The PRI Academic Network Conference 2018

The UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) works to understand the investment implications of ESG factors and to support its international network of investor signatories in incorporating these factors into their investment and ownership decisions. The PRI acts in the long-term interests of its signatories, of the financial markets and economies in which they operate and ultimately of the environment and society as a whole. The PRI is proud to collaborate with the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Davis for the tenth Academic Network Conference. We are delighted to announce the conference will again be part of PRI in Person, the largest global conference on responsible investment, and will be held on 11 September at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.

The Academic Network, is a vibrant and flourishing international community of close to 4,000 academics and investment practitioners on ESG and investment. Academics are from RI-related disciplines, traversing finance and business, economics, management, sociology and STEM subjects.

The conference focuses on the latest research on responsible investment practices. The event is for academic researchers in the field of SRI and will also be an opportunity for academics and investors to engage with each other, learn and discuss the latest insights, and to network.

Call for Papers

Aligning with key themes at PRI in Person, we invite submissions of papers that focus on the following topics (with issues provided as examples below):

Working to achieve a sustainable financial system

ESG investing and investment horizons

Risk management in the context of RI

Fiduciary duty

The role of responsible investment in meeting today’s investment challenges

Impact investment

Corporate reporting

Economic inequality

ESG integration

Financial performance

Fixed income and ESG investment performance

Behavioural finance and investment biases: implications for RI

Climate change

ESG engagement

Engagement strategies

Corporate governance

We encourage both theoretical and empirical contributions from diverse business, finance, and social science disciplines.

Application requirements

Full papers are preferred. Extended abstracts will be considered for the conference program but not for the conference prize

Papers should be submitted as anonymized PDFs (all author names removed).

Only one submission per person if the paper is being put forward for a prize

Only papers in English can be submitted, with a page limit of 60 pages

Forthcoming or recently accepted papers (publication dates in 2017) are allowed

Papers submitted to be considered for the student award cannot have non-student co-authors

Accepted papers will be featured on the PRI website unless otherwise agreed. Past conference papers and conference prize winners can be found here: www.unpri.org/academicresearch

The criteria

Submissions will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

Contribution to responsible investment research

Originality of subject of study or approach

Methodological strength

The practical significance of the research

Conference papers and conference prizes will be judged in a double-blind review process by the PRI Academic Network Committee, which is composed of academics and practitioners, and the Conference Committee chaired by:

Brad Barber

Gallagher Professor of Finance and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Graduate School of Management, University of California, Davis

Alexander Bassen

Professor of Finance and Chair for Capital Markets and Management, University of Hamburg

Fabrizio Ferraro

Professor of Strategic Management,

IESE Business School, University of Navarra

Adair Morse

Associate Professor of Finance,

Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

The PRI Award for Outstanding Research

Submitted papers will be considered for the following prize categories:

The best qualitative paper

The best quantitative

The best student paper

Application timeline

2 April 2018	Submission deadline for all papers and extended abstracts to be received
18 May 2018	Notification to applicants

How to submit a paper

Submit your paper and complete your application details at: https://responsiblebusiness.submittable.com/submit

Select "PRI Academic Network Conference 2018" and click the "Submit" button

Create an account (this will allow you to log back in to view results at a later date)

Scroll down, fill out the information marked with a red asterisk, and choose files to upload.

Click “Submit” button. You should receive an automated confirmation of your submission.

Contact

For questions regarding submission, please contact Seren Pendleton-Knoll

seren@haas.berkeley.edu

For questions about the conference, please contact events@unpri.org