Emerging trends in Asia-Pacific finance research: A review of recent influential publications and a research agenda

Abstract

This paper presents a systematic review of 73 influential publications among 667 journal articles published in the in the Asia-Pacific finance literature from 2011-2015. We map how the top 73 publications are related in terms of their citation relationships and identify eight different research fields, or lines of enquiry: (1) Corporate Finance, (2) Asset Pricing, (3) Conditional Asset Pricing, (4) Research on Anomalies, (5) Market Microstructure Research, (6) Factor Models, as well as two novel research streams, (7) Research Process and (8) Research on Frontiers in Finance. Focusing on the research frontiers in finance, our paper identifies emerging research trends and pathways for future research in the following areas: (1) Environmental Finance, (2) Modern Markets, (3) Behavioural Finance, (4) Qualitative Methods, and (5) Equity and Diversity. We highlight possible pathways for researchers to build on existing knowledge and pursue opportunities for innovative and exciting new research contributing to an expansion of the research frontiers.

Research in finance: A review of influential publications and a research agenda

“…The journals commonly classified as Tier 1 Finance journals are: the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and the Review of Financial Studies (Oltheten et al, 2005;Swidler and Goldreyer, 1998;Zivney and Reichenstein, 1994). This article thereby complements an earlier review (Linnenluecke et al, 2016) Finance journals over the last 50 years to identify major contributions, but also to outline knowledge gaps and future research directions that can possibly be further expanded in the Asia-Pacific context as well. The method used here to identify the most influential publications within the Tier 1 Finance journals is consistent with the earlier review for the Asia-Pacific finance journals (Linnenluecke et al, 2016) and consists of bibliographic mapping, which is an established approach for determining which publications are important within a field of research (as measured by citation counts), and how they are interrelated 1 .…”

“…Studies include the effect of directors with foreign experience on Chinese firm performance (Giannetti et al, 2015), the effect of succession tax on firm investment in Greece (Tsoutsoura, 2015), the effect on markets of access to capital in Mexico (Bruhn and Love, 2014), bribe payments and innovation across 57 developing countries (Ayyagari et al, 2014), the effects of government-owned banks on markets and firm performance across 34 countries (Carvalho, 2014) and the portfolio benefits of positive skewness in emerging market returns (Ghysels et al, 2016). This trend in the Tier 1 finance journals is also reflected in the Asia-Pacific research conversation Alqahtani et al (2016) existing research findings to all markets (Linnenluecke et al, 2016).…”

“…This article follows the steps for data collection and analysis outlined by Janssen et al (2006) and Janssen (2007) and also applied by Linnenluecke et al (2016). In the first step, we compile a comprehensive database of published articles and their cited references (i.e., the references cited by each article).…”

“…Environmental and climate change, as well as resulting implications for financing and investment decisions (Bremer and Linnenluecke, 2017;Breunig and Chia, 2015;Fan et al, 2014;Linnenluecke et al, 2015a;Linnenluecke et al, 2015b;Linnenluecke et al, 2016;Linnenluecke et al, 2015c).…”

“…Each of these fields is examined and reviewed in detail. This article thereby places an earlier review (Linnenluecke et al, 2016) of local and regional articles in the Asia-Pacific area within the broader research conversation, and maps the intellectual origins and structure of research in the Tier 1 Finance journals over the last 50 years to identify major contributions, but also to outline knowledge gaps and future research directions that can possibly be further expanded in the Asia-Pacific context as well. Research in the Asia-Pacific finance journals has largely modelled these developments, with a greater focus on regional studies but also innovative approaches such as qualitative and interdisciplinary research as well as research on alternative financial systems, particularly…”