Dr James Bowden
Senior Lecturer
Accounting and Finance
Personal statement
Since joining Strathclyde Business School in 2019, my research and teaching activities have focussed on different areas of financial technology (fintech), primarily concerning the application of unstructured datasets to address financial theory and practice. I have co-authored papers that have been published in a number of journals such as Economics Letters, Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Journal of Comparative Economics, and the European Journal of Finance.
Alongside research, my commentary on financial events has been published by The Conversation UK, the World Economic Forum, MarketWatch and Business Insider.
I am actively engaged in teaching and have twice been shortlisted for the "Best in Faculty - Business" award at the Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Awards. I co-direct the MSc Financial Technology programme, and deliver the Financial Innovations, Applications and Considerations and Textual Analysis in Finance modules. I have previously led the honours year Corporate Financing module, and I currently supervise both undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations, primarily in the areas of applied AI and NLP for financial decision support.
Before starting my PhD, I worked for four years as a Senior Stock Research Analyst and Index Supervisor at Russell Investments (now FTSE Russell), and undertook an internship at Merrill Lynch in Illinois, USA. I have also worked as a Knowledge Transfer Associate at Bangor University. Outside of academia I enjoy athletics and am a keen road, cross-country and hill runner.
Qualifications
PhD in Accounting and Finance, University of Dundee
MSc in Investment Analysis, University of Stirling
BA (Hons) in International Business, Nottingham Trent University
PG Cert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
Publications
- From Crisis to Prosperity : AI and Open Finance for Holistic Financial Health and Smart Future Planning
- Bukovski Kal, Jain Kushagra, Cummins Mark, Bowden James, Tetteh Godsway Korku, Khang Zi
- Financial Regulation Innovation Lab White Paper Series Financial Regulation Innovation Lab White Paper Series (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.17868/strath.00094718
- Recognition and disclosure of intangibles under International Financial Reporting Standards
- Ibrahim Salma, Bowden James, Elmarzouky Mahmoud, Al‐Kilani Mahmoud
- Abacus (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1111/abac.70015
- Supply Chain Intelligence : Actionable Risk Assessment of Brazilian Commodity Supply Chains Using Geospatial Data
- Owens Steve, Bowden James, Cummins Mark
- Financial Regulation Innovation Lab White Paper Series Financial Regulation Innovation Lab White Paper Series (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.17868/strath.00094187
- A multimodal sentiment classifier for financial decision making
- Todd Andrew, Bowden James, Cummins Mark, Su Yang
- International Review of Financial Analysis Vol 105 (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104322
- Generative AI for Simplified ESG Reporting in Financial Services
- Zhang Hao, Bowden James, Cummins Mark
- Financial Regulation Innovation Lab White Paper Series Financial Regulation Innovation Lab White Paper Series (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.17868/strath.00089574
- Large Language Model Application for Regulatory Horizon Scanning : Case Study on Anti-Greenwashing Regulations
- Zhang Hao, Dao Daniel, Bowden James, Cummins Mark
- Financial Regulation Innovation Lab White Paper Series Financial Regulation Innovation Lab White Paper Series (2025)
- https://doi.org/10.17868/strath.00092580
Teaching
I have delivered classes at Strathclyde Business School since joining at 2019, and I have had the pleasure of engaging with students who have gone on to pursue great careers in the financial technology ecosystem, and the broader financial services sector. I have been co-director of the MSc Financial Technology at Strathclyde Business School since 2019. I created, and currently teach, the Fintech Innovations, Applications and Considerations and Textual Analysis for Finance postgraduate modules. Until 2025, I was responsible for delivering the Corporate Financing module for honours year students.
Each year I supervise end-of-year financial technology projects for postgraduate students, and finance-related undergraduate honours year dissertations. Previously, I delivered the Financial and Financial Management module to students in our Glasgow and Dubai campuses, and I previously taught the Future of Fintech module for the MSc Strategic Fintech in Bahrain.
I have been shortlisted for "Best in Faculty - Business" at the Strathclyde Teaching Excellence Awards in 2021 and 2022.
