Corporate Finance, Governance and Sustainability

The focus of this theme is to produce world-leading research in the fields of corporate finance, governance, and sustainability via international collaboration and to inspire the next generation of early careers’ researchers in our field. Therefore, our mission is to promote interdisciplinary research by bringing together academics and practitioners from across the globe to produce high quality and impactful research on finance, governance, and sustainability that supports and influences national and international organisations and their integrity in business dealings.

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Focus of our research Academic staff Project spotlights

Focus of our research

The Corporate Finance, Governance, and Sustainability (CFGS) research theme aims to deliver world-leading research on the link between good corporate governance mechanisms and the promotion of integrity in the financial function of modern corporations and governmental institutions. Therefore, the main objectives of CFGS are to: i) provide sustainable research-based solutions for financial and economic problems facing organisations and society, ii) identify the challenges and impacts of climate change on businesses, industries and economies, iii) support businesses, industries, and governments in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and meeting Net Zero Carbon emissions by 2050, iv) provide awareness of the importance of corporate accountability, good governance, corporate integrity and corporate social responsibility, v) support organisations in meeting their legal, ethical, social and regulatory obligation, vi) motivate research on corporate audit and assurance, integrity, business ethics and to mitigate corporate scandals and financial crises, vii) disseminate working papers in our areas of interest, viii) publish research in world leading academic journals and the business press, ix) undertaking research in firms and organisations to resolve business problems, x) develop our PGRs to become research leaders of the future, xi) promote research at local, national and international seminars, conferences, forums and live events, and xii) promote a shared research environment where researchers explore financial and management problems that are of concern to humanity and society.

Academic staff

Name	Title	Research Interests
Professor Ahmed Elmasry (Lead)	Professor of Corporate Finance and Governance	Corporate finance, corporate governance, modern slavery, Islamic finance
Dr. Abay Mulatu (Co-Lead)	Associate Professor of Economics	Impact assessment; economic geography; international trade; development economics; environmental economics
Professor Panagiotis Andrikopoulos	Professor of Finance & CFCI Executive Director	Behavioural finance; corporate finance; corporate social responsibility; stakeholder theory
Dr Angelos Sinapis	Assistant Professor of Finance	ESG and responsible finance, financial regulations, financial performance, insider trading, market-based accounting, and M&As.
Dr Rita Goyal	Assistant Professor	Women on boards, board diversity, board effectiveness, board chairs and role effectiveness, women on boards and the glass cliff, enlightened leadership, functional diversity on boards, passport diversity on boards
Dr Folajimi Ashiru	Assistant Professor	Corporate governance
Dr Alaa Alhaj Ismail	Assistant Professor	Accounting quality, accounting regulations, fair value accounting, accounting for financial institutions, corporate governance including employees and executives’ engagement and pay, corporate social responsibility (CSR) with focus on customers and employees
Dr Styliani (Elina) Panetsidou	Assistant Professor of Finance	Corporate finance, financial markets, corporate governance, private equity, insider trading

Project spotlights

A group of women in different professions

Empowering Women Leadership in Higher Education Towards Digitization and Globalisation Ages

The project aims at promoting women leadership in Vietnam HE by providing training and network to share knowledge and skills among UK, Vietnam and ASEAN University.

Dr Reddy meeting with UGC India chairman

Comprehensive Tourism Revival Framework for Socio-Economic Development

This project aims to explore the factors affecting the tourism sector in (the Indian-part of) Kashmir by investigating the multi-stakeholder perspectives on the opportunities and challenges to propose a revival framework to adapt during future crisis.

An abstract image with different icons to represent policies

Economic, Political and Security aspects of sanctions and blockades from a Target Country Perspective

The aim of the research project is to study the economic, social and political aspects of economic sanctions in targeted countries and deliver a comprehensive set of policy guidelines.