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The purpose of this study is to empirically examine how the voluntary formation of a specialised investment committee (IC) and IC characteristics affect financial distress risk (FDR) and whether such impact is influenced by the level of investment inefficiency.

The authors use a large sample of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) non-financial companies during 2006–2016. A principal component analysis is done to aggregate and derive a factor score for IC characteristics (i.e. independence, size and meeting) as a proxy for the effectiveness of IC. This study also uses three measurements of FDR to corroborate the findings and partitions sample firms into overinvesting and underinvesting companies to examine the potential impact of investment inefficiency on the IC–FDR nexus.

Using feasible generalised least square estimation method, the authors document that the likelihood of financial distress occurrence decreases for firms with separate ICs. The authors also find that firms with effective ICs enjoy lower FDR. In other words, the probability of financial distress minimises if the IC is large, meets frequently and has a high number of independent directors. However, the authors find neither any moderation nor any mediation effect of investment inefficiency for the impact of IC and IC attributes on FDR. The additional analysis indicates the expected benefits of an actively performing IC are amplified for firms with risk of both over- and underinvestment. These findings are robust to alternative measures of FDR and investment inefficiency, sub-sample analysis and endogeneity concerns.

This study, to the best of researchers’ knowledge, is the first to provide evidence in GCC firms’ perspective, suggesting that the existence of an effective IC is associated with a lower risk of financial distress, and to some extent, the economic benefits of IC are aggrandised for companies with a high probability of over- and underinvestment problems. These results are unique and contribute to a small but growing body of literature documenting the need for effective ICs and their economic consequences on investment efficiency in the FDR environment. The findings of this study carry valuable practical implications for regulatory bodies, policymakers, investors and other interested parties in the GCC region.

The purpose of this study is to explore and evaluate potential nonmonotonicity in the determinants of profit efficiency, specifically IT and R&D investments in the Indian commercial banking sector.

The study employs an alternative stochastic profit efficiency framework and introduces nonmonotonic effects by parameterizing the location and scale parameters of the inefficiency component on an unbalanced panel data set of 72 commercial banks in the 2008–2019 period. Marginal effects across quartiles are calculated using a bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap procedure of 500 simulations. The study disaggregates across ownership and size for gauging the impact of structure on the associations between determinants of profit efficiency.

The study partially rejects the productivity paradox as it discovers a negative association of IT and R&D with profit inefficiency. However, the observed nonmonotonicity of IT is of significance for bank managers, as the study concludes that overinvestment in IT is detrimental to a bank’s profit-maximizing interests. Further, bank size, loan default and credit risk depict a nonmonotonic relationship across the sample with large banks, high NPAs and high credit risk associated with reducing profit efficiency. In addition, higher margins and greater diversification are related positively to efficiency, and banks with cost-heavy structures or having high liquidity risk associated negatively with efficiency.

To the best knowledge of the authors, the study is perhaps the first to acknowledge and incorporate nonmonotonic associations of IT investments amidst other exogenous determinants under a stochastic profit efficiency framework.

This paper aims to investigate empirically the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on small-to-medium enterprises’ (SMEs) investment efficiency and whether product market competition influences this association.

The study was conducted on French SMEs listed on the “CAC Mid & Small” Index over 2008–2021. This paper proposes a quantitative approach to test the relationship between the EPU and SME investment efficiency.

These findings show that EPU significantly alleviates SMEs’ investment inefficiency, reflected in the reduction of overinvestment and underinvestment. As EPU increases, firms with more exposure to such uncertainty invest more efficiently, and their overinvestment tendency becomes lower, while reducing the risk of underinvestment. These results are still significant after a series of robustness checks. Further analysis shows that EPU mitigates investment inefficiency to a greater extent for firms operating in highly competitive industries, and better information environments.

This study was limited to the French EPU index and could be extended to a European or even international scale. Moreover, using alternative uncertainty indexes across various European countries can be more advantageous in further studies. Although results suggest that EPU affects investment efficiency, future studies could further explore the mechanisms through which EPU affects SMEs’ investment efficiency and, in particular, across different industries. Understanding these variations due to the specific industry-EPU sensitivity can provide valuable insights. Finally, it would be interesting to examine the risk management strategies adopted by SMEs in the face of EPU, combined with other growing risks, such as climate risk.

In the face of high EPU, SME managers must improve risk management, adopt appropriate investment strategies, consider using predictive analytics or economic forecasting tools and embrace technology and innovation that enhance agility and responsiveness to policy uncertainty. Besides, political decision-makers should adapt their regulatory policies (tax, labor, housing, etc.) to preserve the efficiency of SME investment.

Although the debates on how policy uncertainty affects the investment and financing of large businesses have received a great concern of academia, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that focuses on the effect of EPU on investment distortions for SMEs.

