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This study investigates the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance of the banking sector from the prospective of emerging countries.

This study obtained balance sheet and income statement data for 173 banks in 20 emerging countries from the Bankscope database from 2005–2018. The CSR-related data were taken from the Thomson Reuters ASSET4 database. Moreover, macroeconomic controls such as GDP per capita, inflation, and financial development are attained from the GFDD. The series of institutional quality indices (Political Stability, Rule of Law, Control of Corruption, Government Effectiveness, and Regulatory Quality) is obtained from the WGI. At the same time, national culture and bank regulation are attained from Hofstede Insights and Barth et al. (2013). We used the panel fixed-effects model in our baseline estimations, while 2SLS and GMM were applied to control for endogeneity.

The finding shows that CSR activities significantly improve bank performance, but the effect varies across the bank. Only environmentally friendly activities have shown a significant positive relationship with banking performance for CSR dimensions. However, the social and government dimensions did not significantly affect bank performance. Moreover, a sound institutional and regulatory environment and national norms play an important role in the nexus of CSR activities and bank performance.

This study provides empirical evidence that sheds light on CSR and bank performance in an emerging market context.

This study examines the effect of political connections on the performance of banks in the MENA region separately and then moderated by family, institutional and state ownership.

A hierarchical regression method was used for a sample of 111 banks operating in 10 MENA countries observed from 2009 to 2019.

The results indicate significant negative relationships between political connections and bank performance. Furthermore, institutional and family ownership moderates this relationship; institutional investors and family shareholders attenuate separately the negative impact of political connections on bank performance. Moreover, state ownership positively moderates this relationship; states as shareholders accentuate the negative relationship between political connections and bank performance. Splitting our sample according to bank-specific features (banks in authoritarian regimes versus hybrid regimes, Islamic banks versus conventional banks) confirms our findings. Our results are robust to an alternative measure of bank performance.

Banks operating in the MENA region have to be aware of the consequence of political connections. In addition, they have to take into account the role of ownership structure when they seek to attenuate the harmful effect of political connections.

This paper offers an in-depth understanding of the impact of political connections on bank performance by drawing from two institutional logics: resource dependence logic and agency logic. Some recommendations on the importance of changing the existing ownership structure are highlighted, encouraging some investors to take part in the capital of banks in this region.

The aim of this study is to understand how board structure, size of audit committee (AC), gender diversity and ownership structure influence banks’ performance in Pakistan. This study also aims to examine how various dimensions of governance differently affect the different measures of bank performance.

This study used panel estimation techniques to quantify the impact of various elements of corporate governance on bank performance by taking annual data of 19 Pakistani banks for the period 2013–2020. The corporate governance is measured by board size, CEO duality, AC size, ownership structure and gender diversity. To get the robust results, this study measures bank performance by considering different indicators, namely, return on assets, earning per share, technical efficiency (TE) and total factor productivity. The empirical investigation is based on several well-known and well-accepted governance theories such as the agency theory, the stewardship theory, the tokenism/critical mass theory and the information asymmetry theory.

The findings of the study reveal that the size of board and ACs both significantly improve profitability and productivity, whereas they decrease TE. Further, the findings suggest that most of the indicators of gender diversity significantly deteriorate the performance of banks. However, ownership structure significantly improves banks’ earnings per share and TE. This study further illustrates that CEO’s duality does not have any significant impact on bank performance. This finding holds true for all the performance measures considered for this study.

The findings are of great importance to various stakeholders, especially to policymakers to know about the factors influencing different measures of performance. Specifically, based on these findings, they can devise the result-oriented strategies to enhance the financial and real performance of banks. The findings also suggest that both investors and owners should take into consideration the governance indicators while evaluating banks’ performance by using accounting, market-based, efficiency and productivity measures.

This research adds to the vast body of existing knowledge about the effectiveness of corporate governance by investigating how the different dimensions of corporate governance and gender diversity influence bank performance in a developing country, namely, Pakistan. Further, this study elaborates the domestic rules/regulations, governance theories and governance framework and practices and tries to link the empirical findings with them for better understanding the role of governance in determining the performance of the banking sector of Pakistan.

