The Journal of Applied Corporate Finance is a quarterly which communicates the practical import of the best current research in finance, as conducted at leading universities. It provides a forum for the exchange of ideas between finance academics and business, with the aim of increasing corporate managers’ understanding of financial markets while trying to shift the academic research agenda closer to major concerns of business.

The Journal’s main premise is the potential for corporate finance to increase the efficiency and value of all kinds of organizations, from public companies to nonprofits and state-owned enterprises. Along with traditional funding and accounting responsibilities, today’s financial executives play major roles in developing business strategy, designing organizational structures that will help carry out the strategy, and communicating the thinking behind the firm’s strategy and structure to investors.

This conception of finance is reflected in the Journal’s four “core” subjects:

• Corporate strategy, capital allocation, and valuation, including the “EVA” and “real options” approaches to valuing acquisitions and other strategic investment opportunities;

• Financing strategy, including optimal capital structure, capital-raising and securities design, and the payout of excess capital through stock repurchase and dividends;

• Risk management, which includes strategic decisions to retain or transfer corporate risks, as well as the use of derivatives and other means of limiting risks; and

• Corporate governance, including organizational design, internal performance evaluation and executive pay systems, and disclosure and investor relations.

In keeping with the Journal’s goal of promoting a dialogue between academicians and business, most issues include articles by financial executives as well as academics, and they often feature roundtable discussions among academics, investors, corporate executives, bankers, and the investment community.