Hamburg Financial Research Center

Financial and economic research center and academic partner to the business community in the Hamburg metropolitan region.

News

We provide ongoing updates on HFRC activities and developments through the news feed on our institute’s LinkedIn page. An overview of the latest updates is also available here in the News section of our website.

Hamburg Finance Forum 2026

The Hamburg Finance Forum traditionally marks the beginning of the year at the Hamburg Financial Research Center. Guided by our motto “Connecting minds to foster knowledge”, it convenes leading academics, institutional investors, and senior representatives from policy and the financial community for a high-level dialogue on the evolving landscape of institutional investing, combining research-based perspectives with real-world experience.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Patriotische Gesellschaft, just steps away from Hamburg’s Binnenalster, for inspiring discussions and meaningful exchange!

Thank You for an Inspiring Year!

As we close the year, the Hamburg Financial Research Center reflects on an inspiring and impactful 2025. Guided by our mission to foster dialogue between academia, policy and business, we continued to advance applied financial research and meaningful knowledge transfer.

A message from the HFRC Executive Directors,

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Drobetz and Prof. Dr. Henning Schröder:

“2025 was marked by excellent research, intensive exchange with our partners and the strong engagement of our researchers and young talents. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to making HFRC a vibrant platform for financial research and dialogue.”

Looking ahead to 2026 🔭

We will kick off the new year with one of our flagship events: the HFRC Finance Forum in January 2026 - bringing together experts from academia and practice to discuss current challenges and innovations in finance.

We wish our community, partners and friends a happy, healthy and successful New Year!

We look forward to continuing our journey together in 2026.

Christmas Event with Carlsquare

To round off the year, our HFRC Finance Talents enjoyed an inspiring evening at Carlsquare: engaging M&A insights, a hands-on case study, plus pizza and drinks at the Finnlandhaus. We then wrapped up the evening together at the TORTUE HAMBURG Christmas Market.

A big thank you to Mathias Möhrpahl, Moritz Rapp, Hannah von Luckner and Jan Thier for the valuable insights and a wonderful year-end event!

We wish all our talents and partners a joyful holiday season and look forward to 2026!

Hands-On Corporate Finance with Forvis Mazars

Last Friday, our HFRC Finance Talents had the opportunity to dive deep into the world of Corporate Finance during an exclusive workshop hosted in collaboration with our corporate partner Forvis Mazars in Germany.

Throughout the afternoon, the Talents worked on a valuation case study, built a DCF model, analyzed balance sheet and cash flow data, and discussed real-world challenges in business valuation, M&A, and transaction advisory. The workshop offered a highly practical and insightful look into key topics that shape financial decision-making. We ended the day with pizza and drinks overlooking the Hamburg skyline — a relaxed setting for networking and great conversations.

A big thank you to Dorian Sievert, CFA and Jacqueline Wendel, CFA for leading the session and providing our Talents with such valuable insights into their work!

Soft-Skill Workshop with zeb Consulting

On Monday, our HFRC Finance Talents had the opportunity to work on their communication and personal development skills together with our corporate partner zeb consulting.

Led by Tobias Link and Maximilian Schulte & Anne-Sophie Haas, the workshop focused on presentation techniques, body language, and storytelling - all explored in a highly interactive and hands-on setting. Our Talents were able to immediately apply what they learned and receive valuable feedback.

The evening concluded with bagels, drinks, and great conversations at zeb’s Hamburg office - a perfect mix of learning, exchange, and networking!

Autumn Get-Together 2025

What better way to welcome the autumn season than with inspiring conversations, excellent food, and a relaxed evening in the heart of Hamburg?Last Wednesday, our HFRC Finance Talents gathered for this year’s Autumn Get-Together, organized in collaboration with our corporate partner EOS Group at the Bohemian Bar.

In a warm and welcoming setting, our Talents, Alumni and members of the HFRC Board exchanged ideas, reconnected and expanded their networks in a great atmosphere. A heartfelt thank-you to EOS - Marwin Ramcke, Stephan Ohlmeyer, PhD, CFA, Christina Schulz, Dr. Malte Janzen, Cyrus Mohadjer, David Müller - for co-hosting this wonderful evening, and especially to Csenge Nagy for the excellent organization.

