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The primary purpose of this study is the development of Zimbabwe's rescue culture. The current framework for rescue operations was shaped by the historical development of laws pertaining to insolvency and liquidation. Socioeconomic pressures in Zimbabwe can be attributed to some of the main factors that led to the need for rescue legislation and restructuring, which in turn fueled the shift from a culture that supported credit to one that supported debtors. The aim of this study is to offer an overview of the key ideas and principles of the corporate rescue programs now implemented in Mauritius and to investigate the ways in which these ideas and principles impacted the newly enacted Zimbabwean Insolvency Act.

This study adopts a comparative legal approach using Zimbabwe and Mauritius as comparative case studies. The fact that both countries are former British colonies and their insolvency legal framework inspired by common law makes them appropriate to be compared. Legislation and case law are used to conduct the comparative study with the aim of Zimbabwe drawing lessons from the Mauritian legal framework on insolvency. Mauritius is a nearly ideal subject for a comparative case study because of its vibrant and fairly successful bankruptcy law framework, as well as its fictional corporate rescue culture. These might provide Zimbabwe with some motivation and guidance.

The legal framework on insolvency in Zimbabwe has been found to be too stringent and does not provide companies with any lifeline. There is arguably a tendency of forcing companies out of business rather than implementing a rescue culture. Selected aspects of the Mauritian legal framework on insolvency can be mapped onto the Zimbabwean system to implement a much-needed rescue culture given its challenging economic context.

This study contributes to comparative legal literature in the field of insolvency. It is among the very few research work that compares the legal structure on insolvency of Zimbabwe and Mauritius in a collaborative endeavor to enhance the insolvency law and its application in Zimbabwe.

The authors examine whether internal corporate governance mechanisms are effective in curbing cash flow manipulation through real activities, misclassification, and timing.

The sample comprises of firms from an emerging market, India with data for years 2004 through 2015. The authors use the methodology given in Roychowdhury (2006).

The authors find that corporate boards in India play an active role in curbing cash flow manipulation through real activities but fail to control cash flow manipulation through misclassification and timing.

The study suggests that corporate boards should pay more attention to the reported cash flow numbers. Regulators can reduce the opportunities available for cash flow misclassification by fixing relevant accounting and governance norms. Auditors can also help by critically focusing on the cash flow classifications presented by management.

This study, to the authors’ knowledge, is the first study that talks about the role of internal governance in a trade-off between different cash flow manipulation techniques.

This study aims to provide insights into US and Australian analysts' views regarding the relative importance of disclosing the direct method (DM) or indirect method (IM) statement of cash flows and forecasting firm performance.

Evidence is collected from responses to 104 surveys and 52 interviews completed by US and Australian analysts from 2017 to 2022. The survey and interview questions are developed with reference to the literature.

US and Australian analysts believe that the DM format provides incremental benefits compared to the IM for (1) confirming the reliability of earnings; (2) improving earnings confidence; (3) more accurate ex ante forecasts of operating cash flow and earnings; and (4) identifying opportunistic accruals manipulation. Analysts view that DM disclosure can lower firm-level cost of equity, although US interviewees more uniformly expect lower costs of equity under DM disclosure when firms yield low earnings quality. DM disclosure is also more important during unstable economic periods, as proxied by COVID-19.

Limited research currently exists regarding disclosure of the DM or IM and its impact on analysts' forecasting accuracy, earnings quality, economic uncertainty and cost of equity. Previous research has relied on archival research to examine differences between the DM and IM methods and are limited by data availability. Our findings are particularly relevant to the US market with few US firms reporting the DM format.

The study examines the influence of a firm's life cycle on the cash flow classification of Indian firms.

The study employs Dickinson's (2011) cash flow patterns to classify firm years under various life-cycle stages. Cash flow classification is employed to measure a firm's classification shifting (CS) practices. The study includes Indian firms listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange during 2012–2020, an ordinary least squares regression model, a fixed-effect model and a panel corrected with standard error regression method.

