The goal of the Department is to produce finance research, courses and presentation of results at a high international quality level and of significance to Danish society, and it aims to be among the best financial research and teaching environments in Europe. In this connection, increased publication in leading international journals combined with continued positive evaluations of courses and ensuring that research remains of interest to the Danish society constitute important focus areas. The Center for Statistics is affiliated to the Department, and the aim is to make an extra effort in the shared disciplines of Finance and Statistics (including Risk Management and Insurance).

Internationalisation

· A staff member received the Business Economics Prize of the Tuborg Foundation for studies at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and other staff members visited respected universities abroad for extended periods, e.g. Princeton University, the University of California at Berkeley and Riverside, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

· In 2005, the Department succeeded in recruiting highly qualified research staff with international profiles in important fields such as Risk Management and Corporate Finance.

Partnership with the business community

· In 2005, Henrik Ramlau-Hansen, DSc., CEO, Danica, and managing director Lars Tyge Nielsen, PhD, Oak Hill Platinum Partners, New York, were appointed adjunct professors in the fields of Finance, Risk Management and Insurance.

· A member of the Department's staff was awarded the communication prize of the Danish Society for the Advancement of Business Education in 2005.

The learning university

· A member of the Department's staff was awarded the Sparinvest teaching prize and the Danske Bank teaching prize for the HD programme in Finance in 2005. The same member of staff was also admitted to the International Teachers Programme at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2005.

· The Department's PhD programme works very well with PhD students having access to courses under the auspices of the Danish Doctoral School in Finance. The Danish Doctoral School in Finance is a national doctoral school based at the CBS Department of Finance.

The academic activities of the Department comprise a wide spectrum of financial issues, including issues related to risk management and to financial management and corporate governance. The Department's research activities include:

· corporate finance

· asset management

· securities pricing

· empirical analyses of capital markets

· institutional relations in financial markets

· risk management and insurance

· investment planning and cost-benefit analyses

· international finance

· corporate governance and the market for corporate control

· personal finance.

The Center for Statistics is affiliated. For the time being it will be integrated in the Department for a period of three years. The Center deals with and is responsible for CBS research and courses in probability theory and statistics and the application of these disciplines and related mathematical tools in the fields of business economics and management. The Center staff also play a major role as sparring partners in connection with the handling of figures and statistical analysis for empirical interdisciplinary research projects within business economics and management and related fields of economic relevance.

In 2005, the Center for Law, Economics and Financial Institutions (LEFIC) was also affiliated to the Department. It is an interdisciplinary centre with participants from the Department of Finance, the Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy, the Law Department and the Department of Economics. The Center for Law, Economics and Finacial Institutions was established with external funding for the period from March 2002 to June 2005.

The overall objective of the Department is to conduct international standard research and research-based study programmes. The core research activities of the Department comprise both empirical and theoretical finance research concerning the financial problems of enterprises, and concerning financial institutions, financial markets and financial structure, especially in a small, open society.

In addition to contributing independent new knowledge, it is important to apply international research results to a Danish context and to communicate research results to students at CBS through courses of a high academic level, as well as to society including the business community, the public sector and other research communities where financial aspects form an integral part of the research.

International production from 2001-2005 increased modestly in the form of articles in respected international journals. The number of articles published in international journals, however, fell compared to the relatively high level of 2002 and 2003. In recent years, there has been a tendency towards increased publication in important and internationally recognised finance journals, and the production in Danish was also considerable and was characterised by being highly relevant to Danish financial issues.

A considerable part of the Department's research is based on current conditions with a narrow relation to practice. Many of the research results are presented in journals read by practitioners, and several members of the Department's staff regularly appear in the media as experts in connection with relevant financial/economic issues.

Three of the Department's PhD students are financed by business enterprises.

Finally, research results are extensively presented to practice via study programmes, including programmes aimed directly at practitioners, e.g. the HD programme, various summer schools and executive programmes organised by CBS or other institutions. Several members of the Department staff are also deeply involved in the academic activities of the Danish Society of Investment Professionals.

Figure 1: Department of Finance, publication types 2001-2005

Figure 2: Department of Finance, research funds 2001-2005