This study aims to examine how information asymmetry, which refers to an information gap between a firm’s management and its investors regarding the firm’s true value, influences firms’ dividend and investment decisions in the restaurant industry. This study also investigated the moderating role of a firm’s level of franchising in the relationship between information asymmetry and these behaviors of restaurant firms.

This study used generalized method of moments panel regression analyses. Principal component analysis was also used to create a composite index of information symmetry.

This study demonstrated that in asymmetric information environments, restaurant managers tend to reduce dividend payments. In addition, this study showed that information asymmetry leads to restaurant managers’ investment inefficiency. However, the investment inefficiency of the restaurant industry was found to decrease as restaurant firms’ level of franchising increases.

Firms’ dividends and investment decisions are of great interest to investors because these decisions heavily influence investors’ wealth-maximization goals. By shedding light on the previously unrecognized determinants of dividend and investment behaviors in the restaurant industry, this study helps individual investors to make informed investing decisions.

Conflicting arguments can be made regarding the impact of asymmetric information environments on the dividend and investment behaviors of restaurant firms. This study aimed to verify these as-yet unclear relationships in the restaurant industry.

Corporate investment efficiency ultimately influences economic development but is largely at the discretion of managers. Information asymmetries are problematic in emerging markets, but it is widely believed that corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures can reduce information asymmetries. This paper examines whether CSR disclosures influence corporate capital investment efficiency in emerging Asian markets.

Investment inefficiency is measured as the residuals from an investment model that is constructed by combining variables from prior studies to obtain a more detailed specification. A CSR disclosure index (CSRDI) is constructed from manually collected CSR disclosures for the largest corporations in each of the nine Asian emerging markets, as categorised by the MSCI Emerging Market Index, during 2015–2017. Underinvestments and overinvestments are regressed against the CSRDI, using a two-stage model to address the potential self-selection of CSR report issuers.

The results indicate that CSR disclosures reduce underinvestment for large firms but do not constrain overinvestment. These results are consistent with the propositions that, by increasing transparency or reducing information asymmetry, CSR disclosures can improve firm access to external finance needed to invest in profitable projects but cannot constrain entrenched managers who are not reliant on external finance.

This study extends the literature by analysing the impact of CSR disclosures on both underinvestments and overinvestments and by examining the CSR-investment efficiency across the nine emerging Asian markets. This enhances generalisability compared to single market studies. More generally, this study enhances the understanding of the role of non-financial disclosures in the Asian emerging markets, where corporate investment efficiency is important for economic development but where severe information asymmetry and agency conflicts between insiders and external investors are prevalent. Both the investment community and policymakers should benefit from enhanced understanding of factors that influence investment efficiency in those markets.

This study aims to empirically examine the impact of internal corporate governance mechanisms (ICGM) related to the size of the board, board composition, CEO duality and audit committee independence as a single metric on a firm’s investment decisions.

This study attempts to develop an internal corporate governance quality index comprising 10 items under four main ICGMs – size and independence of the board, CEO duality and audit committee independence – employing panel data analysis to investigate its impact on the investment decisions in 301 nonfinancial firms listed in six emerging capital markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member countries for the years 2015–2020. Data were extracted from sample companies' websites, stock markets, annual reports and Refinitiv database.

This study provides convincing evidence that effective ICGMs minimize inefficient investment and ultimately boost investment efficiency. The findings remain consistent even after considering the potential endogeneity bias.

This study provides empirical evidence on investment efficiency in the GCC region and emphasizes the importance of high-quality ICGMs in reducing inefficient investment. By examining the impact of ICGMs on investment inefficiencies, this study contributes to the corporate governance literature. The GCC region's unique economic and social contexts, with its growing economies, are considered to shed light on this issue.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance (D&O insurance hereafter) on corporate governance and firm performance, with a specific focus on investment efficiency.

Using a sample of Chinese A-share listed firms from the period 2007 to 2020, this study uses Ordinary Least Squares regressions to investigate the research questions, as well as moderating and mediating effects. Additionally, alternative measures of investment efficiency are used, and the Heckman two-stage model and propensity score matching model are used to demonstrate the consistency of the findings and to mitigate the risk of endogeneity.

The findings of this study suggest that purchasing D&O insurance has a detrimental impact on corporate investment efficiency, particularly in the context of over-investment activities; robust internal governance mechanisms, exemplified by a higher shareholding ratio of the top shareholder and enhanced internal control quality, alleviate this negative effect; and financing constraints act as a mediating factor in the association between D&O insurance and investment efficiency.

