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Open research questions in Corporate Finance and Governance

494 gap statements mined from Corporate Finance and Governance papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 7,421 papers on the topic — drawn mostly from each paper's own stated research gap, future-work, challenge and limitation notes, and its abstract. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one.

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What the literature leaves open

  • The analysis highlights the challenge of limited mechanisms for institutional exit and resource reallocation. The study notes the challenge of persistent institutional fragmentation and political constraints limiting the state's capacity to implement meaningful reforms.

    When Creative Destruction and Industry Renewal Fail to Emerge: A Longitudinal Study of Lebanon’s Banking Sector · 2026 · DOI

  • The gap in the literature is the lack of understanding of why creative destruction fails to emerge in certain cases. The study identifies the failure of restructuring mechanisms associated with creative destruction as a key gap in the literature.

    When Creative Destruction and Industry Renewal Fail to Emerge: A Longitudinal Study of Lebanon’s Banking Sector · 2026 · DOI

  • Diversification strategies remain a focal point in strategic management, yet conflicting findings persist regarding the relationship between diversification and performance.

    Navigating Diversification: The CEO’s Human Capital Influence on Firm’s Diversification Strategy and Performance · 2026 · DOI

  • While green development goals emphasize technological innovation, the role of ownership structure remains debated.

    Does Ownership Structure Affect Corporate Green Technology Innovation? A Multiple Large Shareholders Perspective · 2026 · DOI

  • Empirically, it provides novel evidence from an emerging market context, a setting that remains underexplored.

    CFOs as Innovators in Debt Maturity Choices: New Evidence from an Asian Emerging Market · 2026 · DOI

  • By focusing on an underexplored emerging market, the study extends the boundaries of existing theory and provides actionable insights for policymakers, institutional investors and corporate boards aiming to mitigate governance risks and optimize financial strategies in family-controlled enterprises.

    The liquidity paradox in family firms: how family control and CEO identity shape cash holdings and firm value · 2026 · DOI

  • Although the literature has discussed the usefulness of several categories of outside directors, the relevance of ADs, especially on boards of financial firms, is an understudied aspect, particularly from the standpoint of an emerging economy.

    Academic directors on bank boards: Do they add value? · 2026 · DOI

  • Research Question/Issue How do independent directors respond when firms face climate‐related disasters? While natural disasters expose firms to substantial operational and reputational risks, little is known about how board members react to such shocks.

    Climate Disaster Risk and Independent Director Turnover: Evidence From Hurricanes · 2026 · DOI

  • Our study uncovers the negative impact of an underexplored dimension of board structure on corporate innovation and provides novel evidence on the governance role of large shareholders, a role that has received relatively less attention in prior research emphasizing large shareholders' expropriation of minority shareholders.

    No Root No Fruit: The Impact of a Divergence Between Ownership Concentration and Board Composition on Corporate Innovation · 2026 · DOI

  • Research Question/Issue This study investigates the impact of an underexplored dimension of board characteristics, that is, the divergence between ownership concentration and board composition (hereafter, OB divergence), on corporate innovation.

    No Root No Fruit: The Impact of a Divergence Between Ownership Concentration and Board Composition on Corporate Innovation · 2026 · DOI

  • Yet, how target firm executives and directors can effectively defend against these campaigns remains underexplored.

    Winning at Defense by Playing Offense: Discrediting by Target Firms in Activist Hedge Fund Campaigns · 2026 · DOI

  • Debt mitigates agency problems between managers and stockholders by reducing free cashflows; yet, why managers voluntarily adopt debt discipline remains unclear.

    CEO's Culture and Firms' Leverage Decisions · 2025 · DOI

  • Facial traits constitute a significant source of information in social interactions, yet little is known about whether they affect borrowing costs.

    Aesthetic Leadership: The Influence of CEO Attractiveness on Bank Loan Contracts · 2025 · DOI

  • It addresses both regional and conceptual gaps in climate finance, offering practical and theoretical insights into climate risk governance in underexplored contexts.

    Institutional ownership, corporate governance and climate change risk management: evidence from the Middle East and North Africa · 2025 · DOI

  • Future research should explore other sectors, investor types and corporate governance mechanisms that might affect climate change risk management to gain a clearer understanding of these practices in emerging markets.

