What American Finance Association does

The American Finance Association (AFA) is a nonprofit professional academic association founded in 1940 and headquartered at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Its core function is the curation, publication, and dissemination of peer-reviewed academic research in financial economics. The association operates the Journal of Finance — its flagship publication, in Volume 81 in 2026 and in continuous publication since 1946 — which is widely regarded as the premier academic journal in the field. The Journal of Finance: Insights and Perspectives (JF: I&P) serves as a companion publication offering a separate submission track for shorter, more accessible research pieces. Manuscript management is handled through Editorial Express, and journal distribution is performed by John Wiley & Sons.

The AFA's business model is built on recurring membership dues, institutional and individual journal subscriptions, annual conference registration, and transactional revenue from job postings on the AFA Career Center (powered by Madgex). The annual meeting, scheduled for January 3–5, 2027, draws thousands of finance academics and functions as the primary engagement venue alongside the journal. Member services extend to the AFA Finance Directory, the Junior Faculty Mentoring Program, and dedicated committees — AFFECT (Academic Female Finance Committee) and CORD (Committee on Racial Diversity) — that support inclusion and career development.

The association's primary customer base comprises academic finance researchers, PhD students in finance, and academic employers (universities and business schools recruiting faculty). It does not develop proprietary technology beyond its website (built with SkyMark Corporation) and uses Authorize.Net for PCI/DSS-compliant payment processing. The organization operates under GDPR-aligned privacy practices and is governed by an elected board of directors and officers, with Antoinette Schoar currently serving as Editor of the Journal of Finance and Annette Clark departing after twelve years as Executive Secretary and Treasurer.

Name

American Finance Association

Legal name

American Finance Association

Website

https://afajof.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1940

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The American Finance Association (AFA), founded in 1940 and headquartered at the University of Utah, is a nonprofit academic association that publishes the Journal of Finance — the flagship peer-reviewed journal in financial economics — and serves finance academics, PhD students, and universities through membership, an annual meeting, awards, and career services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Academic Association

NAICS

Finance and Insurance (52)

akta.pro primary industry

Finance & Investment Conferences (MPAGAGAG)

Keywords

• Academic journal publishing
• Professional finance association
• Academic conference organization
• Scholarly membership services
• Financial economics research

Headquarters

HQ city

Pulaski

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Annual membership fees that provide access to member benefits including the Journal of Finance delivery, access to the AFA Finance Directory, and participation in the annual conference.
2. Journal Subscriptions: Subscriptions to the Journal of Finance for non-members and institutional access.
3. Annual Meeting Registration: Conference registration fees for the annual meeting where thousands of academics attend.
4. Job Postings: Employers pay to post job listings on the AFA Careers platform.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

The American Finance Association is a professional academic organization that publishes the Journal of Finance, one of the most prestigious peer-reviewed journals in financial economics. It sells annual memberships, operates an academic job board, and hosts a premier annual meeting that brings together thousands of finance academics for research presentation, networking, and awards.

Product overview

The American Finance Association is a professional academic organization that operates primarily as a journal publisher and membership services platform. Its core product is the Journal of Finance (Volume 81, 2026), supplemented by Journal of Finance: Insights and Perspectives. The organization provides member services including the AFA Finance Directory, Career Center (powered by Madgex), AFFECT committee, and Junior Faculty Mentoring Program. All publications are distributed by John Wiley & Sons, with manuscript management handled through Editorial Express and conferences managed via Conference Maker.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Journal of Finance: The premier academic journal in finance, published bimonthly with peer-reviewed research articles.
• JF: I&P (Journal of Finance: Insights and Perspectives)
• AFFECT
• CORD

Products and services

• Journal of Finance
• Journal of Finance: Insights and Perspectives (JF: I&P)
• AFA Finance Directory
• AFA Career Center
• AFA Membership
• AFA Annual Meeting

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• John Wiley & Sons, Inc.coreTechnology or IntegrationJohn Wiley & Sons handles journal publication and distribution for the Journal of Finance, the flagship publication of the American Finance Association.
• Editorial ExpresscoreTechnology or IntegrationProvides manuscript management system for processing academic paper submissions to the Journal of Finance.
• Conference MakercoreTechnology or IntegrationManages conference coordination and logistics for the annual AFA meeting.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• American Economic Association: The AEA is the closest peer: a U.S. nonprofit academic association that publishes the flagship American Economic Review and hosts the largest economics annual meeting (AEA/ASSA). It runs on the same membership-dues + subscription + annual-meeting + job-board model and serves the directly adjacent economics research community.
• Western Finance Association: WFA is a regional U.S./international academic finance association that organizes an annual finance conference and historically co-published the Journal of Finance. It is the most direct competing conference venue for finance academics and a structural peer.
• Financial Management Association: FMA is a peer academic association serving finance researchers and educators, publishing Financial Management and the FMA Online Job Board. It competes directly with the AFA for finance faculty membership, conference attendance, and journal submissions.
• Society for Financial Studies: SFS publishes the Review of Financial Studies, one of the top finance journals, and runs the RFS conference for finance academics. It operates the same nonprofit association + flagship journal + conference model as the AFA and competes for the same author and subscriber base.
• Econometric Society: The Econometric Society is a peer international academic association publishing Econometrica and running the World Congress of the Econometric Society. It serves an adjacent quantitative-economics research community with the same membership + journal + conference model.

Others

• CFA Institute: CFA Institute is a global finance professional membership organization with the CFA Program. It serves practitioners rather than academics, but operates a similar professional-association model with membership dues, publications, and credentials, making it an adjacent ecosystem peer.
• National Bureau of Economic Research: NBER is a closely affiliated private research organization that co-produces working papers and policy engagement with the academic economics and finance community. It is thematically related but does not operate the membership/journal/conference model directly competing with the AFA.

Broad incumbents

• INFORMS: INFORMS is a larger academic association for operations research and analytics, publishing multiple journals and hosting major conferences. It uses the same nonprofit professional-association model and overlaps with finance quantitative researchers.
• Academy of Management: AOM is a large academic management association publishing multiple journals (AMR, AMJ) and running the Annual Meeting. It is a broader incumbent using the same membership-dues, journal, and annual-meeting playbook as the AFA.

Regional players

• European Finance Association: EFA is the European counterpart that publishes the Review of Finance and hosts the annual EFA conference. It competes for the same pool of global finance academic authors and members but with a primarily European footprint.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/american-finance-association
• Xx.com/joffinance
• Facebookfacebook.com/afajof

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about American Finance Association