About

John R. M. Hand is the Robert March & Mildred Borden Hanes Distinguished Professor at the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business since 2017. His research spans accounting, entrepreneurship, finance, and executive race/ethnicity, with a current focus on measuring, calibrating, and understanding the consequences of the racial and ethnic densities of executives in U.S. public companies, as well as on equity analysts' financial statement forecasts. He co-authored the book "Intangible Assets: Values, Measures and Risks" published by Oxford University Press in 2003 with Baruch Lev of New York University. Dr. Hand has been recognized twice by the American Accounting Association for his scholarship through their competitive manuscript competition. He is an experienced educator, teaching across MBA, Masters of Accounting, Undergraduate, PhD, and Executive Development Programs. His teaching excellence has been acknowledged with multiple awards, including the 2018 UNC Kenan-Flagler Weatherspoon Distinguished Research Award, the 2013 Weatherspoon Award for MAC Teaching, and the 2008 Weatherspoon Distinguished Award for MBA Teaching. Dr. Hand served as associate dean of the Master of Accounting Program at UNC Kenan-Flagler from 2007 to 2011. Beyond academia, he has over 20 years of experience advising start-up companies on business plans and financial modeling. He is also deeply committed to K-12 Christian education, having served as Treasurer and currently Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of Trinity School of Durham & Chapel Hill. Dr. Hand earned his MBA with honors (1981-83) and PhD (1984-87) from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and his B.Sc. from Bristol University, England, where he graduated first in his class with highest honors.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Accounting
• Actuarial science
• Economics
• Business
• Econometrics
• Finance
• Financial economics
• Statistics
• Mathematics
• Law

Selected publications

• Bigger Data + Tinier Results = The Wrong Direction

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Picturing Diversity: Patterns of Race/Ethnicity and Gender Representation on Corporate Websites

  Research Square · 2025-11-13

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Ripple Effect: Examining DEI Backlash from Individual to Institutional Levels

  Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025-07-01

  article

  This symposium brings together five papers, including four empirical and one conceptual article, to examine the antecedents and consequences of DEI backlash. The articles take a micro and macro lens to examine the effects of resistance towards DEI and how to manage the backlash through cyclical change. Our symposium stimulates essential conversations around the current state of DEI. It sheds light on outcomes that have yet to be examined by the current backlash, shedding light on anticipated organizational changes, including executive leadership and board of directors. Dr. Darryl Rice will serve as the discussant for this symposium, offering insights into how these papers enhance our understanding of DEI backlash from both micro and macro perspectives. Anacyclosis and Red Summers: What DEI Backlash’s Predecessors Can Predict Towards the Future Author: Courtney Hart; The University of Texas at Arlington Author: Catrina Palmer Johnson; Kent State University Author: Marla L. White; Virginia Tech Author: LaStarr Hollie; University of Massachusetts Amherst Political Divides in Perceptions of DEI-Driven Culture Change and Divergent Consequences for DEI Resistance Author: Naomi Samuel; Duke University Author: Aaron Kay; Duke University Board Of Directors’ Racial Diversity. A Stakeholder Perspective on Firm Performance Effects Author: Jorge Delgado; Author: Orlando C. Richard; Author: Maria Del Carmen Triana; Resistance To DEI. An Upper Echelons Perspective From Corporate CEOs Author: Howard Jean-Denis; Pepperdine University Author: Mzamo P. Mangaliso; DEI Backlash at the Top: Analyzing Chief Diversity Officer Appointments from 2020-2024 Author: Sekou Bermiss; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Author: Jeremiah Green; Texas A&M University Author: John Hand; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  PublisherDOI

• Correction to: Explaining firms’ earnings announcement stock returns using FactSet and I/B/E/S data feeds

  UNC Libraries · 2025-06-07

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Explaining firms’ earnings announcement stock returns using FactSet and I/B/E/S data feeds

  UNC Libraries · 2025-06-07

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Does Greater Diversity in Executive Race/Ethnicity Reliably Predict Better Future Firm Financial Performance?

  UNC Libraries · 2025-03-26

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Picturing Diversity: Patterns of Race/Ethnicity and Gender Representation on Corporate Websites

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Racial/Ethnic Misrepresentation of and Bias Against Minority Executives

  Journal of Economics Race and Policy · 2024-09-30 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• A reinvestigation of the stock price reactions to announcements of Black top executive appointments

  UNC Libraries · 2023-11-29

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  We investigate the stock market reactions to the announcements of Black CEO and top management team (TMT) appointments in light of two conflicting studies that advance competing and opposite theories. In 2021, Gligor and colleagues theorized that reactions will be negative due to racial stereotyping, and found negative mean stock price reactions for both Black CEOs and TMTs. Conversely, in 2023, Jeong and colleagues theorized that the stock market will respond positively to the appointment of Black CEOs, because these CEOs have to meet a “higher bar” to be appointed. They reported a positive mean reaction to such appointments. In our quasi-replication of these two prior studies, we find a reliably positive mean reaction for Black CEOs but an immaterial median reaction, and no marginal stock price impact to the announcement of the appointment of a Black CEO and TMT executives after controlling for explanatory factors that go outside the racial bias and higher bar theories. In light of the fragility and lack of robustness in these results, we recommend that future research in the area of Black top executives and the stock market be cautious when presenting and interpreting results.

  PublisherDOI

• Does Greater Diversity in Executive Race/Ethnicity Reliably Predict Better Future Firm Financial Performance?

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jeremiah Green

  31 shared

• Rhoda Taylor

  NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre

  26 shared

• Sheila M. Griffiths

  Walton Centre

  26 shared

• John D. Harnett

  Memorial University of Newfoundland

  26 shared

• Paul E. Barré

  26 shared

• Anthony King

  University of Exeter

  25 shared

• Patrick S. Parfrey

  Memorial University of Newfoundland

  25 shared

• Ola Bengtsson

  13 shared

Awards & honors

• 2013 UNC Kenan-Flagler Weatherspoon Award for MAC Teaching
• 2008 Weatherspoon Distinguished Award for MBA Teaching
• twice won the American Accounting Association’s competitive…