We’re already looking forward to our upcoming events together!

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Publications

We regularly publish our research findings in respected international academic journals. An overview of all publications, as well as current working and discussion papers, can be found in the Publications section.

Investor heterogeneity and venture performance

Marwin Mönkemeyer, Kathrin Rennertseder, Henning Schröder

Journal of Business Venturing | 09/2025

This study explores the link between investor heterogeneity represented on venture boards and firms' post-seed funding performance. We document a statistically and economically significant negative association of investor heterogeneity on both a firm's likelihood of obtaining new funding and the volume raised in new funding rounds. This suggest that investor heterogeneity decreases venture board efficacy and the quality of venture governance. The marginal impact of investor heterogeneity is non-linear and diminishing across a venture's funding life cycle. Our results remain robust after controlling for endogeneity issues and for alternative measures of investor culture.

Speculators and time series momentum in commodity futures markets

Björn Uhl

Review of Financial Economics | 02/2025

In this paper, we analyze the relationship between speculators in commodity futures markets and generic time series momentum (TSMOM) traders as well as the impact of this relationship on the subsequent TSMOM strategy performance. We find strong empirical evidence across all commodity markets that speculators in commodity markets tend to trade a TSMOM strategy, which confirms the results found by Boos and Grob (Journal of Financial Markets 64, 100774). On the basis of this result, we also ascertain whether the degree of such alignment has an impact on the performance of the TSMOM strategy. We find that there is weak, but statistically significant and robust evidence to suggest that the higher the degree of alignment between speculators and a generic TSMOM strategy, the lower the realized performance of trading TSMOM in these markets. Albeit we find little evidence that this can be exploited in a dynamic investment strategy, this negative relationship suggests that if a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) trades commodity futures markets which are less commonly traded by other CTAs, these markets may not only increase the internal diversification of their fund but these markets may also have a higher TSMOM Sharpe ratio by themselves. Consequently, our analysis provides valuable insights into improving the portfolio construction of CTAs.

Beyond ownership: The role of institutional investors in international corporate governance

Wolfgang Drobetz, Sadok El Ghoul, Omrane Guedhami, Xinya Yu

Corporate Governance: An International Review | 12/2024 | Forthcoming

Research Question/Issue: This paper reviews key theories on the governance role of institutional investors, examines institutional ownership trends globally, and highlights recent research on their evolving impact on corporate governance. The paper also incorporates insights from select Special Issue articles dedicated to understanding the role of institutional investors worldwide.Research Findings/Insights: We show that while most existing research focuses on the United States, recent evidence highlights significant global growth in institutional ownership. However, research examining the role of institutional investors outside the United States remains limited, despite some recent progress.Theoretical/Academic Implications: Institutional investors are increasingly shaping global capital markets and corporate governance through growing ownership, increased shareholder activism, and rising passive investment strategies. We provide recommendations for relevant topics to guide future research, including the governance preferences of institutional investors (i.e., voice vs. exit) across different investor types and international settings, as well as the collective influence of multiple institutional investors on corporate governance practices and outcomes.Practitioner/Policy Implications: There is a meaningful need for future studies to address the influence and effectiveness of institutional investors on corporate governance practices around the world. A better understanding of their role in different settings should improve their impact on corporations and, more broadly, on society.

Token-based crowdfunding: Investor choice and the optimal timing of initial coin offerings (ICOs)

Wolfgang Drobetz, Lars Hornuf, Paul P. Momtaz, Niclas Schermann

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice | 06/2024

This paper examines the operating and financial performance of venture firms conducting initial coin offerings (ICOs) with different types of investors and at different points along a venture’s life-cycle. Relative to purely crowdfunded ICO ventures, institutional investor-backed ICO ventures exhibit weaker operating performance and fail earlier. However, conditional on survival, these ventures financially outperform their peers that do not receive institutional investor support. The diverging effects of investor backing on financial and operating performance are consistent with our theory of "certification exploitation" through a new form of pump-and-dump scheme. Institutional investors exploit their reputation to drive up ICO valuations and quickly exit the venture post-ICO, with the difference in pre- versus post-certification token prices being their exploitation profit in liquid markets for startups. Our findings further indicate that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the financial success of an ICO and the timing along a venture’s life-cycle, with the product piloting phase representing the pivotal point.

