Journal of Corporate Finance Special Issue Conference 2023

Call for Papers for a Journal of Corporate Finance Special Issue on Ownership and Corporate Social and Sustainable Policies

GUEST EDITORS:

- Morten Bennedsen, University of Copenhagen, INSEAD, and ECGI
- Joseph Fan, University of Queensland
- Stuart Gillan, University of North Texas
 

RATIONALE

Friedman (1970) argues that the social responsibility of business is to increase profit. This shareholder primacy view of corporation has been the paradigm for decades and justifiable under a perfect market assumption. In reality, markets are imperfect due to costs of transacting (Coase, 1937). Recently, the paradigm has shifted towards a stakeholder primacy view which gives more voice to stakeholders. Stakeholder groups exert increasing pressure on modern corporations to implement social and sustainablity policies to enhance their own values. This view also has limitations because stakeholder objectives are often poorly defined and their rationale is elusive. It ignores the necessity of long-term survival of the corporation and the disciplining role of markets (Karpoff, 2021).

The special issue uses transaction costs as a starting point to understand the paradigm shift because transaction costs impose a specific identity and control potential on corporations. They lead to heterogeneity in ownership structure and control, corporate diversification, compensation policies, and owner types across corporations (Demsetz and Lehn, 1985; Jensen and Murphy, 1990; Denis et al., 1997; Demsetz and Villalonga, 2001; Gillan and Starks, 2007; Villalonga, 2018). As such heterogeneities are an endogenous outcome of a maximizing process, they should be main determinants of corporate social and sustainable policies because ownership structure, which defines residual claimant rights, is the foundation of economic organizations (Alchian and Demsetz, 1972). Despite its importance, the relationships between ownership structure and owner types, compensation policies, as well as corporate social and sustainable policies are rarely jointly examined in the literature.

The Journal of Corporate Finance Special Issue (JCF SI) will emphasize the role of ownership structure, owner types on corporate social and sustainability policies and incentive compensation tied to such policies and stakeholder objectives.

Some research questions that contributions to the special issue might address are:

• What is the role of corporations in society?
• What is the interplay between stakeholder groups and owner types?
• Whether (and why) sustainable and responsible policies differ across ownership structure and owner types? 
• How do different owner types perform on social and environmental dimensions?
• Whether and to what extent executive compensation contracts are designed to enhance stakeholder objectives and whether such contracts differ across ownership structure and owner types?
• How should corporate executives formulate sustainable and responsible policies
• How do different stakeholder types perform on social and environmental dimensions?

JCF SI Conference 2023

To deepen our understanding of these issues, a 2-day conference on the same theme will be hosted by the Department of Finance and Economics, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland, August 21-22, 2023. This conference will include keynote speeches, paper presentations, and panel discussions.

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

- Prof. David Denis, Roger S. Ahlbrandt, Sr. Chair in Finance, University of Pittsburgh
- Prof. Ken Lehn, Founding editor of the JCF, University of Pittsburgh
- Prof. Belen Villalonga, Professor of Management and Organizations, New York University and ECGI

CONFERENCE ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
- Joseph Fan, University of Queensland
- Gerald Garvey, BlackRock
- Vidhan Goyal, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- Jonathan Karpoff, University of Washington and ECGI
- Kam-Ming Wan, Hanken School of Economics (Chairman)

The conference has two paper submission tracks:

The conference-track accepts paper submissions only for conference presentation.

The dual-track accepts paper submissions for both conference presentation and consideration for the Journal of Corporate Finance Special Issue.

A non-refundable submission fee of €50/paper will be charged for both conference-track and dual-track submissions. Dual-track papers invited to submit to the Special Issue will pay the standard Journal of Corporate Finance submission fee of US$300 when submitted to the Journal.

To be considered for either track at the conference,  please email your paper in a single PDF file to submit-jcf2023@hanken.fi before 1 April 2023. In the subject of the email, please indicate paper submission track: Conference-track or Dual-track. Submissions will only be considered after payment of the submission fee via PaymentStart (to be opened on Dec. 15, 2022).

The papers will be selected based on a standard review process and notification of acceptance will be sent on 1 June 2023. 

PAPER SUBMISSIONS OPEN DECEMBER 15, 2022 

A non-refundable submission fee of €50/paper will be charged for both conference-track and dual-track submissions. Dual-track papers invited to submit to the Special Issue will pay the standard Journal of Corporate Finance submission fee of US$300 when submitted to the Journal.

To be considered for either track at the conference,  please email your paper in a single PDF file to submit-jcf2023@hanken.fi before 1 April 2023. In the subject of the email, please indicate paper submission track: Conference-track or Dual-track. Submissions will only be considered after payment of the submission fee via PaymentStart (to be opened on Dec. 15, 2022). 

REGISTRATIONS FOR THE JCF SI CONFERENCE OPEN JUNE 1, 2023 

Conference Venue: Hanken School of Economics, Arkadiankatu 22, 00100 Helsinki, Finland

Hanken is a leading, internationally accredited university with more than a 110 years of experience in education and research in economics and business administration.Our research is of an international high standard and is the foundation for all education. Hanken has close ties to the business community and an active alumni network with over 14 000 alumni working in more than 70 countries. The study environment is international and Hanken operates in both Helsinki and Vaasa, Finland.

Accommodation Details

The conference has reserved a discounted accommodation allotment at Radisson Blu Royal Hotel (Runeberginkatu 2, Helsinki, Finland) from August 20-22, 2023. The conference special rate for a standard single room is €147/night and that for a standard double room is €167/night. 

Conference attendees hoping to book a room at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel can contact the sales department via phone at +358 300 870 010/individual room reservations or via email at reservations.finland@radissonblu.com and use the reference code “Hanken2023” when booking. A credit card guarantee is required. Booking are to be made prior 23.7.2023. Please note that rooms with the allotment code are subject to availabilty.

Questions

For questions related to paper submissions or the JCF SI conference, please email Kam-Ming Wan at jcf2023@hanken.fi. Further details of paper submissions and the conference can be found on the conference website: https://www.hanken.fi/en/departments-and-centres/department-finance-and…