Dear Colleagues and Friends,
We are thrilled to share that FMARC 2026 in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, was a great success! Below you can find some important milestones of FMARC 2026, including highlights, the winners of the Best Paper Awards, and details of our Doctoral Colloquium and Mentoring Day.
Take a sneak peek into FMARC 2026 by watching the conference highlights video, viewing the doctoral mentoring session, or browsing the photos.
Highlights
An international community of scholars gathered in Ayia Napa for 16 paper sessions and 48 high-quality papers spanning the breadth of contemporary research in finance and accounting. FMARC 2026 also hosted its Doctoral Colloquium and Mentoring Day featuring 9 selected doctoral contributions.
A highlight of the program was the keynote address by Professor Ron Kaniel, Jay S. and Jeanne P. Benet Professor of Finance at the Simon Business School, University of Rochester, who delivered a talk on “Market Power in the Securities Lending Market.”
The conference also benefited from an exceptional panel of mentors who led the Doctoral Colloquium and Mentoring Day: Professors Alessandro Previtero (Indiana University), Audra L. Boone (Colorado State University), Alexandros Michaelides (Imperial College London), and Devin Shanthikumar (University of California, Irvine). We express our heartfelt thanks to all of them and are truly grateful for their support.
Information about the Conference Program can be accessed by clicking here.
Winners of the Best Papers
FMARC 2026’s program featured numerous high-calibre papers, providing attendees the opportunity to discuss and exchange ideas on groundbreaking research in finance and accounting. To acknowledge and celebrate the leading research presented, FMARC 2026 presented the following awards.
The winners of the FMARC 2026 Best Paper Awards are:
- Conference Best Paper Award “Management of Management Proposals,” by lona Babenko (Arizona State University), Goeun Choi (Loyola Marymount University), and Rik Sen (University of Georgia).
- Best Paper in Finance Award “Learning from Personal Experience versus Public Information: Evidence from Retail FX Trades,” by Constantinos Antoniou (Warwick Business School) and Andreas Milidonis (University of Cyprus).
- Best Paper in Accounting Award “The Class Pay Gap in Public Accounting,” by Daniel Aobdia (Pennsylvania State University), Ting Dong (Stockholm School of Economics), Irina Gazizova (Stockholm School of Economics) and Henrik Nilsson (Stockholm School of Economics).
- Best Doctoral Paper Award “Managerial Beliefs and Agency Conflicts,” by Dardan Gashi (Swiss Finance Institute and USI Lugano).
- Best Doctoral Paper Award (runner up) “Information Processing Under Ambiguity in Financial Markets,” by Lukas Grahl (Aarhus University), Steffen Meyer (University of Aarhus and Danish Finance Institute) and Charline Uhr (University of Aarhus and Danish Finance Institute).
The papers that received the awards can be found here.
Best Discussant Recognition
As part of our continued commitment to fostering high-quality academic dialogue, FMARC 2026 also recognized Outstanding Discussants whose contributions demonstrated exceptional quality and added significant value to the academic discussion. We are delighted to recognize the following recipients for their exceptional contribution (presented in random order):
1. Devin Shanthikumar (University of California)
2. Siu Kai Choy (King’s College London)
3. Sumair Hussain (University of Manchester)
4. Marios Panayides (University of Oklahoma)
5. Francisco Urzua Infante (Bayes Business School)
6. Brandon Yueyang Han (University of Maryland)
Policy & Guidelines for the Outstanding Discussant Recognition can be accessed by clicking here.
Collegial Discussion Initiative
Another important element was the FMARC 2026 Collegial Discussion Initiative, through which 20 papers benefited from additional comments and feedback provided by members of the FMARC’s Scientific Committee with expertise closely aligned with the respective paper topics. The initiative aimed to further promote constructive academic exchange and collegial feedback, providing authors with an opportunity to benefit from the insights and perspectives of experienced scholars beyond the formal conference discussions.
Publication Opportunities
In collaboration with Accounting and Business Research, a selected number of papers presented at FMARC 2026 will be invited for submission through a dedicated FMARC–ABR Special Track. We extend our sincere thanks to the journal’s editors, Professors Juan Manuel García Lara, Mark Clatworthy, and Edward Lee, for their enthusiastic support and commitment to strengthening the connection between conference dialogue and journal publication.
A Memorable FMARC Experience
Beyond the academic program, delegates enjoyed a memorable social experience, including the Gala Dinner, a guided visit to the Thalassa Municipal Museum, and our much-loved Summer Social Event and beach volleyball tournament, a cherished FMARC tradition that concluded the conference on a high note.
With Our Sincere Appreciation
We extend our sincere appreciation to the organizing institutions: Cyprus University of Technology and King’s College London, as well as to the Economics Research Centre of the University of Cyprus, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Ayia Napa and Protaras Tourism Board for their valuable support. Most importantly, we warmly thank every author, presenter, discussant, session chair, mentor, and member of the Scientific Committee. Your dedication made FMARC 2026 an outstanding success.
With our warmest regards,
The FMARC 2026 Organizing Committee