    Institutional ownership, corporate governance and climate change risk management: evidence from the Middle East and North Africa · 2025 · DOI

  • While the influence of corporate governance on financial strategies is well-documented, the specific role of academic directors in shaping corporate leverage, particularly within the Chinese context, remains underexplored.

    Academic directors on board: economic consequences for corporate leverage and governance in China · 2025 · DOI

  • Finally, this study could serve as a stimulus to investigate other areas not yet explored in the literature, namely, financial distress, firm longevity and agency costs, especially in small and medium-sized enterprises.

    Religiosity and corporate financial decisions: a literature review · 2025 · DOI

  • This study introduces a novel model, leveraging a unique data set to address key research gaps, with a particular focus on the under-explored MENA region.

    Government ownership in the MENA region: the roles of institutional voids, sociocultural norms and control-enhancing mechanisms · 2025 · DOI

  • Further research could examine the effects of different types of patient capital on green technological innovation - Research could also investigate the role of corporate governance in strengthening the association between patient capital and green technological…

    Patient Capital and Corporate Green Technological Innovation: The Roles of Capital Sources and Corporate Governance · 2026 · DOI

  • Investigating how macro-level environmental factors influence the mediation mechanism - Examining the relationship between DT and financial investment in other contexts or industries - Analyzing the impact of DT on other aspects of corporate…

    Who Is Manipulating Corporate Wallets Amid the Ever-Changing Circumstances? Digital Clues, Information Truths and Risk Mysteries · 2025 · DOI

  • This paper intends to disentangle these conflicting findings by examining the role of CEO’s human capital in shaping firm strategy and performance within the context of related and unrelated diversification.

    Navigating Diversification: The CEO’s Human Capital Influence on Firm’s Diversification Strategy and Performance · 2026 · DOI

  • Firstly, it extends the CEO succession literature by empirically linking CEO turnover to TMT member turnover, an underexplored topic.

    The impact of CEO turnover events on other executive turnover events: an empirical study of Japanese companies · 2026 · DOI

  • It fills a critical gap in the literature by demonstrating how governance dynamics vary systematically with organizational scale, particularly in markets where institutional development and ownership structures differ from developed economies.

    Board characteristics and bank performance: an empirical analysis of the size effect in emerging economies · 2026 · DOI

  • By surveying core research ideas in prior studies, we endeavor to synthesize board interlocks research, sharpen our understanding of their strategic roles, and decipher underexplored topics for future research.

    Strategic Implications of Board Interlocks: A Literature Review and Future Research Agenda · 2026 · DOI

  • These lawsuits capture an underexplored form of downside ESG risk arising from firms' treatment of employees, who constitute a key corporate stakeholder group.

    Institutional Ownership and Corporate Exposure to Equal Employment Opportunity Lawsuits · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Corporate Finance and Governance

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Open questions raised by papers listed on this page include: (1) The gap in the literature is the lack of understanding of why creative destruction fails to emerge in certain cases (“When Creative Destruction and Industry Renewal Fail to Emerge: A Longitudinal…”, 2026); (2) Empirically, it provides novel evidence from an emerging market context, a setting that remains underexplored (“CFOs as Innovators in Debt Maturity Choices: New Evidence from an Asian…”, 2026); (3) While natural disasters expose firms to substantial operational and reputational risks, little is known about how board members react to such shocks (“Climate Disaster Risk and Independent Director Turnover: Evidence From…”, 2026); (4) How target firm executives and directors can effectively defend against these campaigns remains underexplored (“Winning at Defense by Playing Offense: Discrediting by Target Firms in Activist…”, 2026); (5) Debt mitigates agency problems between managers and stockholders by reducing free cashflows; yet, why managers voluntarily adopt debt discipline remains unclear (“CEO's Culture and Firms' Leverage Decisions”, 2025). 494 gap statements have been mined from Corporate Finance and Governance papers in our 7.9M-paper local library, which holds 7,421 papers on the topic; the gaps come from whichever of those papers state one. They are mostly the research gaps the authors state and the papers' abstracts, plus future-work, limitations and challenges passages. The ones listed below are a selection still marked open; each names the study that raised it, with a DOI link where the paper has one, so you can read the original claim in context.

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