Book excerpt: Corporate finance is a multifaceted discipline in which everything works in theory but not necessarily in practice. To bridge this gap, intelligently designed and executed surveys are essential in empirically validating conceptual hypotheses and the relative usefulness of various theories. Survey Research in Corporate Finance is a unique summary of state-of-the-art survey research in finance. Baker, Singleton, and Veit catalog and discuss the most important contributions to the field and provide a longitudinal perspective unavailable anywhere else. They offer an objective look at the role survey research in finance should play and illustrate the general and particular aspects of the form this research should take, how it is typically carried out, and how it should ideally be carried out, taking into account considerations developed throughout the book. The book provides financial researchers with a useful overview of survey methodology, synthesizes the major streams or clusters of survey research in corporate finance, and offers a valuable resource and guide for those interested in conducting and reading survey research in finance. Because a variety of views exist on the role of survey research in corporate finance, the authors present key findings from the varying perspectives of finance academics, finance journal editors, and finance practitioners. Synthesizing survey results on major issues in finance and offering knowledge learned from years of communications between academics and practitioners, Survey Research in Corporate Finance enables students and scholars of finance, as well as decision makers in many different kinds of firms, to actually determine how the theories on which their work is based actually play out in practice. This book is an essential, one-of-a-kind reference for any practitioners or academics interested in survey research in corporate finance.