MP Narayanan, Professor of Finance and Area Chair
Professor Narayanan's current research focuses on corporate governance. In particular, his research with colleague Nejat Seyhun has been instrumental in exposing the practice of executive option backdating. He has worked on various corporate financial topics such as corporate scope, managerial behavior, and management compensation. On corporate scope, he has written about the motives for divestitures, how conglomeration can result in inefficient capital allocation, and about the patterns of corporate diversification across various industries and over time. On managerial compensation, he has written about how various compensation schemes distort managerial decision horizons causing, for example, managerial myopia.
The issue of backdating was widely publicized in a story by the Wall Street Journal in March 2006. Professors Narayanan and Seyhun are among the academics who pioneered this research. For further information on backdating and forward dating of executive stock options, click here.
Professor Narayanan teaches a module within the optional Quantitative Skills Workshop program offered prior to the start of the formal EMBA program. He then teaches the introductory Finance course, Managing Capital & Value. He also co-teaches one of the capstone courses in the second year of the EMBA, Strategies for Growth. He was the recipient of the EMBA Teaching Award for Excellence (chosen by graduating EMBA students) in 2004 and 2006.