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It is widely argued that money laundering (ML) is not a new phenomenon and the pervasiveness of ML is associated with some severe economic, social and political costs. Due to the lack of studies on the ML’s issue in the UAE, this study aims to examine the determinants of ML in the country between 1975 and 2020.

The autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing results demonstrate the presence of long-run relationship between ML and the selected macroeconomics variables. The analysis is validated by the dynamic ordinary least squares, the fully modified ordinary least squares and the canonical co-integration regression estimators.

The estimation result reveals that while the real estate market, outflow of money, arms procurement and size of the underground economy influences the size of ML positively, gold trade, the level of financial development and the size of economic activities are negatively associated with ML, both in the short- and long-run.

Up to date from a country-level analysis, no study has been devoted to the ML in UAE, except for Aljassmi et al. (2023). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the determinants of laundered money in the UAE economy. Based on these outcomes, strategies and measures which will deter the laundering of illicit funds through the real estate and gold market, remittance system, financial system and arms procurement contracts in the UAE are recommended.

The implementation of the Directive 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2015 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing resulted in the enactment by the Polish Parliament of the Act of March 1, 2018, on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing. One of the most important issues identified in the Act was the establishment of the Central Register of Beneficial Owners. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the functioning of the Register in Poland from the perspective of three years since its establishment. The text presents the most important problems faced by reporting institutions and obliged entities due to discrepancies in the interpretation of the Act’s provisions – especially in terms of the definition of a beneficial owner.

The basic research approach was a comparative content analysis method. The objects of analysis included Polish Laws, Directive of the European Parliament and the Council (EU) 2015/849 and the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The theoretical legislative assumptions contained in the Acts were compared with reports, studies and communications prepared by public and private institutions. This made it possible to draw conclusions regarding the causes of problems with the functioning of the Register in Poland.

The results of the research showed that the ambiguity of the definition of the beneficial owner leads to a number of problems on the part of reporting institutions, such as companies, foundations and associations. On the other hand, a large part of the data entered in the Register is questioned by obliged entities. The lack of personal data protection is also a problem. Consequently, this reduces the value of the Register as a tool that effectively mitigates the risk of money laundering.

The research focused only on the functioning of the Central Register of Beneficial Owners in Poland. The subject of the analysis addressed problems with the definition of beneficial owner, issues of data quality and openness and the process of verifying the Register’s data. The technical aspects of the Register operation and the financial penalties imposed by public oversight institutions were not reviewed. Also, no comparison was made with other European Union (EU) member states that have implemented Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council (EU) 2015/849.

This study discusses the important issue of regulatory requirements introduced under EU regulations for private companies. Familiarization of companies, NGOs and obliged entities with the conclusions of the study can positively influence the consolidation of the correct interpretative path. In addition, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first scientific text that identifies and systematizes the most important problems of the Register’s functioning in Poland.

Environment, social and governance (ESG) practices and shareholder activism are making significant strides in the decision-making policies and processes for all firms. This study aims to assess the impact of ESG on the dividend payout decisions of firms in India. In addition, it also aims to determine how shareholder activism influences the impact of ESG on dividend distribution decisions.

The authors gather relevant data from 78 non-financial listed Indian firms from 2016 to 2020. This study undertakes longitudinal data analysis, with fixed effects and calculation of robust standard errors. In addition, the slope test is used to examine the effects of the interaction between ESG and shareholder activism.

It is found in the study that not only does ESG positively impact the dividends but also shareholder activism positively impacts the dividend distribution decisions. Surprisingly, the authors see a significant but negative interaction impact of shareholder activism on the positive association of ESG with dividend distribution decisions. In other words, ESG impacts dividend distribution decisions differently at levels of shareholder activism. When shareholder activism is low, ESG positively influences dividend distribution decisions. However, when shareholder activism is high, ESG negatively influences dividend distribution decisions.

This result has significant implications for all the stakeholders, including shareholders. A shareholder expecting a dividend could decide correctly through the current study’s findings. In cases of high shareholder activism, investors may skip picking a stock if investors expect high ESG to influence the dividend distribution decisions favourably. On the contrary, investors may choose a stock if shareholder activism is low and all else remains the same.