Corporate investment efficiency is of significant importance for both national macroeconomic growth and micro-enterprise development. Notably, the prevalence of D&O insurance among Chinese firms is progressively increasing, thus exerting a growing influence. This study contributes to the existing literature on D&O insurance and corporate investment efficiency, providing valuable insights into the economic impact of D&O insurance on Chinese firms. The empirical evidence presented herein facilitates future reforms and adjustments.

Financial flexibility and investment efficiency are of vital importance in strategic choices at boardrooms, particularly in post-crisis recovery strategies. This study examines the moderating effects of investment efficiency and investment scale on the relationship between financial flexibility and firm performance.

The authors use sample of 10,755 US-listed firms over the period 2010–2021 to examine the relationships between investment scale, investment efficiency, financial flexibility and firm performance. Particular attention is paid to overinvestment and underinvestment.

Findings of this study reveal that financial flexibility mitigates investment inefficiency through reducing overinvestment. Financial flexibility contributes to boost a firm’s accounting and market performance. Additionally, investment efficiency and investment scale have moderating effects on the relationship between financial flexibility and firm performance. However, the influence of investment efficiency is greater than the influence of investment scale. Finally, the authors find that the direct and indirect effects of financial flexibility are stronger on market performance than accounting performance, implying that market is more sensitive to corporate financial policies.

Findings of this study have implications for scholars, decision-makers policymakers, investors and other stakeholders.

This study has its own limitations due to the sample selection issues, country context and the research model adopted by this study.

The novel contribution to the extant literature is incorporating the influence of investment scale and investment efficiency into the relationship between financial flexibility and firm performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether Financial Reporting Quality (FRQ), Corporate Governance and IFRS affect investment efficiency of French listed companies.

Based on a sample of 125 French firms listed on the CAC All Tradable index between 2008 and 2017, the study uses Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) regressions to examine the relationship between FRQ and firms' investment efficiency.

The findings show that FRQ plays a role in reducing overinvestment and does not affect underinvestment, suggesting that in a code-law country, informal and personal relationships tend to replace the role of financial reports in mitigating information asymmetry. The results also reveal that the relationship between FRQ and investment efficiency increases with better corporate governance and with the implementation of IFRS. However, the results provide no evidence between incentives to minimize profits for tax purposes and firms' underinvestment and continues to be negative for overinvesting companies that have more incentives to manage their earnings for tax purposes.

Our study has some limitations. First, we only examine listed firms, so the results cannot be generalized to unlisted companies that represent the vast majority of French economic activity. Second, this research does not distinguish between government companies and private companies. The two types of companies have different governance mechanisms, financial reporting, disclosure environment and concentration of ownership.

This study suggests that in a code-law country with weak investor protection, FRQ acts as a governance mechanism by mitigating asymmetric information and improving firms' investment decisions.

The relationship between FRQ and investment efficiency has been widely examined for companies in “common law” countries. This study extends the scarce evidence of this relation to companies in a code-law country. It also builds on previous research by introducing new factors never discussed before that could change this relationship, namely corporate governance, IFRS implementation and tax purposes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of chief executive officer (CEO) international work experience, functional background and career concerns on managerially-distorted investment decisions.

This paper focuses on S&P 500 publicly held US manufacturing companies during the period from 2009 to 2012. The data related to the CEOs’ international experience and their functional background experience are manually collected from Business Week’s Corporate Elite. Financial data is retrieved from COMPUSTAT database. The data for CEO tenure and age are retrieved from the ExecuComp database. Besides ordinary least squares regression, this paper conducts two-stage least squares regression analysis. Endogeneity and additional tests are also considered in this paper.

The findings show that CEO international work experience may not reduce under-investment, but it may exacerbate over-investment. CEO throughput functional background may exacerbate under-investment, but it may not reduce over-investment. Furthermore, CEO career concerns are useful in reducing the inefficient investments caused by international work experience and throughput functional background. These results remain similar when potential self-selection bias, as well as alternative measures of career concerns and investment efficiency, are considered.

This paper contributes to the existing literature in the following ways: first, while a significant amount of attention has been paid to how investment decisions are affected by financial reporting quality and material internal control weaknesses, there has been little evidence accumulated related to how managers’ international experience, professional background and career concerns affect investment inefficiency. The authors attempt to fill this gap. Second, the authors manually collect the international experience and functional backgrounds of CEOs working for S&P 500 US manufacturing companies. This unique data set makes it possible to complement previous studies by investigating the effects of managerial international experience and functional background on investment behavior. Finally, previous theoretical studies have long recognized that managers’ career concerns affect their corporate investment decisions. These studies suggest that young CEOs have a greater incentive to signal their abilities by adopting more active and possibly riskier investment strategies, thus raising the moral hazard problem with regard to firm investments. The authors enrich these studies by showing that work experience alleviates the moral hazard problem with respect to young CEOs’ investment decisions.