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Professor Janette Rutterford

Profile summary

  • Visiting Formal Academic
  • Professor of Financial Management
  • The Faculty of Business & Law
  • The Open University Business School
  • Department for Accounting & Finance
  • janette.rutterford

Web links

Professional biography

Janette is Emeritus Professor of Finance and Financial History at the Open University Business School. Prior to joining the OU, Janette worked at Credit Lyonnais as a gilts analyst, taught finance at the London School of Economics, and worked in corporate finance at N.M.Rothschild & Sons Limited.  Janette has acted as pension fund trustee, Board director, consultant, expert witness, and as media expert.

Research interests

Janette's research has centred around corporate finance, investment management, personal finance and the history of finance, investment and saving. She has written a number of texts, notably Corporate Finance & Capital Markets, Financial Strategy, and three editions of An Introduction to Stock Exchange Investment.  Her current work centres round portfolio diversification and the role of investment trusts; designing and evaluating personal financial education; the attitude of women to money; and the role of financial institutions in influencing  social mobility.

Janette's academic papers are in the field of performance measurement, equity valuation, pension funds, women and investment, and the history of investment and saving. She was involved in a major ESRC research grant which investigated women's wealth and investment from 1870 to 1930 completed in 2009. Her paper on the history of equity valuation in 2004 was awarded the Basil Yamey prize for the best published paper in Accounting, Business and Financial History in that year. She was co-editor with Professor Josephine Maltby of York University and Professor Anne Laurence of the Open University of a 2009 edited text: Women and their Money, 1700 to 1950 and, with David Green, Josephine Maltby, and Alastair Owens, of a 2011 OUP edited text: Men, Women and Money: Perspectives on Gender, Wealth and Investment 1850-1930. 

Janette's current research is on individual investors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the origins of institutional fund management, and the role of gender in investment decision making both today and in the past.

Teaching interests

Janette has been responsible for the creation of a number of key finance courses in the Business School, notably the Investment and Portfolio Management module for the Masters in Finance, as well as the MBA Financial strategy (B821 and BB831) courses, and the undergraduate courses You and your Money: Personal Finance in Context (DB123) and Personal Finance in an Uncertain World (DB234).

Janette has also been involved in the development of three MOOCs, Managing My Money, Managing My Investments, and Managing My Investment Journey. She has contributed to the Open2.net blog accompanying the Money Programme - see her views on getting rich in a recession, the cost of being super-rich, the rise of private equity and the cost of divorce.  She has a blog on WordPress and a Twitter account. She is also a regular contributor on OpenLearn.

Impact and engagement

Janette is on the editorial board of Accounting History Review and on the Ciommittee of the Association of Business Historians.  She acts as referee for a number of journals, in particular , Business History Review, Economic History Review and Business History. 

Until 2009, Janette was a non-executive member of the Strategic Investment Board of the Lord Chancellor's Office of the UK, responsible for monitoring investment of £5bn of investment funds on behalf of individuals.  She has also been a member of a number of government committees, including the Technology Foresight Committee for the financial services sector. 

Janette served as Centre Head for the Department of Accounting and Finance for more than ten years. She is also a key member of the Professoriate Committee for the Business School.  As the most senior member of the Deaprtment, Janette conitnues to act as mentor to more junior colleagues and has been influential in improving the quaility of research output of the Department.

Janette was appointed Research Professor of the True Potential Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance in  2016 - 2018.  She was reponsible for a number of white and green papers, in paritcular, the role of trust in personal finance and also on the role of financial institutions in improving social mobility.  She headed a department of researchers on personal finance as well as contributing to personal financial tools, in particular free on-line courses (MOOCs).

 In 2016, she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in recognition of her contribution to Social Sciences.

External collaborations

Janette was for six years on the Lord Chancellor's Strategic Investment Board. three years on the financial services Technology Foresight Committee, eight years a non-executive director of Scott Bader plc, a chemical company with a turnover of £100m., owned by its employees.  She was also a pension fund trustee of Scott Bader until 2009.  She has advised a number of pension funds and currently acts as an expert witness in investment-mismanagement cases.  More recenlty, her work as Research Director for the True Potential Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance has meant working with government, regulators, charities, and financial institutions to improve financial education provision and effectiveness, and to work on social mobility. 

Janette appears frequently on television and radio as an investment expert, and writes for professional magazines and newspapers as well as in academic journals.She is currently writing a novel based on her experience of working in an investment bank in the 1970s. 

Janette is a visiting professor at the Basque University of Bilbao and ESCP-Europe in Paris. She has dual French/British nationality and divides her time between France and the UK.  Janette works with financial institutions across the globe in a number of ways:  acting as expert witness; advising on retail personal finance issues (e.g. questionnaires); advising on software retail products; devising risk return strategies; and analysiing the impact of gender on savings goals and investment advice.

