2027 University of Delaware Weinberg Center Corporate Governance Symposium and John L. Weinberg/IRRCi Research Paper Award Competition

Call for Papers

The John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance and the Department of Finance at the Lerner College of Business & Economics, University of Delaware, in collaboration with Management Science and ECGI, will host an in-person academic symposium on Friday, 12 March 2027. The symposium will feature a keynote address by Professor Wei Jiang, President of the American Finance Association. 

We welcome submissions from academics and practitioners on topics broadly related to corporate governance. We especially encourage submissions by early-stage scholars. Up to three papers included in the symposium will be selected to each receive the 2027 John L. Weinberg/IRRCi Research Paper Award and a $10,000 prize. For past symposium programs and award winners, please visit: https://weinberg.udel.edu/research-paper-competition. 

Collaboration with Management Science:

We are pleased to collaborate with Management Science to offer a subset of papers submitted to the symposium a “no-fault” dual-submission opportunity. The collaborating editors are Professor Bo Becker of the Stockholm School of Economics and Professor Daniel Ferreira of the London School of Economics. The symposium program committee will recommend a subset of submitted papers to the collaborating editors for consideration (this subset may include papers not selected for the conference). At their sole discretion, the editors may invite a subset of these papers to participate in the “no-fault” dual-submission process with Management Science. The authors can then decide if they accept the invitation. Papers rejected through dual submission can be resubmitted later as a new submission without prejudice. For full details regarding the dual submission option, please consult "Policy for Dual Submission" on Management Science's "Submission Guideline" page.

Selection for the symposium program and recommendation to Management Science are separate decisions. Accordingly, not all papers selected for presentation at the symposium will necessarily be recommended to Management Science, while papers not selected for the symposium program may still be recommended to the collaborating editors for consideration.

Submission Deadline and Procedure: 

The deadline for paper submissions is 11:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on November 18, 2026. There is a non-refundable submission fee of $100 per paper. Please first pay the submission fee at http://www.udel.edu/weinberg-irrci-paper, and then submit your paper here. Please enter the submission fee payment receipt number with your submission.

John L. Weinberg/IRRCi Research Paper Award Competition Guidelines:

This research competition is the successor to the IRRCi Investor Research Paper Award, which became a prominent award garnering significant attention amongst the investment community, academia and policymakers. Like its predecessor, the John L. Weinberg/IRRCi Research Paper Award highlights innovative research. 

Submissions must comply with the following guidelines. Failure to do so may result in disqualification.

• Papers must not have been accepted for publication at the time of submission.
• Papers should be submitted with a cover page that includes the paper title, full names and affiliations of all authors, and an abstract of 100-250 words. 

If a paper is selected as a finalist, at least one author must be available to present the paper in person at the Symposium on March 12, 2027.

General inquiries regarding the competition or the Symposium should be directed to Geri Foster at WeinbergIRRCI@udel.edu. 

Please note that the selection of winners/finalists, if any, is at the sole discretion of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.  The Weinberg Center fully anticipates awarding up to three $10,000 prizes but reserves the right to select no papers as winners in the event papers submitted do not meet the above guidelines and/or the Center does not believe any paper is worthy of the award.