In this episode, Professor Magda Osman and Dr Sarah Jenkins discuss risk communication, exploring what role the social sciences play in risk communications, whether it can ever be objective, how people perceive and tolerate risk differently, and how trade-offs and context shape the risk decisions people make.

This episode was recorded on 4th August 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Magda Osman holds a Visiting Professor of Impact Position at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, and is a Research Professor at the Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. She is a psychologist by training, with a specific interest in decision-making under risk and uncertainty, risk analysis and causal analysis, folk beliefs in the manipulation of the unconscious, as well as an interest in examining effectiveness of methods of behavioural change.

Dr Sarah Jenkins is a Lecturer in Applied Decision-Making and a cognitive psychologist, with extensive experience of conducting applied research focusing on how people understand, communicate and make decisions concerning risk and uncertainty. She holds a joint post between the Centre for Decision Research at Leeds University Business School, and the Met Office, where she is applying social science techniques to deliver high-impact decision research in areas related to weather and climate.

Addi Manolopoulou speaks to Professors Shima Amini and Abdul Mohamed about their recent research on how climate change risk affects the performance of newly listed firms in the US. The discussion highlights how drought exposure, investor sentiment, and mandatory climate disclosures influence Initial Public Offerings (IPO) outcomes. With implications for investors, policy makers, and company leaders, the findings position climate risk as a financial concern, not just an environmental one.

This episode was recorded in July 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

Read the journal article: “Climate change risk, investor sentiment, and the performance of new entrant firms”, Small Business Economics.

About the speakers:

Addi Manolopoulou is the Departmental Manager for the Accounting and Finance Department at Leeds University Business School. She is committed to translating complex research into real-world impact.

Professor Shima Amini is Chair in Entrepreneurial Finance. Her research is focused on entrepreneurial finance, initial public offering, venture capital, private equity, corporate finance, behavioural finance, and market microstructure.

Professor Abdul Mohamed is Chair in Accounting and Finance. His research interests are in the area of corporate finance, venture capital, bankruptcy, and market-based accounting research.

After delivering insightful presentations at the Legal Tech in Leeds 2025 conference, Dr Virág Blazsek and Professor Danat Valizade have come together on our podcast to share some of the key themes they discussed at the event. In this episode, they talk about how legal tech growth is shaped by two main areas - workforce change and energy policy.

This episode was recorded on 24th June 2025. If you would like to get in touch regarding this episode, please contact research.lubs@leeds.ac.uk. A transcript of this episode is available.

About the speakers:

Dr Virág Blazsek is a Lecturer in Commercial, Corporate, and Banking Law and a Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP) at the University of Leeds School of Law. Her recent research, supported by the Michael Beverley Innovation Fellowship, examines FinTech hub development and financial sector transformation in secondary financial centres, focusing on Leeds, the US, and Singapore. The project highlighted the vital role of regional legal and tech clusters - like Leeds - in strengthening the UK’s LegalTech sector, largely due to their strong underlying real economies.

Danat Valizade is Professor of Quantitative Employment Research at Leeds University Business School. His research focuses on labour market inequalities and the future of work; job quality; advanced econometrics, and machine learning.