Publications

The rise of professional asset management: The UK investment trust network before World War I (2021)
Sotiropoulos, Dimitris P.; Rutterford, Janette and Van Lieshout, Carry
Business History ((Early Access))

UK investment trust portfolio strategies before the First World War (2020-08)
Sotiropoulos, Dimitris; Rutterford, Janette and Keber, Carolyn
Economic History Review, 73(3) (pp. 785-814)

‘“The capital market is dead”: The difficult birth of index-linked gilts in the UK’ (2020-02)
Oliver, Michael J. and Rutterford, Janette
The Economic History Review, 73(1) (pp. 258-280)

Financial diversification strategies before World War I: Buy-and-hold versus naïve portfolio selection (2019)
Sotiropoulos, Dimitris P. and Rutterford, Janette
Business History, 61(7) (pp. 1175-1198)

Individual Investors and Portfolio Diversification in Late Victorian Britain: How Diversified Were Victorian Financial Portfolios? (2018-06-30)
Sotiropoulos, Dimitris P. and Rutterford, Janette
The Journal of Economic History, 78(2) (pp. 435-471)

Is the disposition effect related to investors’ reliance on System 1 and System 2 processes or their strategy of emotion regulation? (2018)
Richards, Daniel W.; Fenton-O'Creevy, Mark; Rutterford, Janette and Kodwani, Devendra G.
Journal of Economic Psychology, 66 (pp. 79-92)

Individual investors and local bias in the UK: 1870-1935 (2017-10-10)
Rutterford, Janette; Sotiropoulos, Dimitris P. and Van Lieshout, Carry
The Economic History Review, 70(4) (pp. 1291-1320)

The Rise of the Small Investor in the US and the UK, 1895 to 1970 (2017-09-30)
Rutterford, Janette and Sotiropoulos, Dimitris P.
Enterprise & Society, 18(3) (pp. 485-535)

Stock market investors' use of stop losses and the disposition effect (2017)
Richards, Daniel W.; Rutterford, Janette; Kodwani, Devendra and Fenton-O'Creevy, Mark
European Journal of Finance, 23(2) (pp. 130-152)

Putting all their eggs in one basket? Portfolio diversification 1870 to 1902 (2016)
Rutterford, Janette and Sotiropoulos, Dimitris
Accounting History Review, 26(3) (pp. 285-305)

Financial diversification before modern portfolio theory: UK financial advice documents in the late nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century (2016)
Rutterford, Janette and Sotiropoulos, Dimitris P.
The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 23(6) (pp. 919-945)

Investing in charities in the nineteenth century: The financialization of philanthropy (2016)
Maltby, Josephine and Rutterford, Janette
Accounting History, 21(2-3) (pp. 263-280)

The shareholder voice: British and American accents, 1890-1965 (2012-03)
Rutterford, Janette
Enterprise & Society, 13(1) (pp. 120-153)

'Propositions put forward by quite honest men’: company prospectuses and their contents, 1856 to 1940 (2011-10-30)
Rutterford, Janette
Business History, 53(6) (pp. 866-899)

Who comprised the nation of shareholders? Gender and investment in Great Britain, c. 1870–1935 (2011-02)
Rutterford, Janette; Green, David R.; Maltby, Josephine and Owens, Alastair
The Economic History Review, 64(1) (pp. 157-187)

Gross or net? The role of taxation in the history of equity valuation (2010-02)
Rutterford, Janette
Accounting History, 15(1) (pp. 41-64)

Learning from one another's mistakes: investment trusts in the UK and US, 1868 - 1940 (2009-09-16)
Rutterford, Janette
Financial History Review, 16(2) (pp. 157-181)

The financial crisis and its impact on trusts and trustees (2009-04)
Rutterford, Janette
Trusts and Trustees, 15(2) (pp. 104-108)

Lives in the balance? Gender, age and assets in late-nineteenth-century England and Wales (2009)
Green, David R.; Owens, Alastair; Maltby, Josephine and Rutterford, Janette
Continuity and Change, 24(2) (pp. 307-335)

Research shareholding and investment in England and Wales: approaches, sources and methods (2009)
Rutterford, Janette; Maltby, Josephine; Green, David R. and Owens, Alastair
Accounting History, 14(3) (pp. 269-292)

'The Widow, the clergyman and the reckless': women investors in England, 1830- 1914 (2006-04)
Rutterford, Janette and Maltby, Josephine
Feminist Economics, 12(1-2) (pp. 111-138)

'She possessed her own fortune': women investors from the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century (2006-04)
Maltby, Josephine and Rutterford, Janette
Business History, 48(2) (pp. 220-253)

