Report of the appointment committee 2022

ECGI applications for Research Membership 2022

Report of the Appointments Committee

The committee had four members: Jens Dammann (University of Texas at Austin, Law), Laura Field (University of Delaware, Finance), Geneviève Helleringer (University of Oxford, Law), Ernst Maug (chairman, University of Mannheim, Finance). The RM appointments committee met twice online, on November 22 and on December 6, 2022 to decide on the ECGI applications for research membership. In the first meeting, the committee discussed the criteria to evaluate applications. The overall goal was to admit research members who will contribute to ECGI’s activities, and, in particular, contribute to the working paper series.

• Tenure and track record. We primarily looked at applications and nominations of people who had tenure in their institutions. We made a small number of exceptions. These exceptions typically concerned scholars that were close to the tenure stage and with a strong publication record that should result in a positive tenure decision. However, as a general rule, the committee felt that untenured candidates should be encouraged to re-apply in 2024.
• Publication standards and impact. Admission was based on an active record of top publications in either finance or law. In finance, the committee therefore required top journals (also including accounting and and economics journals), and a significant number of citations in Google Scholar, Web of Science (formerly Social Science Citation Index). Regarding applicants in law, the committee was aware that, especially across countries, law journals are not easily ranked and that monographs continue to be a significant outlet for high-quality legal scholarship. Regarding publications in US law journals, the committee also took into account citation counts on HeinOnline, while being mindful of the limitations of that database. The committee considered applications from other fields, in particular management, in view of their proximity to either law or finance. Scholars without significant contributions in the past decade were generally not admitted.
• Focus on corporate governance. Given ECGI’s mission, the committee required that candidates have a track record of publishing on topics in the broad field of corporate governance. However, it did not require that most of the research is on corporate governance and admitted candidates whose major research fields were outside corporate governance, as long as they had contributed significantly to the field.

We assessed each application on its merits and did not consider whether applications were supported by nominations or not, or whether applicants had been unsuccessful previously. After discussing these criteria, each committee member provided preliminary assessments between the two meetings. Moreover, each committee member identified those cases in which s/he was conflicted, e.g., because of common affiliations or coauthorship. In the second meeting, the committee discussed mainly those cases on which there had been no immediate consensus. After the second meeting, each committee member had the opportunity to review decisions, which became final on December 9. 

The committee decided to recommend that 56 of the 182 candidates with complete applications, 31% overall, be admitted.