Seminar (Dept. of Accounting)

Theme：Executive Fiduciary Duties and Operational Risk Management

Speaker：Hong Zou, Professor, University of Hong Kong

Time：2022-04-27 14:00

Address：Online Meeting

Language：English

ABSTRACT:

Does enhanced legal accountability of non-director executives improve firms’ workplace safety? We exploit an exogenous increase in executive legal accountability triggered by Delaware Supreme Court’s 2009 “Gantler ruling” to address this question. In a difference-in-differences framework, we show that the total injury rate of establishments of Delaware-incorporated firms decreases significantly following the Gantler ruling relative to similar establishments of non-Delaware-incorporated firms. This effect is stronger in firms that adopt enterprise risk management, face less financial constraints or have higher labor union membership before the Gantler ruling. Moreover, the reduction in workplace injuries brought about by the Gantler ruling benefits shareholders by leading to higher factor-adjusted stock returns. This study adds to the limited research on the efficacy of corporate operational risk management and non-director executive accountability.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Joe Hong Zou is a professor of finance at University of Hong Kong. He graduated in Statistics from Fudan University, completed a Master degree in insurance & accounting with distinction (sponsored by UK insurer Aviva) and received a PhD in Finance from University of Wales (UK). He had six-year industry experience (four years in a local government and two years in an investment bank) and qualified the CPA and investment analyst exam. He previously taught at Cardiff University (UK) and City University of Hong Kong, and received the Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE) 2017/2018 IMBA teaching award, the 2019/2020 HKU-PKU EMBA Teaching Award, and the 2020/2021 FBE Faculty UG Teaching Reward in the University of Hong Kong. He was ranked as one of the HKU Scholars in the Top 1% based on Thomson Clarivate Analytics’ Essential Science Indicators in the 10-year period (2008-2018) (http://hub.hku.hk/local/top1pc/top1pc.jsp?year=2018). He is consistently ranked in the top 10% of Authors on SSRN by all-time downloads.

His research interests include corporate finance, corporate governance, risk management, financial services, and the Chinese financial market. He published 35 peer-reviewed journal articles in English and his research works appear in top finance journals (Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis), top accounting journals (e.g., Journal of Accounting and Economics), top international business journals (e.g., Journal of International and Business Studies), and top insurance journals (e.g., Journal of Risk and Insurance). He won 7 international research awards (including the 2002 & 2003 Shin Insurance Research Awards at New York-based International Insurance Society (IIS), the 2012 Patrick Brockett and Arnold Shapiro research award given by the American Risk and Insurance Association (ARIA), the 2012 China International Conference in Finance (CICF) best paper award), and the semifinalist for the best paper award at the 2017 FMA Annual Meeting in Boston. He also published 17 journal articles in Chinese (e.g., Economic Research). His research works are featured in the Handbook of Insurance, the CFA Digest, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, the NBER Working Paper series, the European Corporate Governance Institute – Finance Working Paper series, and two finance textbooks.

He once gave a lecture in the Lloyd’s of London, and received media interviews (e.g., Reactions, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, the Financial Management magazine of AICPA-CIMA). He was a finance paper examiner of the professional qualification exams at the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers (HKIB) and Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries (HKICS). He is a research fellow at the Center of China Insurance and Social Security Research, and is an associate editor for British Accounting Review – a flagship journal of the British Accounting and Finance Association (2020 CiteScore 5.577), an associate editor for Journal of Insurance Issues – the official journal of Western Risk and Insurance Association in the U.S., and is on the editorial board of China Journal of Accounting Studies. He was also on the editorial board of Frontiers of Business Research in China (published by Springer) between 2010 and 2016.