The merchant banker, the broker and the company chairman: a new issue case study (2006-03)
Rutterford, Janette
Accounting, Business and Financial History, 16(1) (pp. 45-68)

From dividend yield to discounted cash flow: a history of UK and US equity valuation techniques (2004-07)
Rutterford, Janette
Accounting, Business and Financial History, 14(2) (pp. 115-149)

Discussion of convertible debt financing: an empirical analysis (1996-03)
Rutterford, Janette
Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, 23(2) (pp. 335-338)

British Investment Trusts 1868 to 1928: Portfolio Diversification and the Beginnings of Institutional Investment (2021)
Rutterford, Janette; Sotiropoulos, Dimitris and Kyparissis, Antonis
In: Arie, A.; Marcuzzo, C. and Rosselli, A. eds. Financial Markets in Perspective - Lessons from Economic History and History of Economic Thought
Publisher : Springer

Everard Hambro, beween investment Banker & investor (2014)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Bonin, Hubert and Brambilla, Carlo eds. Investment Banking History: National and Comparative Issues (19th-21st centuries). Euroclio (78) (pp. 51-82)
ISBN : 978-2-87574-115-8 | Publisher : P.I.E. PETER LANG, S.A. | Published : Brussels

Everard Hambros, between investment banker and inventor (2014)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Bonin, Hubert and Brambilla, Carolo eds. Investment Banking History, National and Comparative Issues (19th - 21st centuries) (pp. 51-81)
ISBN : 978-2-87574-115-8 | Publisher : P.I.E. Peter Lang | Published : Brussels

Valuing equities in the UK and the US: fashions and trends (2012)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Poitras, Geoffrey ed. Handbook of Research on Stock Market Gloablization (pp. 116-136)
ISBN : 978 1 84720 756 2 | Publisher : Edward Elgar | Published : Cheltenham

Gender and finance (2012)
Maltby, Josephine and Rutterford, Janette
In: Knorr Cetina, Karin and Preda, Alex eds. Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Finance. Oxford Handbooks in Business and Managment (pp. 510-528)
ISBN : 9780199590162 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford

Savings and investments (2011-11-04)
Lowe, J. and Rutterford, J.
In: Callaghan, George; Fribbance, Ian and Higginson, Martin eds. Personal Finance (2nd edition) (pp. 174-228)
ISBN : 978-0-230-34811-0 | Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan/The Open University | Published : Basingstoke/Milton Keynes, UK

The evidence for 'democratization' of share ownership in Great Britain in the early twentieth century (2011-04-28)
Maltby, Josephine; Rutterford, Janette; Green, David R.; Ainscough, Steven and Van Mourik, Carien
In: Green, David R.; Owens, Alastair; Maltby, Josephine and Rutterford, Janette eds. Men, Women and Money: Perspectives on Gender, Wealth and Investment 1850-1930 (pp. 184-206)
ISBN : 978-0-19-959376-7 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford

Men, women and money: an introduction (2011)
Green, David R.; Owens, Alastair; Maltby, Josephine and Rutterford, Janette
In: Green, David R.; Owens, Alastair; Maltby, Josephine and Rutterford, Janette eds. Men, Women and Money: Perspectives on Gender, Wealth and Investment, 1850- 1930 (pp. 1-30)
ISBN : 978-0-19-959376-7 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford

The company prospectus: marketing shares on the London Stock Exchange, 1855 to 1940 (2010-11-01)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Watters, Cheryl and Zimnovitch, Henri eds. Histoire des Entreprises du Transport: Evolutions Comptables et Managériales
ISBN : 9782296137660 | Publisher : L'Harmattan | Published : Paris, France

Risk-return strategies (2010-03)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Mazzucato, Mariana; Shipman, Alan; Lowe, Jonquil and Trigg, Andrew eds. Personal Investments in an Uncertain World
ISBN : 9780230246607 | Publisher : Palgrave McMillan | Published : Hampshire, UK

Finance and financial institutions (2010)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Edwards, John Richard and Walker, Stephen. P eds. Routledge Companion to Accounting History
ISBN : 978-0-415-41094-6 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, UK

Women and wealth in fiction in the long nineteenth century 1800-1914 (2009)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Laurence, Anne; Maltby, Josephine and Rutterford, Janette eds. Women and Their Money 1700-1950: Essays on Women and Finance
ISBN : 9780415419765 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, UK

Introduction (2009)
Laurence, A.; Maltby, J. and Rutterford, J.
In: Laurence, A.; Maltby, J and Rutterford, J. eds. Women and Their Money 1700-1950: Essays on Women in Finance
ISBN : 978-0415419765 | Publisher : Routledge