Literature has some evidence of the influence of shareholder activism and ESG (in silos) on the dividend distribution decisions in the firms. This study attempts to contribute by bringing forth the interaction effects of shareholder activism and ESG on dividend distribution decisions.

Because of growing corporate tax scandals, there is an enhanced focus on corporate taxation by governments, institutions and the general public. Transparency in tax matters has been identified as critical for effectively managing and promoting socially responsible tax behaviour. This study aims to explore the impact of ownership structure, board and audit committee characteristics on corporate tax responsibility (CTR) disclosure.

This research collected data from the annual reports of Pakistani-listed firms over 12 years, from 2009 to 2020. Consequently, the data set encompasses a total of 1,800 firm-year observations. This study uses regression analysis to test the relationship between corporate governance and CTR disclosure.

The results show that board gender diversity, managerial ownership and audit committee independence promote tax responsibility disclosure. In contrast, family board membership, CEO duality, foreign ownership and family ownership negatively impact tax responsibility disclosure. Additional analyses reveal the specific information categories that produce the overall effects on tax responsibility disclosure and assess the moderating impact of family firms on the governance and CTR disclosure nexus.

Corporations can use the results to encourage practices that enhance transparency and improve the quality of disclosures. Regulatory authorities can use the findings to stipulate better protocols. Doing so will be vital for developing countries such as Pakistan to improve tax revenue and cultivate economic growth.

While this research represents, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, one of the first empirical investigations of the association between corporate governance and CTR, the results contribute to the corporate governance literature and offer fresh insights into CTR, an emerging dimension of corporate social responsibility.

This study aims to explore the relationship between the degree of state-owned enterprises’ (SOEs) mixed reform and the environmental response of enterprises, against the background of actively promoting the reform of mixed ownership in China.

The study is conducted on a sample of A-share listed manufacturing companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen of China, investigated for the period 2015 to 2020. The baseline regression results are robust to a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. To deal with the issue of endogeneity, the technique of instrumental variable method has been applied.

The study confirms the U-shaped effect of the depth and restriction of mixed ownership on SOEs’ environmentally responsive behaviour in the manufacturing industry, especially for lower environmental regulation and higher level of risk-taking firms. The findings indicate that the government, shareholders and other stakeholders of enterprises should not simply consider that the mixed reform is directly promoting or reducing the environmental response behaviour of enterprises.

SOEs should improve their shareholding structures to undermine performance enhancement at the expense of the environment and increase environmentally beneficial behaviours. Regulators and governments should improve the institutional mechanism of environmental regulation and make efforts to promote corporate awareness of the environment.

Although the adoption and implementation of environmentally friendly policies are costly, improved environmental response and other social responsibilities are helpful to corporate long-term growth and reputation and obtain more capital market attention. Therefore, firms would benefit from improving their environmental response to protect nature, as well as to enjoy the economic and social benefits of a better environmental response.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is a lack of studies focussing on the environmental behaviour of SOEs of mixed reform. As the mixed reform in China has come to a climax phase in recent several years, SOEs of mixed reform is an ideal environment for research. The study focusses on manufacturing firms as these firms are more susceptible to contribute to environmental pollution, exploitation of natural resources and labour concerns.

Ethiopia has enacted laws on transparency and disclosure of information in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). However, these laws are not strict enough, with the transparency and disclosure practices disappointing in the country. Thus, this study aims to investigate the legal framework governing transparency and disclosure in SOEs.

This study uses doctrinal, qualitative and comparative approaches. Domestic legal texts are appraised based on the organization for economic co-operation and development Guideline on Corporate Governance of State-owned Enterprises, the World Bank Toolkit on Corporate Governance of State-owned Enterprises and best national practices. This approach has been further corroborated by qualitative analysis of the basic principles of transparency and disclosure.

The finding reveals that the laws on transparency and disclosure do not comply with global practices and are inadequate to ensure transparency and discourse in SOEs. They fail to establish appropriate disclosure frameworks and practices at the SOE and state-ownership entity levels. They also indiscriminately subject enterprises to multiple auditing functions and conflicting responsibilities.

