ultimate answer for China’s national industry; rather, taking root at home and pursuing excellence locally is the way to build a solid development foundation.

During the interactive session, D.Prof. in Accounting candidates, drawing on their own work experiences, engaged in lively discussions with General Manager Dongmei HU on topics such as employee engagement and organizational effectiveness, artificial intelligence and business applications, extracting core customer value, the role transition of financial managers into strategic decision-makers, and the incentive and governance mechanisms supporting corporate digital and intelligent transformation.

At the conclusion of the event, the School of Accounting presented General Manager Dongmei HU with the “Outstanding Practice Mentor Award” and formally appointed her as an “External Mentor for the D.Prof. in Accounting Program,” marking a new level of collaboration between the two sides in co-educating talents.

This field study exemplifies the School of Accounting’s ongoing efforts to reform the training model for D.Prof. in Accounting candidates and strengthen the practice-oriented educational approach. Committed to serving national strategies and regional development, the School has built a platform for in-depth university-enterprise dialogue, tightly integrating academic research with industrial practice, and honing students’ abilities to solve complex real-world problems. Through such research activities, the School not only lays a solid foundation for cultivating high-level accounting talents with outstanding leadership and strategic vision, but also continues to contribute “Dongbei University of Finance and Economics' accounting wisdom and strength” to the full revitalization of Northeast China and the sustainable growth of China’s national enterprises.