Firms face different opportunities and challenges at different stages of the firm's life cycle and therefore adopt cash flow CS. The results show that firms adopt cash flow CS during introduction, growth and decline stage of life cycle either to boost or to reduce operating cash flows.

This study is one of its kind to study the influence of a firm's life cycle on the cash flow classification of Indian firms.

The present paper examines whether tax avoidance practices affect productivity in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study also analyses whether this association is moderated by firm size, firm financial constraints, management control of cash flows, or information risk.

This study used a sample of Spanish SMEs for the period 2006–2020. Tax avoidance was measured as the difference between the statutory tax rate and the effective tax rate, and three proxies for productivity were used: overall productivity, capital productivity and labour productivity. Firm fixed effects regressions, propensity score matching and change regressions were used to address the potential sample selection bias and endogeneity between tax avoidance and productivity.

The results of the empirical analysis suggest that tax avoidance increases productivity in SMEs. This beneficial effect of tax avoidance was found to be higher in small firms than in medium-sized firms, but smaller in firms that faced financial constraints. Furthermore, the findings showed that the tax avoidance effect on productivity was stronger in firms where managers had less control over the cash flow –i.e. dividend-paying firms–, and weaker in firms with lower quality of financial information – i.e. firms with qualified audit reports.

This study contributes to the research on the economic consequences of tax avoidance by examining its impact on firm-level productivity in SMEs. From additional analyses, the findings of the study suggest that the positive effect of tax avoidance on firm productivity depends on firm size, the financial slack of the firm, and the costs of agency conflicts and information problems associated with tax avoidance.

The results of this study have implications for SMEs, suggesting that cash flows obtained through tax avoidance, if properly used, may increase firm productivity. In planning their tax avoidance practices, SME managers could take advantage of specific tax incentives designed for SMEs, which is particularly relevant given the low-productivity levels of these firms. The findings also highlight the importance of maintaining high-quality information and implementing mechanisms to mitigate the agency risks associated with tax avoidance to enhance the productivity of SMEs.

This study provides important insights to policymakers on SME tax policy, supporting the special tax rules for SMEs – in force in many OECD and EU countries – which aim to create an environment conducive to SME growth. The findings of the study also have macroeconomic implications, given the importance of firm productivity as a determinant of economic growth and the relevance of SMEs in most national economies.

This study provides novel empirical evidence on the effects of tax avoidance on firm-level productivity in SMEs. Despite the prevalence of SMEs as the predominant type of organization in most countries, no prior research has comprehensively examined this issue for this type of firm. This research question was addressed by considering proxies for overall, capital, and labour productivity and by examining how SME characteristics affect this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between tax avoidance and earnings persistence in the light of a developing economy, with the main focus on China.

In the analysis, the author conducts a survey on the tax avoidance situation of Chinese listed companies from 2012 to 2020. Then, a multivariate regression analysis is performed in order to analyse the relationship between corporate tax avoidance and earnings persistence.

The findings of the present study show that tax avoidance has a significant positive effect on earnings persistence. However, when the degree of tax avoidance is high, the “risk effect” of tax avoidance exceeds the “value effect”, and tax avoidance will reduce the persistence of earnings. This conclusion is even more prominent when the company is non-state-owned. Further research shows the increase of institutional investors’ shareholding ratio can improve “value effect” of tax avoidance, lessen “risk effect” of tax avoidance, and positively affect the relationship between tax avoidance and earnings persistence.

This study provides evidence for investors to understand the dual effect of tax avoidance on earnings persistence. The results may have implications for regulatory bodies. They can provide a better understanding of the corporate governance role of institutional investors in curbing opportunistic tax avoidance.

This study enriches the research on tax avoidance effects by analysing the impact of tax avoidance on earnings persistence. This study also compensates for the shortcomings of analysing earnings persistence mainly from the perspective of tax differences in the past, and promotes the study of the corporate governance effects of institutional investors under different levels of tax avoidance.