To the author’s knowledge, this study is the first legal literature on transparency and disclosure in Ethiopian SOEs. This study assists the state as owner in reforming the laws and uplifting SOEs from their current unpleasant condition. It can also become a reference for future research.

This paper aims to explore the extent of corporate social responsibility disclosure (hereafter CSRD) in Jordan and also examine whether ownership structure, board of directors and audit committee characteristics influence CSRD.

The extent of CSRD is measured by constructing a CSRD index for industrial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2021. Panel regression analysis is used to examine the potential effect of ownership structure, board of directors and audit committee on the level of CSRD.

This study provides empirical evidence that diverse groups of shareholders have different effects on CSR engagement, and board characteristics (board size, board independence and gender diversity) play a vital role in increasing voluntary disclosure, including CSR information. There is no evidence to support that CSRD is influenced by audit committee characteristics.

This study recommends that corporate regulators and policymakers can improve CSRD practices by expanding the scope of existing disclosure requirements related to CSR and developing a structured CSRD index to measure the degree of CSRD practices for comparative purposes. Encourage firms to actively participate in social responsibility programs by granting tax incentives and government facilities to firms with the best CSR reports. Policymakers should introduce initiatives that support female’s representation on board. Finally, firms should restructure their boards by increasing board size and the percentage of independent directors to enhance their effectiveness to support CSRD.

This paper contributes further insights into the literature on CSRD practices and disclosure by analyzing data from developing market contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to provide new scientific knowledge concerning the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on auditing quality as determined by audit fees for both family- and non-family-owned firms in Jordan.

The authors use an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression firm-clustered standard error employing data from 200 Jordanian enterprises between 2005 and 2020 to validate this study's hypotheses.

The regression findings suggest that enterprises run by families are better able to handle crises and spend less on audits. Companies that are not family-owned have to spend the most on monitoring tasks since they need to take extra steps to prevent the agency problem and make their financial statements stand out from their peers in order to attract more investors. Additional analysis that stretched out throughout 2005–2022 came to the same findings.

The findings can be beneficial for authorities to better regulate and supervise the auditing sector. Political leaders, legislators, regulators and the auditing industry can all learn important lessons from the findings as they assess the growing concerns in a turbulent economic situation. The results of this research can, therefore, be utilised to reassure investors and assist policymakers in crafting workable responses to Covid-19's creation of financial problems. After the devastation caused by the coronavirus, these findings may be used to strengthen the laws that oversee Jordan's auditing sector.

In emerging nations like Jordan, where there is a clear concentration of ownership and a predominance of high levels of family ownership, and to the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first empirical study to compare the auditing quality of family-owned versus non-family-owned enterprises. Preliminary insights into the crisis management tactics of family and non-family organisations are provided by this first empirical investigation of the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis on family-owned firms.

This study examines whether CEO power influences the book-based and market-based performance of Russian companies when it is restricted by the presence of essential shareholders, namely, state and influential businessmen.

Managerial power is divided into structural, ownership, expert and prestige. The proposed power metrics include not only CEOs but also the board of directors' characteristics that may restrict or enhance CEO power. The empirical analysis is based on the sample of 90 large traded Russian firms, which shares are included in the Moscow Stock Exchange Broad Market Index (MICEX BMI), observed from 2012 to 2019.

Panel data analysis suggests that higher board ownership and tenure may restrict CEO power, which in turn would be beneficial for corporate performance. the authors also see that in companies owned by influential businessmen, CEO power influence on M/B value is more negative, while state ownership does not moderate it. CEO power metrics, based on political experience and tenure, affect corporate performance differently in companies affiliated with extractive industries.

First, the authors consider two channels through which a company in emerging markets may get additional resources: CEOs and influential owners. Second, the authors develop power metrics based on Finkelstein's managerial power classification (1992) and the idea of relative power proposed by Bebchuk et al. (2011). It allows identifying whether the board of directors' may constrain or enhance CEO power to raise corporate performance. Third, the authors analyze developing Russian markets that represent a good ground for testing the question, whereas empirical research on Russia is relatively scarce (Grosman and Leiponen, 2018). Fourth, the authors pay particular attention to the CEO power in the extractive industry, strategically important for the Russian economy.

