Best Student Paper Award: Yassin Bouzzine – Expensive Misconduct

2021-09-21 The PhD student and research assistant investigated how #MeToo allegations affect share prices. The 28-year-old has now been awarded for his outstanding work at the renowned Academy of Management Annual Meeting.

Portrait of Yassin Bouzzine ©Leuphane/Brinkhoff/Mögenburg
Yassin Bouzzine received the Best Student Paper Award for his work on sexual harassment.

Yassin Bouzzine began his doctoral studies just over two years ago. In the meantime, he has published four high-quality articles and has already submitted his doctoral thesis: "It was a great advantage for me that I also completed my Master's degree at Leuphana. We were very well prepared here for empirical research and scientific work in the dissertation." But the intensive supervision by his doctoral supervisor Prof. Dr. Rainer Lueg, Professor of Business Administration, especially Managerial Accounting, also contributed to the stringent process: "It is a collegial and reliable relationship. If I have a question, I can call. Then there is the constant exchange with the other doctoral students," says Yassin Bouzzine.

In his cumulative doctoral thesis, the doctoral student is working on the capital market reaction to corporate misconduct. He has now been awarded the Best Student Paper Award at the renowned Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2021 for his work on sexual harassment: The methodological cleanliness, the sound theoretical underpinning and the relevance of the topic were convincing. "I was very pleased to receive the award, because the conference is highly regarded in the management field," says Yassin Bouzzine. The PhD student investigated how allegations against individual executives affect the stock returns of the respective company. He analysed almost 400 allegations and the reactions to them on the net. The #MeToo allegations hurt the companies: Share prices fell. However, it had to be a high-profile person who was accused. Only they triggered a shitstorm. "The relevance of sustainability for companies is beyond question. In the past, women were partly silenced by declarations of secrecy. Fortunately, that no longer works today. Women use Twitter and other media to be heard. Companies have to react, otherwise they will write losses," explains Yassin Bouzzine.

He already studied the capital market reaction to corporate misconduct in his Master's degree and wrote his first publication from it: "At the time, I dealt with the Dieselgate scandal." Here, too, the analysis revealed a financial loss due to the allegations of fraud. Still, surprisingly for the young researcher, VW only made losses in the first incident. Subsequent revelations in the Dieselgate scandal only harmed other companies.

Yassin Bouzzine decided to study for a Master's degree at Leuphana a good four years ago: "I wanted to specialise after my business studies and chose the Finance and Accounting programme. After my doctorate, I would like to work in a management consultancy first," says the doctoral student. But he can also imagine returning to research later.

Contact

  • Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Rainer Lueg