Events

As part of our activities in research, knowledge transfer, and the promotion of early-career researchers, we organize a variety of event formats. A complete overview of our currently scheduled events can be found in the Events section.

Academic

HFRC Doctroal Course: Empirical Methods and Applications in Archival Data Research

02. bis 04. September 2026

This course is aimed at doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers who conduct empirical research (primarily using archival data rather than laboratory experiments). Its objective is to develop a deeper understanding of empirical methods and to identify common pitfalls in the application of econometric estimation techniques. In particular, when working with archival data, the careful selection and implementation of appropriate identification strategies is crucial for producing credible and transparent results.

The course covers key methodological challenges, including endogeneity and related issues in statistical inference, the correct application and interpretation of fixed-effects models, difference-in-differences approaches (including the treatment of standard errors), and instrumental variables estimation. Participants are exposed to a broad set of academic studies from accounting, economics, finance, management, and applied econometrics, with the most important contributions discussed in detail during the course. In addition, participants examine representative research papers that employ standard empirical methods and practice their systematic and critical evaluation. Alongside the conceptual discussion of empirical research designs, the course may also emphasize practical implementation, supported by a STATA manual and accompanying exercises.

The course strengthens participants' methodological competence in working with data and empirical results-both in the development of their own empirical studies and in the critical assessment of existing research. Participants are expected to gain the ability to plan empirical strategies purposefully, to justify them on methodological grounds, and to appropriately situate standard econometric techniques within their respective research contexts.

The course is intended for doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers from a wide range of disciplines, particularly accounting, economics, finance, governance, as well as management and strategy. Basic knowledge of statistics is helpful but not a prerequisite. Further information on course content and structure is provided in the syllabus. The language of instruction is English (German if all participants agree).

Academic

HFRC Doctoral Course: Planning, Writing, and Presenting Academic Research

23. bis 24. Februar 2026

Dieser kompakte und interaktive Kurs richtet sich an Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden sowie Postdocs, die ihre Kompetenzen in der wissenschaftlichen Kommunikation – also im Schreiben, Pitchen und Präsentieren wissenschaftlicher Ideen und Ergebnisse – weiterentwickeln möchten. In einer Zeit, in der es zunehmend herausfordernder wird, die nötige Aufmerksamkeit für die eigene Forschung zu generieren, und es immensen Wettbewerb um Konferenz- und Journalbeiträge gibt, werden die Teilnehmer des Kurses befähigt, ihre Forschung prägnant und zielgerichtet zu vermitteln, sowohl verbal als auch visuell.

Der Kurs befasst sich mit zentralen Themen wie der grundsätzlichen Entwicklung und Positionierung von Forschungsideen, dem Verfassen überzeugender Abstracts und Einleitungstexte, der bestmöglichen Erstellung von Abbildungen und Tabellen sowie der strukturierten Präsentation von Forschungsergebnissen in kurzer Zeit. Darüber hinaus erhalten die Teilnehmer eine Einführung in den Umgang mit Herausforderungen im wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten und den Veröffentlichungsprozessen referierter internationaler Fachzeitschriften.

Ziel des Kurses ist es, den Teilnehmern die notwendigen Fähigkeiten zu vermitteln, um ihre Forschungsergebnisse in der wissenschaftlichen Community effektiv kommunizieren und letztendlich erfolgreich publizieren zu können.

Der Kurs ist für Interessierte aller Fachbereiche der Wirtschaftswissenschaften geöffnet, eignet sich jedoch insbesondere für Interessierte der Fachgebiete Accounting/Taxes, Finance, Corporate Governance, Management und Nachhaltigkeit/ESG. Weitere Details zum zeitlichen Ablauf des Kurses und den behandelten Inhalten finden sich in dem bereitgestellten Syllabus (siehe Download unten). Die Kurssprache für schriftlichen Arbeiten und Präsentationen ist Englisch.