jcf-literature-positioning - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: jcf-literature-positioning description: Use when positioning a manuscript within the corporate-finance literature for the Journal of Corporate Finance (JCF) — locating the paper in the right strand (capital structure, governance, payout, contracting, M&A, international) and stating the marginal contribution. It frames citations and gap statements; it does not draft full sections.

Literature Positioning (jcf-literature-positioning)

When to trigger

Writing the related-literature paragraphs and the "we contribute by…" sentence
Mapping which corporate-finance strand the paper extends
Ensuring the cited lineage matches JCF's empirical/theoretical corporate-finance remit

How JCF positioning works

JCF readers expect a paper to sit inside a recognizable corporate-finance conversation, not a generic finance one. Identify the precise strand:

Capital structure / debt design / leverage dynamics
Corporate governance / ownership / monitoring / control
Payout policy (dividends, repurchases)
Financial contracting (covenants, syndication, security design)
Risk management, innovation financing, M&A, international corporate finance

Then state the marginal contribution against the closest two or three papers, not a wall of citations.

Reference handling (verified)

In-text citations are author-date (Harvard-style), name and year in parentheses, e.g., (Campbell and Peden, 2005).
At first submission JCF runs "your paper, your way" — references may be in any consistent style as long as required elements (authors, titles, year, volume, pages/article number) are present; DOIs encouraged. Full Elsevier reference styling applies at revision/acceptance.

Positioning checklist

The paper's strand and sub-question are named explicitly
The 2–3 closest papers are cited and differentiated, not just listed
The gap is a real, current gap (not closed by a recent paper you missed)
Cross-area links (asset pricing, law, fintech, household finance) are drawn only where they sharpen the corporate-finance point

Closest-paper contrast

For each close paper, write:

[Paper] studies [decision/friction] using [setting/design]. We differ by [variation/data/model] and show
[mechanism or magnitude] for [corporate-finance outcome].

This prevents vague "we add to" claims. JCF positioning should tell the editor why the marginal result changes a corporate-finance conversation, not simply why the dataset or period is newer.

Strand map: what each JCF conversation rewards

Strand                  | Benchmark conversation                     | What positioning must show
Capital structure       | Trade-off vs. pecking order; debt dynamics | Which theory the new variation discriminates
Governance              | Boards, ownership, monitoring channels     | Whose incentive changed and how you observe it
Payout                  | Dividends vs. repurchases; signaling/taxes | Composition vs. level; clientele implications
Financial contracting   | Covenants, syndication, security design    | The contracting friction the data isolates
M&A / restructuring     | Synergies, agency, market for control      | Why this deal variation separates the stories
ESG / CSR               | Values vs. value; greenwashing debates     | A firm decision, not an ESG-score correlation
Entrepreneurial finance | VC contracts, staging, exit                | Selection vs. treatment in investor effects
International           | Investor protection, law and finance       | Institutional variation doing identifying work

Name the row, then position inside it; papers that straddle rows without choosing read as unfocused at the desk screen.

Worked positioning: an ESG–payout vignette

Hypothetical: a paper finds firms entering a sustainability index cut dividends. Weak positioning: "We add to the ESG literature and the payout literature." JCF-ready positioning names the row (payout, with an ESG instrument), the two closest papers (one on index-inclusion effects on governance, one on ESG and investment), and the wedge: prior work shows index entry changes ownership composition; this paper shows the new clientele tolerates lower dividends — an illustrative 0.4-percentage-point-of-earnings cut concentrated in firms with the largest institutional-entry. The gap sentence: clientele effects on payout composition were asserted in the dividend literature but never tied to a quasi-random ownership shock.

Positioning pushback and the JCF repair

"Paper X already did this." → Write the contrast block for paper X explicitly; if the wedge is only the sample period, concede and reposition on mechanism or measurement.
"This is law-and-finance, not corporate finance." → Keep the institutional variation as the instrument but make the positioned conversation a firm decision — financing, payout, investment.
"Too many literatures." → Cut to one home strand plus at most one bridge; intros claiming three contributions to three literatures invite the desk.
"Missing recent working papers." → Sweep SSRN and recent JCF issues for the last three years before claiming the gap; single-anonymized referees often wrote those papers.

Anti-patterns

A literature dump that never says what is new here.
Positioning against an old paper while ignoring recent work — invites a referee's "already done" rejection.
Borrowing an asset-pricing framing that obscures the corporate-finance question.

Output

【Strand】<capital structure / governance / …>
【Closest work】<2–3 cites> — differentiation: <one line each>
【Gap】<one sentence>  【Contribution】<one sentence>