本研究擬探討行政總裁的權力，若因有不可或缺的股東 - 即國家和具影響力的實業家 - 的存在而受到約束時，其權力會否影響俄羅斯公司以賬簿為基礎和以市場為基礎的表現

管理權分為結構性的、所有權的、專家的和聲望的。提出的權力指標不但包括行政總裁，也涵蓋或會限制或增加行政總裁權力的董事會特徵。本研究的實證分析法是基於90間股份被納入莫斯科股票交易廣泛市場指數的大型俄羅斯上市公司樣本，觀察期由2012年至2019年

面板數據分析顯示、較高的董事會所有權和較長的任期或會限制行政總裁的權力，這因此有利於提升企業績效。我們亦看到，在具影響力的企業家擁有的公司裡，行政總裁權力對市價淨值的影響是較負面的，而國有制沒有把它減低。就隸屬採掘業的公司而言，基於政治經驗和任期的行政總裁權力指標，會對企業績效帶來不同的影響

(一) 我們考慮在新興市場公司可取得額外資源的兩個途徑：行政總裁和具影響力的所有者。(二) 我們基於芬克爾斯坦 (Finkelstein, 1992) 的管理權分類，以及 Bebchuk et al. (2011) 所提出相對功率的學說，建立了權力指標。憑著這權力指標，我們可鑑定董事會會限制、抑或增強行政總裁提升企業績效的權力。(三) 我們分析發展中的俄羅斯市場，其為測試我們問題的良好地方，而探討俄羅斯的實證研究較為稀有 (Grosman and Leiponen, 2018) 。(四) 我們特別關注在採掘業的行政總裁權力，而採掘業對俄羅斯經濟來說、是具有重要戰略意義的

1. Explore the important role of sole actual controller in the innovation decision of the firm and the different effects of the ownership of sole actual controller on innovation; 2. Explore whether the role played by sole actual controllers varies in different types of firms; 3. Explore the important role of cooperative culture in the internal governance of firms and whether sole actual controller firms feel a rejection effect on cooperative culture.

The authors collect data on Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2021 to analyze the role of the sole actual controller on innovation investment, as well as the moderating effect of cooperative culture in corporate annual reports using natural language processing.

The authors find that sole actual controllers promote corporate innovation investment and that concentrated equity inhibits corporate innovation investment, while dispersed equity concentration promotes it. In addition, cooperative culture has a nonlinear moderating effect on the relationship between SACs and innovation.

On the one hand, this study focuses chiefly on the decision-making behavior of top managers, such as the SACs and shareholders, and does not account for the role of bottom-level employees or professional R&D teams in innovation. On the other hand, although this study discusses the moderating role of corporate cooperative culture, it is limited to internal cooperative culture; cooperative culture should also consider external cooperation, such as cooperation between companies or between companies and universities.

First, companies should actively implement the SAC model and scientifically select a truly compassionate and visionary SAC as the dominant person in the company. Second, the Chinese government needs to standardize the identification of actual controllers, who should not be a shareholder of the company. Third, policymakers should promote the reform of the mixed system of enterprises, optimize the shareholding structure of firms, make executives an important part of corporate governance. Fourth, cooperation culture is a good start, though firms should avoid letting it become a “double-edged sword” of the management mode of the SAC.

First, existing studies do not address the impact of SACs on innovation from the perspective of SACs, who have most influence the firm's decision-making. Focusing on the SAC's decision-making style has sufficient practical implications for future corporate innovation planning. This study used the natural language processing (NLP) module in ChatGPT to analyze the culture of cooperation in corporate annual reports. Currently, corporate culture is an obstacle to the study of corporate governance because of its obscurity and difficulty of quantification. The authors adopted a PSM (propensity score matching) approach to eliminate the endogeneity of the data, which makes the results more scientific.