This research investigated whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) can alleviate the negative effect of non-performing loans (NPLs) on bank performance.

The research employed a sample of European banks over the 2008–2017 period. To resolve endogeneity and heterogeneity problems, the system generalized method of moments (SGMM) model was employed.

First, bank NPLs were negatively and significantly associated with bank performance as measured by the Q-Tobin ratio and the return on assets (ROA). Second, CSR scores exerted a negative and significant effect on the level of NPLs. Finally, the results indicated that bank performance could benefit from the interactional effect of CSR and NPLs.

This study fills the gap in the debate over the mediating role of CSR in the NPLs – bank performance interrelation. In addition, our SGMM analysis yielded more robust and efficient results while resolving endogeneity and heterogeneity problems concerning CSR and bank performance or risk in corporate finance.

CSR practices can play an essential mediating role in the NPLs–bank performance relationship. CSR activities in the European context may reduce the level of NPLs and increase bank performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, studies of the implications of CSR activities on the banking sector are very limited. Indeed, this paper shows that CSR mediates the relationship between CSR practices and NPLs. The results suggest that bank performance could benefit from the interactional effect of CSR and NPLs.

This study examines whether income diversification moderates the relationship between intellectual capital and bank performance among East African banks.

The study uses a sample of 53 East African banks and a panel dataset for the period 2010–2018. The hypotheses are tested through a hierarchical regression model.

The regression results indicate that intellectual capital (IC) significantly affects bank performance. Further, the study finds that income diversification has a negative and significant effect on bank performance. The results indicate that income diversification reduced the overall impact of IC (Value Added Intellectual Capital (VAIC)) efficiency on bank performance for the moderating influence. However, the moderating role of income diversification on the relationship between individual components of VAIC (HCE, SCE and CEE) varies. While income diversification enhanced the impact of structural capital efficiency (SCE) on bank performance, it also reduced the effect of human capital efficiency (HCE). Additionally, income diversification did not moderate the impact of capital employed efficiency (CEE) on bank performance.

This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that non-traditional banking activities influence the IC and bank performance relationship, which is scanty in the existing literature.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a conceptual model of bank performance.

The papers build a system of causal relationships between market structure, strategic choice and bank performance using the path analysis method. The sample includes commercial banks from 11 emerging countries.

Results show that market structure has a positive and indirect effect on bank performance, and that market share has a positive and direct effect on bank performance. Strategic variables related to risk taking and diversification affect directly and indirectly bank performance. The indirect effect occurs via market share. The results suggest that the mediating role played by the strategic choice in the relationship between market structure and performance is complete.

The contribution of this paper is threefold. The first one is to develop a conceptual model to explain bank performance. The model includes simultaneously direct and indirect causal relationships between market structure, strategic choice and bank performance. The second one is the use of the path analysis method to estimate the direct and indirect relationships. The third one is related to the sample including commercial banks in emerging markets.

Relying on the agency theory and the financial intermediation theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent risk governance would improve corporate governance and risk management effectiveness. The paper especially investigates the mediating role that would have the risk governance mechanisms in explaining both of the following relationships: the corporate governance–the banks’ performance, and the risk management–the banks’ performance.

This research uses the Baron and Kenny’s (1986) approach to investigate the mediating effect of risk governance; besides, the study refers to structural equation modeling in carrying out the appropriate panel regressions. The data collection was based largely on Bank scope Database, but some missing qualitative data were gathered manually from the banks’ annual reports available on the banks’ websites.

The study findings illustrate the significant role of risk governance mechanisms in improving both corporate governance and risk management’s effectiveness. Especially, this paper finds that risk governance is fully explaining the corporate governance–bank performance relationship, but risk governance would explain partially the risk management–bank performance relationship. Further, findings suggest that the internal corporate governance mechanisms seem to be more relevant than the external ones in improving the sample bank performance, and that risk management mechanisms seem to impede rather the sample bank performance.

