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Board diversity positively impacts corporate social responsibility (CSR); however, there is limited evidence on how board diversity affects the reputation of organizations that are involved in CSR. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect board diversity has on socially responsible firms’ corporate social responsibility reputation (CSRR). The authors specifically examine this relationship because an organization’s corporate reputation may be very different to its CSRR gained through engagement in socially responsible activities.

The authors use the CSR reputation scores for the top 100 most socially responsible global companies provided by the RepTrak Database as a measure of CSRR. Board diversity measures are calculated for gender, ethnicity and education to measure their impact on social reputation. The sample for this study consists of 146 observations for the period 2013–2017.

The authors find a significant and positive relation between having a combination of women and ethnically diverse members on the board and firms’ CSRR. The authors also find a significant positive effect on CSRR when the board is composed of women and educationally diverse members.

Board diversity characteristics continue to impact organizations’ decision-making processes and their involvement in CSR activities as public stakeholders demand greater representation of females and minorities on the board. Because research on board diversity is in its infancy, the authors urge scholars to continue to investigate the impact board diversity has on an organization’s motivation to be socially responsible as well as how it affects their CSRR.

The findings of this study highlight the importance stakeholders place on an organization’s social responsibility reputation and the positive effects of board diversity in managing their CSRR.

The findings provide evidence that the composition of the board can influence a company’s engagement in CSR activities and their CSRR as perceived by its stakeholders.

This study contributes to the CSR literature by introducing the concept of CSRR. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study also extends research in the diversity literature by examining the relationship between board diversity variables and an organization’s CSRR. The findings highlight the importance of having a diverse board composed of ethnically and educationally varied individuals and provide evidence of a link between organizations’ involvement in socially responsible activities and their CSRR.

This study serves two objectives; first, it examined the impact of ownership structure and board characteristics on firm value; second, the moderating effects of board gender diversity (women appearance on board) and board ethnic diversity (Chinese, Indian, and Foreign ethnicities) have been examined on the relationship between ownership structure, board characteristics, and firm value.

The dynamic model, system generalized method of moments (S-GMM hereafter), is employed to control potential dynamic endogeneity, reverse causality, simultaneity and unobserved heterogeneity persistent in corporate governance-performance relationships during 2006–2017 of 483 Malaysian listed companies.

Findings pertaining to objective one reveal that there is a weak linkage between ownership structure and firm value, whereas board characteristics significantly affect firm performance based on resource dependence theory. While considering the results of objective two, there is mixed evidence of moderating impact of board gender and ethnic diversity on ownership structure, board characteristics and performance nexus.

The findings of the study are practically significant for regulatory bodies, namely, Bursa Malaysia, Securities Commission (SC) Malaysia, and policymakers to develop guidelines for ownership structure variables. Moreover, Malaysian firms need to disperse their concentrated ownership structure for enhanced firm value. In addition, board characteristics significantly affect firm performance in Malaysian listed companies.

The paper contributes to multiple aspects: first, it examined the impact of ownership structure and board characteristics on firm performance. Second, the moderating effect of board gender and board ethnic diversity contributes to research significant and valuable for the researchers and practitioners. Finally, the study employed S-GMM, controlling for dynamic endogeneity considered a main econometric problem for CG-performance relationships.

This study aims to investigate the impact of extensive board diversity on firm performance from the perspective of resource-based view (RBV) theory in the context of Pakistan.

The analyses are made using a panel random-effects model and generalized method of moment (GMM) across 188 non-financial firms listed in the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) over the period of 2009–2020. The robustness of findings is checked through alternative measurements of the variables and alternative estimation techniques.

The results show that board members' nationality, ethnicity and educational level diversities are significantly positively related to firm performance. In contrast, age and educational background diversities negatively affect firm performance. However, gender and tenure diversities have an insignificant relationship with firm performance.

This study is conducted in the context of Pakistani firms; thus, the findings may not be generalizable to other economies because different economies have different institutional settings and governance structures.

The policy-makers should encourage the inclusion of board members' nationality, ethnicity and educational level diversities having relevant educational backgrounds to improve firms' competitive performance. The suggested structure of the corporate board may improve firm performance by attracting multiple stakeholders and fulfilling their expectations.

