UCLouvain
Professor of Finance at the Louvain School of Management; member of the Louvain Research Institute in Management and Organizations (LouRIM).
About James
Finance. Language.
Conviction.
Professor of Finance — UCLouvain — Shanghai University
I connect rigorous research with the decisions that investors, companies and institutions face.
Biography
From financial narratives
to economic understanding.
I am Prof.dr. James Thewissen, Professor of Finance at UCLouvain and affiliated with Shanghai University. My research focuses on financial linguistics: the information conveyed through language and the way it shapes investor decisions, corporate behavior and entrepreneurial financing.
My work covers corporate disclosures, crowdfunding, initial coin offerings and sustainability communication. I combine textual analysis and natural language processing with ESG, ICO and crowdfunding data to examine how, when and why qualitative information matters.
Alongside academic research and teaching, I have worked with the European Union, the National Bank of Belgium and major listed companies in the United States and Europe to help improve how they report qualitative information.
I hold a PhD in Business Economics from KU Leuven and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Academic leadership & engagement
Shanghai University
International academic engagement through SILC Business School, connecting research and teaching across Europe and China.
Corporate relations
Vice-Dean for Corporate Relations & Communication at the Louvain School of Management.
An international research network
Belgium. China. United States.
My collaborations connect UCLouvain, Shanghai University and colleagues at institutions including the University of Illinois Chicago. This international exchange informs my research, teaching and engagement with organizations.
Research recognition · 2026
2026Santiago, Chile
Best PhD Paper Award
9th Cryptocurrency Research Conference
Time Will Tell: Linguistic Temporality and Investor Decisions in Digital Entrepreneurial Finance
Co-authored with Diego Barrio Herrezuelo, Feilian Xia and Jennifer Thewissen. The paper received the Best PhD Paper Award, presented to Diego Barrio Herrezuelo at CRC2026.
Read the university announcement ↗Let’s connect
Let’s build the evidence.
For research, data partnerships and consulting enquiries.