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The purpose of this paper is to study the effectiveness of the risk management system in the European context, especially with regard to the risk management committee, the uncertainty of the environment and company performance. In summary, it evaluates European companies listed on the stock exchange in France, Germany and the United Kingdom to determine how risk management systems influence financial companies' performance.

To study the effectiveness of risk management systems and their influence on performance, the large companies selected in our sample are fairly representative of the European market, according to the Dutch indices of each country (SBF 120 in France, HDAX 110 in Germany and FTSE 100 in United Kingdom).The empirical evidence is based on an international quantitative analysis, using a data set involving 320 companies listed on the stock exchange over a ten-year period from 2005 to 2014.

The results indicate that the establishment of a risk management and control system by a company positively influences its management, and its performance level and value creation also improve. The results of this study demonstrate a significant strengthening of the role of the risk management committee in the three countries. The surveillance function is reinforced, and in particular, the internal control system is accentuated.

This study has some limitations that can form leads for future research. One of these limitations is the sample size. The authors have represented the European context by three countries that certainly constitute great European powers, but have regulations different from other countries. The company size is also a possible research element. Indeed, risk management system varies between large, small and medium-sized enterprises, so it is important to study each type of company well.

This study identifies the risk management committee as a mechanism of control that is highly important in the company, and it proposes an international framework that comparatively and empirically evaluates how the risk management system used in large European companies can improve their financial performance.

This paper aims to investigate the reciprocal nonlinear relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm performance (FP).

The authors used a sample of 814 European firms over the period 2008–2017. The Panel Smooth Transition Regression (PSTR) model was performed as an econometric approach.

Firstly, results show a threshold effect in the CSR–FP relationships within the two directions. More specifically, the authors found that firms are more likely to engage in CSR by surpassing a threshold of 1.231% for return on assets (ROA) and 0.821% for Tobin’s Q ratio. Secondly, the authors also found that the impact of CSR on FP is positive and significant only if the environment, social and governance score surpasses the threshold of 56.780% when the dependent variable is ROA and 41.02% when Tobin’s Q ratio measures performance.

A significant part of the literature supports the linear relationship between CSR and FP from the unique direction (CSR → FP). This study comes to fill this gap by assessing the possible nonlinear relationship. In addition, this nonlinear relationship is tested under the two directions. Therefore, defining the threshold of FP that allows companies to engage in CSR, on the one hand, and the threshold of engagement in CSR that improves FP, on the other hand, could be an exciting topic.

To get the full benefit from CSR effects, firms should be with better financial performance to be socially responsible.

To the best of our knowledge, few studies have explored the nonlinear relationship between CSR and FP. In addition, this study raises the question of whether this relation is causal. The authors assess the two nonlinear relationships between CSR ? FP and FP ? CSR by determining the optimal thresholds.

本文旨在探究企業社會責任 (以下簡稱企社責) 與公司業績之間的相互非線 性關係。

研究所採用的樣本為814間歐洲公司, 涵蓋期為2008年至2017年。研究人 員使用縱橫平滑轉換模型、作為經濟計量方法和工具去進行研究。

研究結果顯示、在有關的兩個方向內, 企社責與公司業績之間的關聯上是 存在著閾值效應的。更具體地說, 研究人員發現, 若企業的資產報酬率超過1.231%的 水平, 以及托賓的Q比率 (Tobin’s Q Ratio) 0.821%的水平的話, 它們會更願意承擔企 社責。其次, 研究結果亦顯示, 企社責對企業的業績會產生積極的影響; 另外, 只有 當資產報酬率是因變數、而環境、社會和公司治理的分數 (ESGS) 超過56.780%, 以 及當托賓的Q比率用來測量績效、而數值為41.02%時, 企社責對企業的業績所產生的 影響會較為顯著。

過去的學術文獻、大部份都是以唯一的方向 (企社責 ->公司業績) 去確認 企社責與企業業績之間的線性關係。本研究評估了兩者之間可能存在的非線性關係; 而且, 這非線性關係是在有關的兩個方向下而進行測試的; 因此, 本研究一方面給可 讓公司以企社責的精神和理念去營運的企業業績的閾值下了定義; 另一方面, 又給參 與企社責為公司帶來業績的改善的閾值下了定義。這均為令人興奮的課題。

企業若想取得因參與企社責而帶來的完全好處, 它們必須擁有更佳 的財務績效、以能盡其社會責任。

盡我們所知, 探究企社責與企業業績之間的非線性關係的研究實在不 多; 而且, 本研究對這兩者的關係是否是因果關係提出了質疑; 就此, 我們藉著釐定 最佳的相對閾值、來評估企社責 ->企業業績與企業業績 ->企社責之間的兩個非線性的 關係。

This study aims to investigate the impact of international diversification on the value and operating efficiency of European real estate firms.