Savings and investments (2007)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Callaghan, George; Fribbance, Ian and Higginson, Martin eds. Personal Finance (pp. 169-222)
ISBN : 978-0-470-02855-1 | Publisher : John Wiley & Sons Ltd | Published : Chichester

The Merchant Banker, the Broker and the Company Chairman: the Thames Iron new issue (2007)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Owen, J. Roger ed. Shipbuilding and Ships on the Thames
Publisher : Greenwich Industrial History Society | Published : London

The World was their oyster: international diversification pre-World War I (2006-02)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Rutterford, Janette; Upton, Martin and Kodwani, Devendra eds. Financial Strategy (2nd Edition)
ISBN : 470016558 | Publisher : John Wiley & Sons Ltd | Published : Chichester, UK

Trends in finance theory: section overview (2006)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Rutterford, Janette; Upton, Martin and Kodwani, Devendra eds. Financial Strategy: adding stakeholder value, 2nd edition (pp. 1-3)
ISBN : 9780470016565 | Publisher : John Wiley & Sons Ltd | Published : Chichester

Adding value through investment; section overview (2006)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Rutterford, Janette; Upton, Martin and Kodwani, Devendra eds. Financial Strategy: adding stakeholder value, 2nd edition (pp. 59-61)
ISBN : 9780470016565 | Publisher : John Wiley & Sons Ltd | Published : Chichester

Adding value through financing: section overview (2006)
Rutterford, Janette
In: Rutterford, Janette; Upton, Martin and Kodwani, Devendra eds. Financial Strategy: adding stakeholder value, 2nd edition (pp. 121-124)
ISBN : 9780470016565 | Publisher : John Wiley & Sons Ltd | Published : Chichester

Men, Women and Money: Perspectives on Gender, Wealth and Investment, 1850-1930 (2011)
Green, David R.; Maltby, Josephine; Owens, Alastair and Rutterford, Janette eds.
ISBN : 978-0-19-959376-7 | Publisher : Oxford University Press | Published : Oxford

Women and their money 1700-1950: Essays on women and finance (2009)
Laurence, Anne; Maltby, Josephine and Rutterford, Janette eds.
ISBN : 978-0-415-41976-5 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London

Financial Strategy (2nd Edition) (2006-02)
Rutterford, Janette; Upton, Martin and Kodwani, Devendra eds.
ISBN : 470016558 | Publisher : John Wiley and Sons Ltd | Published : Chichester, UK

The place to be seen? Annual general meetings in the UK 1890 to 1965 (2010)
Rutterford, Janette
In : Journees de l'Histoire du Comptabilite et du Management (24-26 Mar 2010, Paris, France)

The role of women in ethical and philanthropic stock market investment (2010)
Rutterford, Janette
In : BAVS (British Association of Victorian Studies) Tenth Anniversary Conference: Victorian Forms & Formations (2-4 Sep 2010, Glasgow)

Portfolio diversification in practice: evidence from 1870 to 1902 in England and Wales (2010)
Rutterford, Janette
In : 22nd Annual Conference on Accounting, Business and Financial History (6-7 Sep 2010, Cardiff, Wales)

Spreading the net: distance, shareholding and the geography of risk in England and Wales 1870-1935 (2009)
Green, David and Rutterford, Janette
In : Economic History Society Annual Conference (3-5 Apr 2009, University of Warwick)

'That wide-eyed sceptical curiosity that makes women so formidable': Women's investment behaviour before and after the First World War' (2008)
Rutterford, Janette and Maltby, Josephine
In : 7th European Social Science History Conference (26 Feb - 1 Mar 2008, University of Lisbon, Portugal)

The sleeping partners? Women shareholders in England and Wales, 1870-1935 (2008)
Rutterford, J.; Maltby, J. and Owens, A.
In : Economic History Society Annual Conference (28-30 Mar 2008, University of Nottingham, UK)

Women investors in England and Wales: a class of their own? (2008)
Rutterford, J.; Maltby, J. and Owens, A.
In : Business History Conference (10-12 Apr 2008, Sacramento, USA)

The rise of the small investors in the US and the UK, 1900 to 1960 (2008)
Rutterford, Janette
In : Business History after Chandler, Association of Business Historians Annual Conference (4-5 Jul 2008, University of Birmingham, UK)

The rise of the small investors in the US and the UK, 1900 to 1960 (2008)
Rutterford, Janette
In : Association of Business Historians Conference (21-23 Aug 2008, Bergen, Norway)

Performativity and Financial Markets: Option Pricing in the Late 19th Century (2014-07)
Sotiropoulos, Dimitris and Rutterford, Janette
Innovation, Knowledge and Development Research Centre, The Open University