Research Excellence

The purpose of CESR’s Research Awards is to provide funding to enable and enhance research in the areas of environmental sustainability, social impact, and ethical leadership. The purpose of CESR’s Best Paper Award and Highest Impact Paper Award is to provide an incentive for Leeds researchers to focus their efforts in the areas of environmental sustainability, social impact, and ethical leadership.

To read more about their work and impact, please see our Faculty Thought Leadership articles.

CESR Research Grants & Awards

Each year, CESR enables and recognizes Leeds faculty research via three prizes.

1. CESR Research Grant to fund new research in CESR’s focus areas (up to $10,000 funding is available)
2. CESR Best Paper Award to recognize the best paper that reflects the tradition of academic scholarship and is of relevance for business and society at large ($1,000)
3. CESR Highest Impact Paper Award to recognize the paper that has gained the most press/media mentions in addition to academic citations ($1,000)

Further details are available in the Request for Proposals and Call for Submissions. 

Best Paper Award (Leeds Faculty in Bold)

• 2026: Sebastián Villa, Rafael Escamilla, Jan C. Fransoo. (2024) Supplying Cash-Constrained Retailers: Understanding Shopkeeper Behavior at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management 26(6):2030-2049.
• 2025: John Dooley and Emily Gallagher, Blood Money: Selling Plasma to Avoid High-Interest Loans, Review of Financial Studies, 2024
• 2024 (Co-Winner): Wonjae Chang, Michael Damba, Bryce Schonberger, and Inho Suk, Does Sensationalism Affect Executive Compensation? Evidence from Pay Ratio Disclosure Reform, Journal of Accounting Research, 2022
• 2024 (Co-Winner): Dejun "Tony" Kong, Sanghee Park, and Jian Peng, Appraising and Reacting to Perceived Pay For Performance: Leader Competence and Warmth as Critical Contingencies, Academy of Management Journal, 2023
• 2023: Beth Embry, Jeff York, Michael Conger, and Sid Vedula, Green to Gone: Regional Institutional Logics and Firm Survival in Moral Markets, Organization Science, 2022
• 2022: Andrea Pawliczek, Nikki Skinner, and Laura Wellman, A New Take on Voice: The Influence of BlackRock’s ‘Dear CEO’ letters, Review of Accounting Studies, 2021, vol. 26, issue 3, No 8, 1088-1136
• 2021: Emily Gallagher, Let the Rich Be Flooded: The Distribution of Financial Aid and Distress after Hurricane Harvey, Journal of Financial Economics (JFE), Forthcoming

Highest Impact Paper Award

• 2026: Austin Moss, James P. Naughton, Clare Wang. (2024) The Irrelevance of Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosure to Retail Investors. Management Science 70(4):2626-2644.
• 2025: Elsa Chan, David Heckman, and Maw Der Foo, An Examination of Whether and How Leader Humility Enhances Leader Personal Career Success, Human Resource Management, 2024
• 2024: Emilio Castilla and Ethan Poskanzer, Through the Front Door: Why Do Organizations (Still) Prefer Legacy Applicants? American Sociological Review, September 2022
• 2023: David Drake, Gloria Urrea, and Karthik Balasubramanian, The Impact of Poverty on Base of the Pyramid Operations: Evidence from Mobile Money in Africa, September 2022
• 2022: Gloria Urrea and Eunae Yoo, The Role of Volunteer Experience on Performance on Online Volunteering Platforms, February 2021
• 2021: David Drake, and Jeff York, Kicking Ash: Who (or What) is Winning the “War on Coal”?, Production and Operations Management, Volume30, Issue7, July 2021, Pages 2162-2187

CESR Research Grants 2026

• Rodrigo Dias and Lindsay Hua. Financial Constraints and Beliefs about Price Negotiability.
• Emily Gallagher and Nick Reinholtz. Perceptions of Household Climate Risk and the Efficacy of Tangible Mitigation Effects.
• Becca Mitchell, Christina Lacerenza, and David Hekman. Breaking and Building: Addressing the Nursing Turnover Crisis with a Multidisciplinary Examination of Dyadic Psychological Safety.
• Austin Moss and Clare Wang. Financial Market Exposure and Sustainability Beliefs.
• Dejun "Tony" Kong. Biased Reactions to Asian Americas' Job Dedication.
• Lawrence Williams. Can Bolstering Belief in the Social Contract Promote Support for Pro-Environmental Policies?

CESR Research Grants 2025

• Sentao Miao, Urban Sustainability: Data-Driven Optimization for Developing Human-Centered Walkable Community
• Ethan Poskanzer, Digitized Business Training for Disadvantaged Microentrepreneurs
• Jaehee Song, Landlord Market Strategies for Housing Choice Voucher Holders

CESR Research Grants 2024

• Stephen Billings & Jaehee Song, Declining Homeownership and Wealth in Minority Neighborhoods: The Role of Corporate Buying of Single-Family Homes
• Dejun "Tony" Kong, “A New Way of Seeing” DEI That Guides Better Practices
• Rebecca Mitchell & Christina Lacerenza, Nurturing the Garden: Team-Level Structures that Promote Female Leadership
• Levente Szentkirályi, No CSR, No Market: Rejecting the Supererogatory Industry Standard of Sustainable Development Goals
• Jeff York, Catching the Wave: The Emergence (or lack thereof) of Marine Energy

CESR Research Grants 2023

• Marcia Kwaramba, ‘Doing More With Less’: Securing Food Security Through Frugal Innovations in Developing Economy Markets
• Liu Liu, Brand Advertising and Climate Change
• Austin Moss, Investment Decisions of Everyday People and Welfare Implications
• Ethan Poskanzer, Automation Technology, Diversity and Performance in Innovation
• Meghan Van Portfliet, Whistleblowing and the Media
• Ash Ganzoury and Jeff York, How Entrepreneurial Ventures Link Business Models to Social and Environmental Impact

CESR Research Grants 2022

• Tony Cookson, Emily Gallagher, and Indeesh Mukhopadhyay, Person-to-Person Giving and Inequalities in Post-Disaster Recoveries
• Eric Alston and Ryan Lewis, Making Water Markets More Liquid? – Institutional Resilience to Weather Shocks
• Sabrina Volpone, Exploring the Use of Identity Management during the Grief Process in Employees Who Have Experienced Pregnancy Loss

CESR Research Grants 2021

• Sabrina D Volpone, Am I Committed to Addressing Racism? It May Depend on If My Organization Is Sincere about Racial Justice
• Joshua Steven Nunziato, The Risks and Rewards of Serotonergic Psychedelics for the Ethical Formation of Business Leaders
• Tony Cookson, Love, Politics, and Money: The Consequences of Intra-Family Partisan Disagreement
• Asaf Bernstein, Wealth Inequality: The Role of the “Mortgage Piggy Bank”
• Jonathan Rogers, Socially Responsible Investors and Firm Political Contributions