James Ryans

Dr James Ryans’ research interests include investors' use of financial information; the effects of government monitoring of firms’ financial disclosures; mergers and acquisition synergies, insurance, and disclosure regulation; and the impact of short-sellers and activists on firm disclosures. Dr Ryans has published studies in prestigious academic journals such as the Journal of Accounting and Economics, The Accounting Review, and the Review of Accounting Studies. His work has been cited in the Financial Times, the New York Times, and has been presented to regulators and researchers at the SEC and PCAOB.

In the private sector, Dr Ryans has worked in investments and business development in the insurance industry, and formerly was a consultant at Deloitte & Touche in Toronto. Dr Ryans is an independent director and the audit committee chair of Virgin Galactic Holdings, the NYSE-listed human spaceflight company. He is or has been a non-executive director of other acquisition and technology companies, both public and private.

Dr Ryans is a member of the CFA Society of the UK and currently serves the global CFA Institute in various program support roles.

In addition to his research and professional activities, Dr Ryans is an award-winning teacher at London Business School. He directs the Mergers and Acquisitions executive programme and was named Best Teacher for the Masters in Management degree programme in 2017.

Publications

2021

• Responding to activist short sellers: allegations, firm responses, and outcomes
  Brendel J; Ryans J
  Journal of Accounting Research 2021 Vol 59:2 p 487-528

2020

• Textual classification of SEC comment letters
  Ryans J P
  Review of Accounting Studies 2020 Vol 26 p 37-80 Online first

2018

• Earnings announcement promotions: a Yahoo Finance field experiment
  Lawrence A; Ryans J; Sun E; Laptev N
  Journal of Accounting and Economics 2018 Vol 66:2-2 p 399-414

2017

• Investor demand for sell-side research: SEC filings, media coverage, and market factors
  Lawrence A; Ryans J; Sun E
  Accounting Review 2017 March Vol 92:2 p 123-149

• U.S. audit partner rotations
  Laurion H; Lawrence A; Ryans J
  Accounting Review 2017 May Vol 92:3 p 209-237

2016

• SEC comment letters and insider sales
  Dechow P M; Lawrence A; Ryans J
  Accounting Review 2016 March Vol 91:2 p 401-439

Working papers

2020

• Regulatory comment letters in mergers and acquisitions
  Zhang J; Bilinski P; Raonic I; Ryans J
  Social Sciences Research Network

2019

• How Do Representations and Warranties Matter? Risk Allocation in Acquisition Agreements
  Even-Tov O; Ryans J; Solomon S D
  Social Sciences Research Network

2018

• Textual classification of SEC comment letters
  Ryans J
  Social Sciences Research Network

2017

• Investor reliance on the crowd
  Lawrence A; Ryans J; Sun E; Soni A
  Social Sciences Research Network

• Using the EDGAR log file data set
  Ryans J
  Social Sciences Research Network

2014

• Segment management to delay goodwill write-downs
  Laurion H; Ryans J; Tan S T
  Social Sciences Research Network