The 7th Irish Academy of Finance Annual Conference was successfully held in Ireland from 21 to 22 May 2026. Assistant Professor John Fan Zhang from the School of Business (MSB) at Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST) was invited to attend the conference and present his research findings, showcasing the MSB’s latest achievements in the fields of international finance and corporate finance. This year’s conference brought together leading scholars from various universities and research institutions across Europe, North America, and Asia to engage in in-depth exchanges on cutting-edge fields, including banking regulation, corporate finance, asset pricing, sustainable finance, and financial technology.
Assistant Professor John Fan Zhang presented his latest research titled “Cultural Diversity and Idiosyncratic Risk of Multinationals” in the Risk & Sustainability session. Based on a comprehensive dataset of U.S. multinational firms from 1994 to 2024, the study finds that cultural diversity significantly reduces idiosyncratic volatility, mainly through improving the information environment and promoting more prudent investment behavior. In addition, he was invited to serve as a discussant for the paper “The Role of Sustainability Uncertainty in the Cross-Section of US Stock Returns”. The paper develops an ESG-based Sustainability Uncertainty Index (ESGUI) and constructs a corresponding factor to examine whether sustainability-related uncertainty is priced in the U.S. equity market. The findings suggest that sustainability uncertainty acts as a systematic risk factor with significant explanatory power for asset returns. During the discussion, Assistant Professor Zhang provided detailed and constructive comments on the paper’s theoretical framing, variable construction, and empirical strategy. He particularly emphasized the measurement of sustainability uncertainty and its distinction from existing ESG-related risk factors. His insights received enthusiastic responses from the participating scholars.
The participation highlights the vitality and influence of MSB’s faculty members on the international academic stage. It also further strengthens the exchanges and cooperation between the School of Business and the international academic community, playing a positive role in advancing the internationalization of MSB’s scientific research. Through the exchanges at this conference, the academic quality and international impact of the relevant research have been further enhanced. Moving forward, the studies will be further refined based on the feedback received, with the aim of submitting to leading international journals.
(Contributed and reviewed by Assistant Professor John Fan Zhang, format reviewed by Helen Kam)
