Wai Fong Chua holds a First Class Honours degree and a PhD (1983) from Sheffield University and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Jyvaskyla in 2009.  She is a Fellow and Treasurer of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. She was honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia in 2008 for services to university research and administration. In 2019, she was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame. Her research interests are in accounting control systems, the professionalisation of accounting. accounting and emotions and the disclosure and assurance of non-financial information. She is known internationally for her advocacy and advancement of qualitative research methods. 

Wai Fong has published in Accounting, Organizations and Society, Accounting and Public Policy, Contemporary Research in Accounting, European Accounting Review, Management Accounting Research, The Accounting Review and The Journal of Management Studies. She is a Consulting Editor for Accounting, Organizations and Society and is on the editorial boards of the European Accounting Review, Abacus and the Australian Journal of Management. 

She is also an Associated Editor of Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management.