Top 20 Finance Research Paper Topics

A research paper is a form of academic writing that requires investigative skills to recover outcomes of a topic and in turn analyze those outcomes to draw conclusions and make recommendations. In finance, there are a countless number of topics that a person can research on. Management of risk, organizational and corporate governance, investment and so many more are only a small part of what this discipline entails. But before we begin delving into the common finance research paper topics it is important to understand finance itself. 

What is finance? In simple terms, finance is the management of money. However, this process of management includes activities such as forecasting, saving, lending, borrowing, and investing. Finance is but a lead within which lies a conglomerate of other activities associated with investments, money, capital markets, credit, debit or leverage, and banking.  A profession in finance has for a long time been rewarding by taking an edge over almost every other course out there. But in this myriad of topics where can finance students get resources to use when writing finance research papers? There exist several sites that focus on finance research paper topics on the internet. 

Key Databases for Finance Papers

Before we can begin looking at the common topics in finance research papers, we first need to understand where one can obtain data to write essays and reports on finance. There are several peer-reviewed journals and articles for your finance papers. These articles are published in journals that request academics in the related field to review them before they are published. This review helps to maintain a credible flow of information on varying finance topics for research.  The list below shows a number of those peer-reviewed journal articles:

• Business Source Complete

This database has a wide variety of business-related information providing case studies, reports, trade publications, and journals that cover every business-related discipline,

• Emerald Journals 

This database covers all disciplines of academics providing access to ebooks and journals.

• Scopus 

This covers all disciplines of academics providing books, journals, and conference proceedings. 

• EconLit with Full Text

This database major in economics and has a number of theses, working papers, and journal articles. 

• Proquest

This database covers all disciplines in academics with a search more edged towards business-related information.  The site provides company profiles, dissertations, industry reports, newspapers, and journals.

• Web of Science

This database covers all disciplines in academics providing conference proceedings, books, and journals.

Other sources of finance research papers and finance research data include:

• Global Finance Data 

This database provides returns for fixed income rates, exchange rates, equity data, price-earnings, indices, and prices.

• Informit Business Collection

This database provides reports, conference proceedings, books, and journals.

• Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

This database is accessible for free and it provides working papers, several academic documents, and journal articles.  

• Factiva

This site covers international news through blogs, websites, trade publications, newswires, newspapers, and multimedia all as complete text.

How to Write a Perfect Finance Research Paper

Collecting and using the appropriate financial data is crucial to producing articulate finance reports and finance research papers both for corporate and academic purposes. This data could range from the financial background of a company, or the trend of an asset in the market, or the changes in the investment market. However, to begin collecting and analyzing this information, one ought to settle on a topic to avoid beating around the bush with a misguided on misinformed topic. So how do you make sure that your finance research paper is written to perfection? Below are steps to ensure you follow when writing a finance research paper or an essay in finance:

• Choose an appropriate research paper topic.

You’re in luck that this article aims at providing the top topics in finance research papers. Before choosing a winning research paper topic, it is important to understand the topic you are dealing with. Failing to know what you are writing about will lead you to take a lot of dead-end approaches hence wasting a lot of precious time. After understanding the question, look out for relevance of your topic and the course you are writing a research paper for. Finally, brainstorm ideas of topics that are possible for your finance research paper, and from these ideas, you will end up with one appropriate one. 

• Strategize your writing

It is often said that if you intend to cut down a tree, spend more time sharpening the axe. Strategizing your writing involves steps taken to plan research paper actions before you begin the actual writing. This step ensures that you are more productive and ensures that while you write you spend less time. In writing a finance research paper, you will take several approaches to your writing. This could be observing, summarizing, evaluating, arguing, investigating, or analyzing. Keeping in mind the motive of your paper is crucial in this step. Here you shall gather ideas to inform your finance paper.

• Writing and editing

The writing of a finance research paper is the core of this process. There is not much that can be said about the actual writing if one has prepared enough and has settled on an appropriate topic for the research paper. However, man is to err. After writing there are definitely mistakes made in the paper. Not only that, but ideas may also change or new ones may come up. The purpose of editing your finance research paper is to fine line your copy into the most refined version of itself. Here are tips to follow in the process of editing and proofreading.

•  Do not edit your paper immediately after finishing your writing. It is advisable to leave it for a day or a significant period of time before you begin your proofreading and editing.
• If possible to help you in proofreading and editing your paper.  This could be a friend, a family member, or a classmate.
• When performing the editing do it in a chapter based-level.  This helps you to reduce the workload since the finance research paper can be rather a long document.
• Employ different techniques in your editing. Looking out for grammatical errors, checking for a flow of logic, ensuring appropriate use of references, and several others.
• After editing, proofread the whole document again to ensure there was nothing that got overlooked. 

The final version of the paper should not only exhume information but also confidence. 

Top 20 Finance Research paper Topics

Looking at the process of writing an excellent research paper, it is evident that the selection of the topic is one of the cardinal steps of the entire process. Missing out on the best finance research topics can lead a writer to a difficult writing process. Having looked at how to choose the topic itself in the previous section, let us look at the top finance research topics that have been used over time. The list below outline the top 20 finance research paper topics in no particular order:

1. The difference between behavioral finance and traditional finance
2. The impact of budgetary control on organizational performance
3. An analysis of the use of financial states in assessing corporate performance 
4. Ethical concerns associated with corporate finance and how they can be managed
5. Heightening clarity and accountability in corporate organizations
6. Management of huge credits in commercial banks in developing and/or developed countries
7. Merits and demerits of mobile banking in developing and/or developed countries
8. An analysis of credit management and bank lending practices in developing and/or developed countries.
9. Relationship between electronic banking and customer satisfaction
10. Investigating loan defaults and their effects on the profitability of banks
11. Pluses and minuses of investment management
12. Sustainability in relation to green governance for industries that are likely to pollute the environment.
13. How corporate governance and institutional ownership relate to green patents’ generation.
14. Implementation of risk management programs.
15. Microfinancing and alleviation of poverty
16. Transformation of the banking industry by Information technology (IT)
17. Internal controls within accounting firms
18. Corporate Social Responsibility issues in modern banking systems
19. The integration of banks and cryptocurrency in a demonetized world
20. Cybersecurity issues affecting online banking and online transactions

Consolidating these 20 topics, they can all fall under three categories of finance. These categories are as follows:

• Risk management – this is the area of finance that focuses on managing unforeseen financial events with the aim of mitigating the effect on the performance of the company or institution in question.
• Corporate governance – in this area of finance, the topics entail studying the systems of processes and rules of a given organization to understand its governance.
• Investment management – in this area of finance, the study focuses on the management of financial resources by a chosen financial body such as a bank. These resources could be commodities, fixed income instruments, equity, and alternative investments.

Understanding the broad areas first helps in narrowing down your options when picking a finance research paper topic. It is always advisable to not only focus on the areas of financial research that interest you as a writer but also on areas that are not exhausted. By doing so, your research stands a higher chance of adding more value to the existing financial research literature and data.