Finance and Governance

Focus of our research

Our mission is to promote world-leading theoretical and empirical research in the area of finance and governance that supports and influences national and international organisations and their integrity in business dealings.

Professor Ahmed El-Masry, Theme Lead

The Finance and Governance (FG) 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.

Core themes

The theme comprises of 2 key interrelated themes namely Corporate Finance and Governance (CFG) and Financial Markets, Intermediation and Ethical Finance (FMIEF).

Corporate Finance and Governance (CFG)

Lead: Prof. Ahmed El-Masry

This research stream aims to promote knowledge creation and dissemination through undertaking empirical and theoretical research on subjects relating to corporate finance and governance characteristics. It serves as a platform that facilitates multidisciplinary research across relevant subjects between members of the CFCI and its themes, with other research centres, and between the CFCI academics and external scholars at national and international level. It also provides our PGR students with a full support for developing their research on the subject of finance and corporate governance.

CFG themes

Research topics
Corporate governance performance and structures
Corporate governance and sustainability
Board of directors and gender diversity
Executive compensation schemes
Earnings management
Corporate payout policies
Financing decisions and capital structure
IPOs and SEOs
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As)
Alternative financing (i.e. crowdfunding, private equity, etc.)
Corporate social responsibility and financial performance
Corporate risk management
Governance, fraud and financial crime

Financial Markets, Intermediation and Ethical Finance (FMIEF)

Co-Leads: Dr Jin Suk Park & Dr Sailesh Tanna

The Financial Markets, Intermediation and Ethical Finance (FMIEF) stream focuses on a range of topics related to the functioning of the financial markets, their pricing mechanism, and the process of financial intermediation including bank behaviour, operational characteristics and performance evaluation. In addition to the aforementioned established research areas, the FMIEF has gained a strong reputation in pricing non-conventional assets such as catastrophe bonds and Sukuk. Our stream is committed to the research on the factors that can disturb the integrity of the financial markets, which range among investors’ psychological bias, market constraints, and external shocks.

FMIEF themes

Research topics
Non-conventional debt instruments
Market efficiency and investment behaviour
Islamic finance and banking
Responsible finance and investing
Ethical finance and portfolio management
Equity crowdfunding and financial stability
Banking and financial intermediation
Financial inclusion and stability
Investment in frontier markets
Volatility, spillover, and contagion
Financial technology including neural networks and machine learning in financial forecasting
International investment management and geopolitical risks
Bank performance and financial stability
Risk management in banking
Religion, CSR and bank performance
Financial technology and financial crime
Ethical screening and environmental, social & governance performance

Key researchers

The theme is led by Professor Ahmed El-Masry and benefits from a collegiate group of research staff, associates, PhD candidates and visiting professors.

Core staff

Name	Title	Research Interests
Professor Panagiotis Andrikopoulos	Executive Director, Centre for Financial and Corporate Integrity	Stakeholder Theory; Corporate Finance; Behavioural Finance; Empirical Asset Pricing
Professor Ahmed El-Masry	Professor in Corporate Finance and Governance, Theme Lead for Finance and Governance (FG)	Corporate governance, Risk management, Leverage (distress risk) and stock returns, Islamic finance, Dividend policy, Capital structure, Capital adequacy, Market efficiency/anomalies, Credit risk in SMES, Mergers and acquisitions, Financial stability, Financial inclusion, Prediction using neural networks and machine learning
Professor Yilmaz Guney	Professor of Finance	Corporate finance and corporate governance
Professor Nathan Lael Joseph	Professor of Accounting and Finance	Governance and financial integrity, fund performance, asset pricing and risk management, regulation of financial markets, financial market crashes, time series analysis (including GARCH-type processes), accounting disclosure, financial and accounting regulation, mergers and acquisitions, information content of internet message boards.
Dr Thang Nguyen	Assistant Professor of Finance	Fintech and crowdfunding, Entrepreneurial finance, Corporate Finance and corporate diversification
Dr Jin Suk Park	Associate Professor and PGR Director	Instability in stock, foreign exchange and commodity futures markets; Interaction between the economy and financial markets; Sectoral studies - port, maritime and transportation industries; Regional studies - East Asia and Europe