The study is conducted using a panel fixed effects regression model to estimate the relationship of international diversification with firm value and operating efficiency. International diversification is mainly measured via the negative of the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index (HHI) using property-level data. Firm value and operating efficiency are proxied by financial ratios observed annually from 2002 to 2021 at the firm level.

The results demonstrate that international diversification has a negative effect on firm value. Additionally, it lowers operating efficiency by weakening a firm's ability to generate operating earnings from its assets. By examining whether the reduction in operating efficiency is due to the rental income channel or the capital gains channel, the authors find strong statistical evidence that international diversification negatively impacts capital gains. International diversification is negatively associated with net gains from property valuations (unrealized capital gains) and net profits from property disposals (realized capital gains).

The empirical analysis is limited to Europe.

This paper extends the geographical diversification literature. While existing literature focuses on domestic diversification within the United States, this paper explores the effects of international diversification on European real estate firms. To the extent of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the impact of geographical diversification on capital gains.

This study extends the current literature in the context of European countries by showing that women's participation on the board can enhance the financial performance of a company while moderated by many cultural factors.

This study examines 19 European countries throughout the period 2010–2020. The time-invariant or individual fixed-effect models are used.

The authors found that high power distance and masculinity undermine the impact of board gender diversity on firm performance. The gender-diverse board reports a statistically significant negative impact on return on asset (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) while moderated by the power distance index.

This research will be of significant value to the board directors, practitioners and the concerned authority who desire to polish up the firm performance of European countries that are governed by cultural norms.

This paper aims to explore the impact of brand authenticity dimensions (i.e. aesthetic, symbolism, heritage, originality, quality commitment and virtue) on consumer engagement in the context of social media. This study answers to the need of scholars to understand consumer behaviour towards family and non-family firms’ brand authenticity constructs and for practitioners to find the correct levers to increase consumer engagement.

Top 10 European family firms with a retrievable Facebook (FB) page from the Global Family Business Index have been selected. Then, the study analysed family firms’ social media consumer engagement versus their non-family business direct competitors on a sample of 21.664 FB posts over a four-year period, leveraging multi-group analysis.

The results outline that three out of six brand authenticity dimensions posted on FB are statistically arousing more interactions respect to non-authenticity-related contents when posted by family firms. However, there are no statistically significant findings when brand authenticity content is posted by the non-family competitors.

This research is helpful for practitioners and entrepreneurs who might want to strengthen their social media brand strategies. With this regard, the study provides insights on which elements of brand authenticity are perceived by consumers as more engaging and which levers to use when communicating the familiness of the company.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is one of the earliest studies crosscutting the family business and brand authenticity literature streams to conduct an empirical analysis based on official FB data with a data set of over 20,000 observations. Moreover, this study assesses that not every dimension of the brand authenticity construct is relevant in the context of social media and that its effectiveness depends on the firms’ familiness.

This study aims to examine the factors that influence the relationship between sustainability and financial performance (FP) of the European listed companies.

This study analyzed data from 795 companies in 21 European countries by applying linear mixed-effects multilevel regressions, a two steps system generalized method of moments and quantile regression models to uncover the links between sustainability and FP.

The past four decades have witnessed abundant research to determine the relationship between corporate sustainability and FP. Thus, conducting further research in 2023 could be seen as “reinventing the wheel.” Yet, earlier research considered firms as isolated entities with sustainability and FP being dependent only on that firm’s actions. By contrast, with the help of network governance theory, this study shows that a firm’s sustainability and FP depend on an interplay among interorganizational actors, such as institutional qualities, macroeconomic factors and an embrace of sustainability. Here, large firms play an essential role. Three significant findings are drawn. First, sustainability performance has a significant impact on FP in the European context. Second, the institutional quality (IQ) of the rule of law and control of corruption plays a crucial role in enhancing sustainability and FP, and finally the interaction of IQ and economic growth helps to increase companies’ market value (Tobin’s Q). The consistent and empirically robust findings offer key lessons to policymakers and practitioners on the interplay among multiple actors in corporate sustainability and FP.

A synergetic multifaced relationship between governmental institutions and corporations is inevitable for ensuring sustainable development. The degree of intimacy in the relationship, of course, will be determined by the macroeconomic environment.

In this research, this study theoretically and empirically identified that corporate sustainability and FP are not solely dependent on corporate operation. Rather, it is transformed, modified and shaped through an interaction of multiple actors’ trajectories in the macro business environment.