This study investigates the impact of temporary employment on various forms of financial distress for firms during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The authors apply a logit model to evaluate the differences in the probabilities of experiencing financial distress for firms with or without temporary reemployment and for firms with different intensities of temporary workers. As an additional test, an ordinal logistic model is applied to reflect different degrees of financial distress.

Our main results indicate that firms with temporary employment are more likely to experience financial distress than firms without temporary employment, regardless of the severity of financial distress. Among firms with temporary employment, our analysis suggests that a firm’s likelihood of experiencing financial distress depends on its relative share (quantile) of temporary workers.

Our findings provide valuable insights for evaluating the impact of temporary employment on firms’ vulnerability during the COVID-19 crisis and suggest strategies for firms to enhance resilience to similar future crises.

Our study is the first one that explores the relationship between temporary employment and financial distress. Firms around the world have been pursuing flexible labor to improve resilience and firm performance. The pandemic may further ramify this trend, creating a future “new normal” regarding employment relationships, job segmentation and gender equality in the job market. This article adds a new dimension to the evaluation of the new normal, which may help firms evaluate the consequences of temporary employment, especially in times of crisis.

This study investigates the significance of trade credit (TC) as an alternative source of funding in financing the growth of financially dependent firms.

Panel data analysis using the difference generalized method of moments (GMM) and fixed-effects ordinary least squares (FE-OLS) is conducted on annual data from publicly listed firms across a number of developing economies. The data cover the period from 2003 to 2019.

The findings indicate that financially dependent firms rely on TC to manage their growth, especially when they have exhausted their debt capacity. This dependence on TC displays a cyclical pattern. As firms enhance their financial position, they tend to scale back their dependence. Nevertheless, firms with significant growth opportunities continue utilizing TC for at least two years after their initial identification as financially dependent.

The author's conclusion highlights that TC can be a valuable and accessible source of funding, especially in developing economies where the real sector may require alternative financing channels. Hence, TC has the potential to play a very significant role in financing corporate growth in these economies.

The current study adds to the existing body of literature by revealing that access to alternative sources of finance is also critical for firms that are dependent on external sources and for firms that have exhausted their financial debt capacity.

The aim of this research is to examine the effect of corporate sustainability performance on financial performance and the role of agency costs and business risk in determining this effect.

This study uses the data of 83 non-financial Turkish firms listed on Istanbul Stock Exchange during the period 2014–2021. Two-step system GMM models are applied to examine the study’s hypotheses.

The results indicate a positive effect of corporate sustainability performance on financial performance, and that this effect is significant only for firms that are more likely to suffer agency costs of equity, firms with R&D expenditures and firms with lower business risk.

The results of this study confirm the importance of regulations introduced by regulators to support the sustainability initiatives for firms that have less ability to access funds required for their investments. In addition, the findings provide important insight into the role of the persistence of corporate sustainability performance in enhancing financial performance through mitigating managers' opportunistic behavior.

To the author’s knowledge, this research is one of few that examine the effect of agency costs and business risk on the corporate sustainability–financial performance relationship in emerging markets.

The present study reviews the literature on the history and evolution of investment strategies in the stock market for the period from 1900 to 2022. Conflicts and relationships arising from such diverse seminal studies have been identified to address the research gaps.

The studies for this review were identified and screened from electronic databases to compile a comprehensive list of 200 relevant studies for inclusion in this review and summarized for the cognizance of researchers.

The study finds a coherence to complex theoretical documentation of more than a century of evolution on investment strategy in stock markets, capturing the characteristics of time with a chronological study of events.

There were complications in locating unpublished studies leading to biases like publication bias, the reluctance of editors to publish studies, which do not reveal statistically significant differences, and English language bias.

Practitioners can refine investment strategies by incorporating behavioral finance insights and recognizing the influence of psychological biases. Strategies span value, growth, contrarian, or momentum indicators. Mitigating overconfidence bias supports effective risk management. Social media sentiment analysis facilitates real-time decision-making. Adapting to evolving market liquidity curbs volatility risks. Identifying biases guides investor education initiatives.

This paper is an original attempt to pictorially depict the seminal works in stock market investment strategies of more than a hundred years.