Guest editorial

Abstract

As guest editor for the two special issues of Managerial Finance that are devoted to Student Managed Investment Programs, or SMIPs, I would like to thank all of the authors who submitted papers, including those who submitted papers but we were not able to accept by virtue of the large number of papers we received. I would also like to thank the referees for their exceptional help and guidance for authors who were able to effectively restructure their papers for the special issues.All of the authors who submitted papers acknowledge that SMIPs help their students gain valuable practical experience. This experience, in turn, motivates students to work even harder than they do in their traditional courses. As a result, students who enroll in SMIPs often find jobs in the investment community. A growing number of schools with SMIPs have also discovered that their programs also help their schools build networks both within their respective alumni networks, and within the investment community.In anticipation of such benefits, in 1990 Anthony Sanders and I cofounded an SMIP at the Ohio State University. Neither of us knew what to expect, but I am pleased to report that despite our personal lack of experience with such programs, the OSU program proved to be a remarkable success. Speakers from the investment industry were eager to present their views to our students. As a result, the OSU program grew rapidly, both in terms of the number of students seeking to take the class and in terms of the investment returns our students were able to generate. In addition, our graduates were able to get better jobs, and they performed better in the jobs they received.Despite the success of the OSU SMIP, I wish that my co-founder and I would have had access to the strategies identified by the authors of papers accepted in the two special issues of Managerial Finance. The range of formal strategies includes traditional approaches for SIM programs, which are considered in the first special issue, as well as an extensive list of innovative approaches which include discussions of: the development of strategies for the evaluation of fixed income products as well as stocks; the use of new tools such as exchange traded funds or ETFs; investments in private equity as well as publicly traded stock; and the use of risk management tools. As readers will discover for themselves, some of the papers address additional issues such as ethical standards for investments, and strategies for building and maintaining an alumni network. One paper from the US Military Academy at West Point even discusses the use of investment strategies as a general tool for the development of skills for future military leaders.The programs described in the 22 articles also represent schools of dramatically different sizes and alternative sources of funding such as private donations vs university endowments. The approaches taken by different schools provide a wide range of models for schools thinking about adding SMIPs of their own. The authors of papers also provide extensive...