The appointment of a director should be based on merit rather than on political connections or personnel relationships to improve social welfare and avoid their negative impact on firm competitive performance.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the impact of board diversity on firm accounting-based performance and market-based performance in the emerging economy of Pakistan. This study uses RBV theory to provide a unique corporate governance structure based on board diversity, particularly in Pakistan.

This purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of the Revised Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (2007) toward the effectiveness of the board and audit committees in Malaysian manufacturing companies. Since the manufacturing firms are dominantly held by Chinese firms, this paper is extended to incorporate the implication of ethnicity on board and audit committees’ effectiveness.

Using a sample of 201 firms from fiscal year 2004-2009, the data set consists of a total of 1,206 firm-year observations. Analysis is carried out using correlation analysis, multiple and logistic regression analyses.

The findings reveal that board and audit committees’ effectiveness is positively associated with earnings management pre- and post-Revised Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (2007). A higher number of ethnic members in the board are also positively associated with earnings management.

This study is limited to some industries in the manufacturing sector due to the special characteristics of this sector and covers mostly large firms. The results may not therefore be applicable to small firms. Finally, the study does not consider possible interaction between the board and audit characteristics which may be significant in influencing earnings management.

The findings show that the corporate governance mechanism in Malaysian firms is currently inadequate in preventing earnings management and extra effort is needed to improve board governance.

This paper contributes to the current literature on the issues of corporate governance effectiveness and board ethnicity in the current economic and political structure in Malaysia.

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between external audit fees, and board and audit committee characteristics of 736 Malaysian listed firms. It is hypothesised that good corporate governance practices reduce auditors' risk assessments, resulting in lower audit fees. Drawing on the existence of a clearly identifiable ethnic domination of board membership and ownership of Malaysian listed firms, the study also posits that Bumiputera‐controlled firms pay higher audit fees because of their weaker governance practices.

This study employs a cross‐sectional analysis of 736 firms listed on the Bursa Malaysia for the financial year ending in 2003. Multiple regression analysis is used to estimate the relationships proposed in the hypotheses.

Overall, the results of this study reveal that external audit fees are positively and significantly related to board independence, audit committee expertise, and the frequency of audit committee meetings. The study also finds a strong negative association between external audit fees and Bumiputera‐owned firms. An additional analysis into the internal governance structures of firms in the sample show that Bumiputera firms practice more favourable corporate governance practices compared to their non‐Bumiputera counterparts.

This study is a unique contribution in that it provides data on corporate governance practices in Malaysia for a large sample in the period after the corporate governance reforms taken by Malaysian capital market regulators and participants. Previous studies have shown that Bumiputera‐controlled firms pay higher audit fees than non‐Bumiputera‐controlled firms. These studies have not tested theoretical explanations for this fee differential. A theoretical explanation provided in the current study is that Bumiputera‐controlled firms pay higher audit fees than non‐Bumiputera‐controlled firms partially because of differences in corporate governance practices. The study finds conflicting results with previous research suggesting that corporate governance practices have changed in Malaysia since the amendments of Bursa Malaysia Listing Requirements, 2001.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between IC disclosure and the corporate market value (CMV) of listed firms on the main board of Nigeria Stock Exchange and to test the moderating effect of religious and ethnic composition of board members on the relationship.

This study applies the signaling and upper echelons theories in formulating four hypotheses that guide the results analysis. By employing a two-step dynamic system generalized method of moments and controlling for the possible endogeneity effect on the parameters estimated for a sample of 91 listed firms on main board of Nigeria Stock Exchange, this study investigates the association of IC disclosure with CMV, namely, cost of capital and market capitalization, and the moderating role of religious and ethnic composition on such association using data over the 2010 to 2014 financial years.

The results show a significant positive relationship between overall IC disclosure and market capitalization and a negative impact on cost of capital, which are in line with the hypothesized propositions. The moderating effect of board diversity is also confirmed. This study contributes to recent evidence concerning the value relevance of IC information to investors and other interested stakeholders and the established moderating role of board diversity in IC disclosure-related studies.