The findings would make an important contribution to the current debate on the need to reinvent the optimal organization of the bank’s board and directorates and would allow readers to develop more cost-effective governance and risk-management thinking. Besides, the findings may help bank deciders and boards to rationalize costs and to focus only on the relevant corporate governance and risk management mechanisms. Finally, findings might illustrate to regulatory instance the importance of recommending risk governance in their coming corporate governance guidance.

The global credit crisis of 2008 caused significant difficulties to financial institutions, so it would be worth enlightening practitioners and policymakers, even regulators, on the importance of considering the level of potential risk and risk monitoring as a key component in the decision-making process, to strengthen the stability and resilience of banks in an increasingly uncertain environment.

The issues raised in the paper are important in that Islamic banking is an integral part of the global banking and finance industry. This paper extends the knowledge of the potential importance of the new concept of risk governance with specific reference to Islamic banking industry peculiarities. It also provides a telling illustration of the need for the enhancements of the Basel Committee’s prudential requirements as well as the accounting and auditing organization for Islamic financial institutions and Islamic Financial Services Board set out especially regarding the consideration of risk in the strategic decision process.

This study aims to investigate the impact of various audit committee (AC) characteristics on the performance of Indian commercial banks. Additionally, it also analyses the non-linear relationship of AC size and AC chairman tenure with bank performance.

A panel data approach has been used in this study. The authors have used the fixed-effect estimation technique to examine the relationship between AC characteristics and bank performance during the period 2009–2010 to 2016–2017.

The authors find that the professional financial education of the AC chairman and members positively affects bank performance. the frequency of the AC meetings and audit chair busyness bears an inverse relationship with performance. The findings are more or less consistent across the various bank performance measures and subsamples classified based on the time period and ownership of the banks.

This study provides insights to policy regulators and policymakers who are entrusted with the establishment of ACs in the banks in light of the ongoing regulatory reforms.

The study is among one of the early studies, which study the relationship between AC characteristics and bank performance in the light of recent regulatory reforms. It also extends the existing study by considering both public and private banks operating in India.

This paper examines the impacts of technical efficiency and intellectual capital efficiency (ICE) on bank performance in India after controlling other bank-, industry-specific and macroeconomic variables.

The authors use secondary data on listed Indian commercial banks for the period 2005–2018. The authors use data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique-based Malmquist index (MI) to obtain technical efficiency and value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) model for computing ICE. System generalized method of moments (GMM) (SGMM) model in a dynamic framework is used to estimate the parameters, which takes into consideration issues of endogeneity, heterogeneity and persistence of bank performance. Further, the authors use quantile regression model to examine whether the impacts of covariates are homogeneous at different locations of the conditional distribution of bank performance.

The authors find positive impact of technical efficiency and negative influence of market concentration on bank performance. The results of the study support the efficient structure (ES) hypothesis (ESH). The authors observe positive influence of intellectual capital (IC) on bank performance, which indicates the relevance of intellectual resources in enhancing banks' value. Further, the results of quantile regression indicate that the impacts of technical efficiency and ICE are more pronounced at higher quantiles of the conditional distribution of bank performance.

This paper in the Indian context examines the influences of technical efficiency and ICE after controlling bank-, industry-specific and macroeconomic factors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of trade openness on the cost of financial intermediation and bank performance. Developed and developing countries are currently pursuing trade openness to achieve higher bank performance with less intermediation costs.

In attaining the study's objectives, several regression methodologies were employed (i.e. system generalized method of moments (GMM), fixed effect, pooled ordinary least squares (OLS) and vector error correction model (VECM)). The authors tested the hypothesis on data of 885 banks from BRICS countries, which span 18 years (2000–2017).

The results from this robust study showed that embedding higher trade openness reduces financial intermediation costs and improves banks' performance. The results remain robust following the use of different estimation methods and alternative variables as proxies. In addition, results were still valid upon considering bank level, industry level and country level as control variables. It was also observed that the relation pattern holds its rigidity during “good” and “bad” times (i.e. the global financial crisis).

The results provide better references for bank regulators, academics and policymakers to take advantage of the low financial intermediation costs resulting from trade openness.