Academic Conferences

64th Annual Conference of the German Communication Association (DGPuK), May, 09 - 11, 2019 in Münster

Integrated Communication is studied in corporate communications research and practice for more than 30 years - most often focusing on the relationship between public relations and marketing. One recently emerging function of corporate communications is investor relations, which is responsible for maintaining relations with the capital market. Correspondingly little information is available on the cooperation or even integration between Investor Relations (IR) and Corporate Communications (CC) functions in financial communication tasks.

At the 64th Annual Conference of the German Communication Association (DGPuK), the CRiFC team presented a recent study on the cooperation between the two functions. The complete study is available here.

ECREA Conference, October 31 to November 03, 2018 in Lugano

Public relations research is paying ever more attention to the communicator role of the CEO. Little attention, however, has been paid to the chairman of the board of directors – despite the critical role the chairman tends to play in issues of corporate governance and shareholder relations.

At the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) Conference, October 31 to November 03, 2018 in Lugano, the CRiFC team presented the results of a recent study on the dialogue of the Chairman of the Supervisory Board with investors. 51 investor relations officers from Prime Standard companies in Germany were surveyed. The full study will be published shortly.

Joint doctoral colloquium from CRiFC and HHL under the topic "Research on Reporting, Communication and Perception at the Capital Market

On August 16-17, 2018, a joint doctoral colloquium with the Center for Research in Financial Communication and the Chair of Accounting, Auditing and Controlling at HHL was held as part of the fourth RIC conference. Under the title "Research on Reporting, Communication and Perception at the Capital Market", doctoral students from the Accounting and Finance from Central Germany as well as Professor Dr. Christian Pieter Hoffmann and Sandra Tietz discussed current research projects.

Professor Dr. Henning Zülch, holder of the chair of Accounting and Auditing at HHL highlighted the uniqueness and potential of the format: "Integrated Capital Market Communication is still Terra Incognita to many in the German Research Environment. As such, we are proud that we, as HHL, have occupied this topic so firmly and from an early stage. We are happy to contribute to the exchange within the community together with the University of Leipzig.”

Professor Dr. Christian Pieter Hoffman from the Institute of Communication and Media Studies of the University of Leipzig, added: “We discovered many links to our work in communication science. For the future, we see great potential to intensify our cooperation in teaching and research.”

After the first day, the participants came together for a spontaneous rooftop-party and networking, enjoying the view at Leipzig’s famous Thomaskirche before continuing their discussions in further panel-sessions on the second day.

Gruppenfoto (c) HHL – Iona Dutz

ICA Conference, 24.-28. May 2018 in Prague

While a growing number of studies discuss the strategic importance of the investor relations (IR) function for listed corporation, few have tried to apply findings from strategic communication research to IR. Thereby, little is known about the planning and evaluation of IR programs, there is even less data available about the involvement of IR in top management decision-making.

In this paper, the CRiFC team presented research on planning and evaluation practices of investor relations departments in German Prime Standard corporations. We also analyzed how the investor relations function is strategically embedded within the organization. The analysis is based on a survey of 51 heads of investor relations departments from the largest corporations listed at the Frankfurt stock exchange. We apply insights from strategic communication research to address the apparent research gap in terms of the strategic management of the investor relations function.

ICA Konference, 25.-29. May 2017 in San Diego, USA

While the term “investor relations” was first coined in the 1950s, the correspondent corporate department can still be considered an emergent phenomenon. Investor relations (IR) has been a distinct corporate function for some 50 years in the US and about 30 years in Europe. Accordingly, research on IR is still in its early stages.

In this contribution, the findings from an interdisciplinary systematic literature review focusing on peer-reviewed journal articles published in English since 1990 were presented at the 67th annual conference of International Communication Association (ICA).

At the international conference "Reporting, Investor Relations, Capital Markets - Challenges and Opportunities in Financial Communication" hosted by HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, Prof. Dr. Christian Hoffmann and Dr. Kristin Köhler hold keynote speeches about the trends in financial communication and reporting.

Further information about the event can be found here.