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The purpose of this paper is to examine the interaction between competition and corporate payout policy and more specifically to answer the question that whether competition mitigates the principal–principal agency conflicts and influences firms to distribute dividends to shareholders in Chinese corporations.

This research models measures of competition with scaled measures of dividends and analyzes a sample of 16,730 firm-year observations from Chinese-listed manufacturing firms for the period spanning 2003 to 2016. Further, this research uses the Tobit model (a censored regression) to empirically test the proposed hypotheses.

This research finds that intense competition not only mitigates agency problems and forces firms to disgorge cash but also increases a firm’s likelihood to pay dividends and weakens the negative association between agency conflicts and dividends.

The results show an important policy implication for the industry. As the principal–principal agency conflict restrains the dividends, the regulatory authorities could encourage a competitive environment and a more diverse ownership structure to induce a higher dividend rate and protect the minority shareholders. In addition, this study also has implications for other emerging markets characterized by concentrated ownership and principal–principal agency problems.

This study adds to the literature related to the disciplinary role of competition and identifies competition as a significant determinant of corporate payout policy. Furthermore, this research extends earlier research on corporate payout decisions that besides firm-level corporate governance and country-level legal system, industry-level competition also influences corporate payout decisions, significantly.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how multiple facets of board diversity influence technical efficiency (TE) and total factor productivity (TFP).

The authors measure board diversity in two dimensions: relation-related dimension (age and gender) and task-related dimension (tenure, education and expertise). The authors use a balanced panel data of 806 nonfinancial Chinese firms over the period 2009–2017. The authors use a two-stage approach for analysis. In the first stage, the authors use a non-parametric frontier approach to calculate the TE and factor productivity scores. In the second stage, the authors regressed these scores on board diversity attributes (relation-related diversity and task-related diversity).

By using tobit regression and two-step system GMM, the authors find that board diversity improves TE and TFP. The authors’ analyses illustrate that a higher diversity on corporate board (in terms of age, gender, tenure, education and expertise) positively influence firm efficiency.

The findings have important implications for policymakers. The findings suggest that regulators should devise policies to encourage board diversity. Because a diverse board can bring knowledge, skills, abilities, expertise and experience of diverse group members, which will ultimately enhance a firm’s efficiency. Especially, in the emerging markets (such as China), there is still a need for standard governance mechanisms; therefore, the authors suggest that policymakers should develop regulations and promote diversity of directors as one of the factors for improving the governance mechanisms, which will ultimately improve firms productivity.

Prior studies mostly considered only one dimension (such as gender) of diversity and, therefore, have overlooked how other dimensions influence firms. The authors consider several dimensions of diversity and quantify them into relation-related (age and gender) and task-related (tenure, education and expertise) attributes and show how they influence firms’ efficiency. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to comprehensively investigate how several facets of diversity influence a firm’s TE and TFP.

This paper aims to examine the volatility spillover dynamics between stock and foreign exchange market of China considering subprime 2007 financial crisis period.

This study considered daily data from January 2, 2002, to December 31, 2013. The sample period has been further divided into three periods; full sample period (January 2002-December 2013), pre-crisis period (January 2002-October 2007) and post-crisis period (October 2007-December 2013). This study opted Exponential Generalized Autoregressive Heteroskedasticity (EGARCH) model for the purpose of investigating asymmetric volatility spillover.

The results obtained using the EGARCH model imply that volatility spillover dynamics varies from period to period. In full sample period, the results show evidence of significant unidirectional volatility spillover from foreign exchange market to stock market. In pre-crisis period, the results indicate unidirectional volatility spillover from stock market to foreign exchange market. However, in post-crisis period, the results reveal significant bidirectional volatility spillover between stock and foreign exchange market.

The results of the study are important for policy makers because understanding the behavior of the financial markets, i.e. stock and foreign exchange market, would increase the success of policies implemented in a crisis situation. The results would help investors to formulate efficient portfolios.

This study is an important contribution to the existing literature in terms of analyzing volatility spillover between stock and foreign exchange market in an emerging economy, China. Furthermore, this study explored the volatility spillover dynamics between the two markets by considering the pre and post subprime Asian crisis period.

This study aims to explore the relationship between product market competition (competition hereafter) and the quality of analysts’ forecasts.

This study uses industry-level (i.e. Herfindahl–Hirschman index), as well as firm-level (i.e. Lerner index) measures of competition and uses forecast accuracy and forecasts dispersion as proxies for analysts’ forecast quality. Further, this study considers a sample of Chinese-listed manufacturing companies for the period spanning 2005 to 2016 and uses various estimation techniques to empirically test the hypothesized relationship.