Research Interests
My research explores various aspects of financial technology and includes working with novel unstructured datasets such as text, audio and earth observation data in a finance context.
More recently, my research has investigate applications of Explainable, Generative and Agentic AI to financial problems. I also conduct research in more traditional areas of corporate finance and financial markets.
As a co-investigator within the Financial Regulation Innovation Lab (FRIL), funded by the UK Government via Innovate UK, I am responsible for the joint coordination of research activities undertaken Research Associates Hao Zhang and Kushagra Jain and Senior Research Fellow Steve Owens. FRIL produces industry-relevant research and white papers on the topic of financial regulation and regulatory technology.
I have succesfully supervised one PhD student through to completion, and I am currently supervisor for a number of doctoral students. Phindu Lipenga is investigating the determinants of fintech adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ngoc Anh Chu is evaluating the application of explainable AI and text-audio analysis for transparent ESG reporting. Martin Kemmitt is investigating the hedging activity of firms listed on the AIM submarket of the London Stock Exchange. Zihong Chen is conducting research into the effectiveness of machine learning algorithms for the detection of money laundering. I supervise one MPhil student, Aliya Khan, who is applying transformer models to investigate the relationship between equity and bond markets in light of climate-related announcements.
I have acted as reviewer for manuscripts submitted to the European Journal of Finance, Business Strategy and the Environment, Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management and Qualitative Research in Financial Markets.
My recent multimodal (text-audio) research has been made possible thanks to access to the Finnhub Stock API (a company affiliated with AAPL WACC & DCF), while my earth observation work generally employs open-source models for analysis.
Professional Activities
- Truth Social, introduction en Bourse… comment Trump compte éponger son amende record
- Interviewee
- 24/3/2024
- Truth Social : la planche de salut financier surprise de Donald Trump?
- Interviewee
- 21/3/2024
- SDSN UK - Going green: Debating the socio-economic impacts of achieving Net Zero
- Participant
- 24/1/2024
- DBA External Examiner
- External Examiner
- 15/1/2024
- Business Strategy and the Environment (Journal)
- Peer reviewer
- 8/1/2024
- BAFA Corporate Finance and Asset Pricing SIG 2023
- Participant
- 13/12/2023
Projects
- Fintech - Centre of Innovation in Financial Regulation (Glasgow City Region - Extension)
- Cummins, Mark (Principal Investigator) Basu, Devraj (Co-investigator) Bowden, James (Co-investigator) Shaw, Eleanor (Co-investigator) Tapinos, Efstathios (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2025 - 31-Jan-2026
- Reaching New Heights: Strengthening the Scotland Ireland Partnership with Satellite Data (Strathclyde UCD research feasibility study)
- Owens, Steven Robert (Principal Investigator) Bowden, James (Co-investigator) Cummins, Mark (Co-investigator) Macdonald, Malcolm (Co-investigator) McKee, David (Co-investigator) White, Chris (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2024 - 31-Jan-2025
- Fintech. Centre of Innovation in Financial Regulation (Innovation Accelerator)
- Cummins, Mark (Principal Investigator) Basu, Devraj (Co-investigator) Bowden, James (Co-investigator) Revie, Matthew (Co-investigator) Shaw, Eleanor (Co-investigator)
- 01-Jan-2023 - 31-Jan-2025
- Externally Employer Funded Phd Reserve bank of Malawi - LIPENGA, PHINDU - Why digital banking adoption in Malawi has been limited and can the successes in the United Kingdom be emulated to the Malawi environment?
- Marshall, Andrew (Co-investigator) Bowden, James (Principal Investigator) Lipenga, Phindu (Principal Investigator)
- Why digital banking adoption in Malawi has been limited and can the successes in the United Kingdom be emulated to the Malawi environment?
- 10-Jan-2021
Contact
Dr
James
Bowden
Senior Lecturer
Accounting and Finance
Email: james.bowden@strath.ac.uk
Tel: 548 3899