Using, for the first time, a sample of European listed firms from 30 countries with different legal regimes of board-level employee representation (BLER), the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of BLER on firms’ value of European public companies, where employee representation is voluntary or imposed by law depending on the country of origin.

Using a difference-in-differences approach and a matching procedure, the authors analyze the impact of BLER on firms' value.

The results of this paper suggest that BLER adopted voluntarily affects positively firms’ value comparing to a group of firms where employee representation is in some way mandatory. Moreover, the findings of this paper show that firms from countries where BLER is not imposed by law tend to pay higher dividends. Nevertheless, the evidence presented in this paper only holds for low levels of employee representation on the board.

This research not only provides some evidence in favor of the codetermination on corporate governance but also offers new avenues for discussing the conditions necessary for codetermination to be effective, especially the level of employees' participation on board.

This study provides to policymakers new insights for them to gain perspective, analyze and decide if codetermination is a useful tool to improve firms’ performance or at least in what conditions it should be applied.

This study incentives the discussion of the proper way to include workers in firms’ boards with expected benefits on firms’ performance, economies and societies.

This paper provides evidence of a positive (but limited) impact on firms’ value derived from voluntary codetermination.

The study aims to analyse annual reports of the non-financial European firms listed at the EURO STOXX 50 index over the period of 2007 and 2011.

This study intends to address two main issues: to what extent the country-level institutional forces compel (directly) firm's risk reporting (RR) behaviour and in which way these country-level institutional forces moderate the relationship between RR and firm-level characteristics.

Main findings indicate that, during this period, the European listed companies disclosed more risk information on a voluntary basis (such as operational and strategic risks) and with better informative content (more forward-looking and focused on positive news). Consistent with institutional theory, findings confirm that the country-level institutional forces explain variations on RR. Additionally, it also indicates that the relationship between RR and leveraged firms is weaker among countries with stronger institutional forces. These findings have several implications for investors and regulators in Europe basically in helping achieve efficiency in investment decisions and to stimulate further efforts to improve RR regulations.

This study makes two major contributions. First, it extends Elshandidy's et al. (2015) work by using other country-level institutional forces that capture the efficacy of corporate boards, the protection of minority shareholders' interests, country's level of democracy, law enforcement mechanisms and press freedom. Second, it uses firms that are considered as a blue-chip representation of super-sector leaders in the Eurozone (but from different institutional contexts). This research setting can be more insightful in shedding some light towards our understanding on how these leading firms can promote innovative and high quality level of RR and how country-level driving forces influence these variables.

Recent regulatory changes in Europe have promoted non-financial reporting practices (e.g., Directive, 2014/95/EU) and gender diversity in decision-making positions. Special attention is devoted to promoting the gender balance on corporate boards as a key mechanism to enhance corporate governance effectiveness and better address multiple stakeholders' needs. With this in mind, this study intends to examine the impact of boardroom gender diversity on Environmental Social Governance (ESG) disclosure practices in the European listed firms' context.

The study applies different panel data models on an extended sample of 1,392 firms from 21 European Union (EU) countries for six years (2014–2019).

Findings allow to spotlight the positive role exerted by the presence of women directors on the boards in enhancing ESG disclosure, both at the overall and specific (individual ESG scores) level.

Policymakers and regulators might consider the study's evidence as a stimulus to continue in promoting strategic actions and reforms that foster gender equality and balance in corporate decision-making positions.

Creating a heterogeneous and diversified board of directors may support implementing a “sustainable corporate governance” recently claimed by the EC.

The study contributes to the literature by disentangling the links between gender diversity and ESG disclosure over a period that covers a long season of European regulations and measures that affected both non-financial reporting practices and the board of directors' composition. Accordingly, it can contribute to enhancing the practical and theoretical understanding of the pivotal role that gender diversity may exert in strengthening corporate governance and, in turn, corporate transparency and accountability behaviours about non-financial issues.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of the firms' external environment on their export intensity. More specifically, it assesses whether domestic market characteristics such as domestic demand and general export environment related to tradability across borders affect firms' export intensity.

The authors use a sample of 29,266 firms from nine European countries, for the period of 2010–2016, and test several estimation methods (random effects models, Tobit models, and Heckman's selection models).

Results show that external factors such as domestic demand and ease of trade across borders are important determinants of firms' export intensity. Moreover, results reveal that firm's internal characteristics such as age, size and productivity also play an import role.

Studies about the influence of the firms' external environment on firms' export intensity are scarce because most of them are confined to a single country context. In this way, the present study contributes to the body of knowledge on the influence that external factors can have on firms' export performance by analyzing firms from nine European countries, which has important policy implications.