The results show that firms in highly competitive industries are characterized by greater accuracy and smaller dispersion in forecasts. Further, this positive association is more pronounced in SOEs as compared to NSOEs, and in industries characterized by intense competition. The sensitivity analysis further endorses the main results.

Presenting theoretical and empirical evidence, this study suggests that regulatory bodies should take steps to promote the competitive environment in China. This can help financial analysts in developing more accurate and reliable forecasts and ultimately can bring informational efficiency to the market. Finally, investors would be able to perform their business valuation process in a better way and make economic-useful decisions regarding their capital resource allocation.

The contribution of the current research is threefold: first, it adds to the limited literature available on this specific topic; second, this study examines the issue in China and further single out the influence of state-ownership and intensity of competition on the relation between competition and forecast properties; and third, this study provides theoretical arguments for the positive association between competition and forecasts quality while setting directions for future research on the topic and suggests the potential channels such as the reporting quality channel and the information disclosure channel that need to be explored further, to better understand the mechanism where competition influences the quality of analysts’ forecasts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how corporate governance instruments impact firm value in the context of Pakistan. This paper considers state- and non-state-owned enterprises and examines whether the influence of corporate governance on firm value varies across firms having different nature of ownership.

This study opts for an unbalanced sample of state- and non-state-owned enterprises for the period 2010-2014. Panel data regression is adopted for estimation of main results. The suitable model, i.e. fixed and random effect model, is selected using Hausman specification test.

The notable findings show that board independence has a significant and positive relationship with firm value only for state-owned companies. Furthermore, the results show that market capitalization and return on assets have a significant and positive association with firm value for both state- and non-state-owned enterprises. All other variables are found insignificant for both state- and non-state-owned companies, but the results are consistent with those reported in previous studies.

The findings of the study suggest that fair induction of independent directors, appropriate board size and cost-benefit analysis to conduct frequent meetings can help corporations to improve their performance.

This study is adding to the current literature by providing new insights and shows that the impact of corporate governance on firm value varies across firms of different types of ownership, i.e. state- and non-state-owned enterprises.

The purpose of this study shows how overall board diversity influences corporate risk-taking. Board diversity is quantified into task-oriented diversity (tenure and education) and relation-oriented diversity (age and gender). Further, this study tests whether the association of board diversity and corporate risk varies across state-owned firms (SOEs) and non-state-owned firms (NSOEs).

The authors used a sample of Chinese listed firms over the period 1999-2017. The results are estimated using the fixed-effects model. To deal with the endogeneity problem and single model bias, the authors use a dynamic model, i.e. two-step generalized method of moment’s model.

The results show that both task-oriented and relation-oriented diversity reduces corporate risk. Further, the authors document that overall board diversity reduces risk-taking across different types of firms, that is, SOEs and NSOEs. These results are consistent after controlling for endogeneity problems.

The results provide implications for enhancing corporate governance practices by considering overall board diversity as an important factor influencing corporate decisions. The findings suggest that policymakers and shareholders should consider different diversity attributes important for the composition of a board, which can enhance board outcomes.

Most of the prior studies considered only one dimension of diversity, and therefore, have overlooked the overall board diversity. Unlike prior studies, this study considers four board diversity attributes – age, gender, tenure and education, and further tests their association with corporate risk. Further, this study also examines the effect of overall diversity on corporate risk in SOEs and NSOEs.

The purpose of this study is to explore whether different board diversity attributes (corporate governance aspect) can be used to predict financial distress. This study also aims to identify what type of prediction models are more applicable to capture board diversity along with conventional predictors.

This study used Chinese A-listed companies during 2007–2016. Board diversity dimensions of gender, age, education, expertise and independence are categorized into three broad categories; relation-oriented diversity (age and gender), task-oriented diversity (expertise and education) and structural diversity (independence). The data is divided into test and validation sets. Six statistical and machine learning models that included logistic regression, dynamic hazard, K-nearest neighbor, random forest (RF), bagging and boosting were compared on Type I errors, Type II errors, accuracy and area under the curve.

The results indicate that board diversity attributes can significantly predict the financial distress of firms. Overall, the machine learning models perform better and the best model in terms of Type I error and accuracy is RF.

