Jbf Literature Positioning

---
name: jbf-literature-positioning
description: Use when positioning a Journal of Banking & Finance manuscript against banking, intermediation, corporate finance, investments, regulation, and capital-market literatures so the contribution is precise rather than a generic finance literature review.
---

# Literature Positioning (jbf-literature-positioning)

## When to trigger

- The introduction lists papers but does not state the gap
- The paper risks being seen as "another setting" rather than a contribution
- You need to route citations across banking, finance, regulation, and adjacent economics literatures

## Positioning logic

JBF referees expect the paper to know the finance frontier. Positioning should
therefore compare the manuscript with the closest papers on question, mechanism,
data, and design, not with a broad topical survey.

1. **Identify the closest 5-8 papers** and state what each establishes.
2. **Separate literature families**: banking/intermediation, corporate finance,
   market microstructure/asset pricing, regulation, and method/design papers.
3. **State the delta**: new mechanism, better identification, new measurement,
   broader setting, sharper policy implication, or theory-to-evidence bridge.
4. **Explain why the delta matters for JBF readers**: bank behavior, credit
   allocation, market functioning, regulation, or investor outcomes.
5. **Avoid novelty by omission**: if a paper is close, cite it early and explain
   the difference directly.

## Standard contribution paragraph

```text
This paper contributes to [literature] by showing [finding/mechanism] in
[setting]. Relative to [closest paper], which [what it does], we [new data/design/
mechanism] and show [increment]. This matters because [banking/finance implication].
```

## Anti-patterns

- "To our knowledge" claims without naming the closest prior paper
- Putting all citations in one paragraph with no hierarchy
- Treating a proprietary dataset as the contribution by itself
- Ignoring identification papers that create the credibility bar

## Output format

```text
[Closest paper] citation + result
[Your delta] data / design / mechanism / scope / policy
[Literature buckets] ...
[Must-cite missing items] ...
[Positioning sentence] ...
[Next step] jbf-identification-strategy
```