The regulators may consider development of standards on board composition about religious and ethnic composition in order to curb the domination from same group in the board room. Those charged with governance should be concerned with the disclosure of IC information in the financial statements as it has value relevance to the investors, in line with signaling theory.

The ethnic and religious composition of board members is a significant factor within the board room and needs to be given adequate consideration.

This study is the first to consider IC disclosure across whole sectors in the Nigerian economy and looks upon ethnicity and religious affiliation of boards as moderating variables. The study controls for heteroscedasticity and endogeneity issues by adopting two-step dynamic system generalized method of moments.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between ethnic diversity on corporate boards and audit fees in the context of South Africa. Additionally, this paper investigates how the interaction between board ethnicity and board independence affects audit fees.

This study uses a quantitative research method with a panel data analysis to test proposed hypotheses. This study’s sample consist of listed firms on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) from 2003 to 2018.

This study finds that firms with more Black directors on corporate board have higher audit fees. It also shows that the positive relation between board independence and audit fees is more pronounced for firms with greater ethnic diversity on corporate boards. Further, this study finds that the presence of Black directors on corporate board can increase board effectiveness. Lastly, firms with more Black directors on corporate board tend to be audited by Big N auditors. The findings of this study illustrate the implication of an equity narrative to board diversity for organisational outcome.

The results reported in this paper have both practical and policy implications regarding the presence of ethnic diversity on corporate boards. The findings also suggest that there is a need to establish an appropriate balance of ethnic diversity on corporate boards as part of regulatory reform. Regulators should be aware of the positive impacts of the requirement for board diversity on corporate boards.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine whether the presence of Black directors on corporate boards affects audit fees. It also investigates the interaction effects between the presence of Black directors on the board and board independence.

This study aims to examine the relationship between the presence of a Malay director on the board and financial statement fraud in Malaysia. Further, the authors investigate whether financial statement fraud firms improve their governance mechanisms compared to non-fraud firms subsequent to the fraud year.

The authors use hand-collected data comprising 76 financial statement fraud and 76 non-fraud firms over a period of eight years from 2001 to 2008.

Using a univariate and logistic regression model, the results demonstrate a significant positive relationship between the proportion of Malay directors on the board and the financial statement fraud. The authors also find that fraud firms significantly increase the proportion of independent directors on their boards, increase the frequency of board and audit committee meetings and reduce duality subsequent to the detection of financial statement fraud compared to the non-fraud firms.

The findings of the study are useful to policy-makers, regulators, firms and investors.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role played by the board of directors in corporate sustainability (CS) disclosure within the Asian context in which sustainability reporting (SR) is an emerging phenomenon.

Data are collected from a sample of 100 listed Sri Lankan companies over a period of four years (2012-2016), representing practically all the business sectors. This study draws on both agency and resource dependence theories, while binary logistic regression is performed for the data analysis.

The results point out that firms that follow a sustainability disclosure policy have larger boards, a higher proportion of independent directors and more female directors. Contrary to certain common assumptions, firms that practice sustainability disclosure are not influenced by dual leadership, board ethnicity and board ownership. This study helps firms to understand whether their boards can influence the sustainability disclosure choice or not and further, to validate the appropriateness of the agency theory and the resource dependence theory for examining issues of this nature.

This study contributes significantly to the extant literature on this subject by broadening the geographical coverage, which has generally been limited to the West in corporate disclosure studies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of ethnicity on auditor choice for Malaysian listed companies.

This study evaluates the effects of various independent variables on auditor choice behaviour, particularly ethnicity of auditor and ethnicity of management, using a logistic regression analysis approach for 300 companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia (formerly known as Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange‐KLSE) over an 18 year period.

Auditor choice is shown to be significantly influenced by client firm's characteristics, notably changes in management, complexity, and financial risk, lending support to the findings of previous survey studies. Ethnicity was found to be a significant factor influencing auditor choice only for auditor switches between non‐Big 4 and Big 4 firms.

A number of important variables such as corporate governance characteristics, audit fees, client size, and growth that might enhance an understanding of auditor choice behaviour in Malaysia were not incorporated in the regression models, and might be considered in future studies.

The results presented in the paper have important implications for both the auditing profession and regulators in Malaysia.