This study not only highlights symptoms but also causes of financial distress, which are deeply rooted in weak corporate governance. The result of the study can be used in future credit risk assessment by incorporating board diversity attributes. The study has implications for academicians, practitioners and nomination committees.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to comprehensively investigate how different attributes of diversity can predict financial distress in Chinese firms. Further, this study also explores, which financial distress prediction models can show better predictive power.

This paper aims to examine whether and how gender diversity and CEO gender can influence firm value in the emerging market of Pakistan. The study further tests whether these relations vary across state-owned enterprises (SOE) and non-state-owned enterprises (NSOE).

This study considers Pakistani listed firms over the period 2010-2017. The firms have been divided into SOE and NSOE for additional analysis. Tobin’s Q is used to measure firm’s value.

The authors document that female directors (FDirectors) on corporate boards is positively associated with firm value. The findings also illustrate that female CEOs (FCEOs) enhances a firm value. Additional analyses show that the influence of FDirectors and FCEOs on firm value is stronger in NSOE than in SOE.

The results suggest that gender diversity and CEO gender play a significant role in corporate decisions. The findings imply that FDirectors discipline the management, reduce agency conflicts and thereby improve corporate governance, resulting in higher firm value.

This study has two important contributions. First, while prior studies mostly based their arguments on using gender diversity of corporate boards, this study shows that a firm performance can be significantly improved if a female serves as a CEO. Second, this study also tests the stated relations for SOE and NSOE and show that gender diversity plays a significant role in NSOE than in SOE.

This study examines how Confucianism, as an informal system, alleviates manager–shareholder conflicts and thus decreases managerial behavior of keeping higher levels of cash reserves. This study also investigates whether formal governance mechanisms (state ownership and institutional investors) moderate the relationship between Confucianism and cash holdings.

This study opts a sample of Chinese listed firms over the period of 2004–2015. The geographical-proximity-based method was followed to measure Confucianism, which is the distance between a firm's registered address and the national Confucianism centers.

The results indicate that Confucianism adversely influences cash holdings. The authors’ findings illustrate that Confucian culture promotes ethical behavior, and therefore, firms in a strong Confucianism environment keep a lower level of cash reserves. The authors further document that the effect of Confucianism on cash holding is weaker for state-owned firms but stronger for firms with low institutional ownership.

The findings provide implications for policymakers, academicians, and corporations. The results suggest that culture can reduce cash holdings. Especially, in emerging markets, such as China, where formal mechanisms are relatively less effective, informal institutions can serve an alternative system for alleviating adverse effects of agency conflicts.

This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, this study contributes to cash holdings literature by showing that culture (Confucianism) is negatively associated with cash holdings. Second, this study extends the incumbent literature that seeks to explore how Confucian culture influences corporate behavior. To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first study that identifies that Confucianism is associated with cash holdings.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of the frequency of information acquisition on the frequency of stock trading. The authors also examined if the Big Five personality traits of investor influence the association between information acquisition and stock trading behavior.

The authors adopted NEO Five-Factor Inventory (Costa and McCrae, 1989) inventory to measure the Big Five personality traits of investors and examined the data collected from 541 individual investors of the Chinese stock market. To overcome the potential endogeneity bias, the authors followed two-stage least square method for estimating endogenous covariate by employing instrumental variable analysis. The authors performed probit regression to evaluate the moderating influence of investor personality traits on the association between information acquisition and stock trading behavior. The authors also performed several other tests to check the robustness of the key findings.

This research confirmed the previous findings that the more frequently investors acquire information, the more often they trade in stocks. Moreover, the authors added to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence that the Big Five personality traits moderate the relationship of information acquisition with stock trading behavior. Information acquisition tends to increase stock trading frequency in investors with conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness traits. On the other hand, it also has the tendency to decrease the intensity of stock trading in investors with openness and neuroticism traits.

The theoretical model in this study seeks to explain that the psychological factor, namely, investor personality, influences the way an investor interprets signals from information which in turn influences the investor decision to trade in securities. This research suggests that psychological characteristics of investors can be of relevance for policy makers in their attempts to improve their business in the financial services industry.

This study combines both information search literature and behavioral finance literature to investigate whether or not the information acquisition that relates to investors’ asset allocation decisions is influenced by investor personality. The study offers new theoretical insights into investors’ behavior due to the characteristics of the Chinese stock market which are uniquely different from other stock markets in the world. No previous study has been conducted so far in the Chinese stock market to explore variations in the impact of investors’ information acquisition on their stock trading by the Big Five personality and this paper strives to fill this research gap.