Search results

This study aims to investigate the effects of corporate board and audit committee characteristics and ownership structures on market-based financial performance of listed firms in Thailand.

It applies system GMM (generalized method of moments) as the baseline estimator approach, and ordinary least squares and fixed effects for robustness checks on a sample of 452 firms listed on the Thai Stock Exchange for the period 2000-2016.

Relying mainly on the system GMM estimator, the empirical results indicate some emerging trends in the Thai economy. Contrary to expectations for an emerging market and prior research findings, ownership structures, particularly ownership concentration and family ownership, appear to have no significant influence on market-based firm performance, while managerial ownership exerts a positive effect on performance. Moreover, as expected, board structure variables such as board independence; size; meeting and dual role; and audit committee meeting show significant explanatory power on market-based firm performance in Thai firms.

These findings are important for policymakers in constructing an appropriate set of governance mechanisms in an emerging market context, and for corporate entities and investors in shaping their understanding of corporate governance in the Thai institutional context.

Unlike previous literature on the Thai market, this study is the first to use the more advanced econometric method known as system GMM estimator for addressing causality/endogeneity issues in governance–performance relationships. The findings indicate new trends in the explanatory power of ownership structure variables on market-based firm performance in Thai-listed firms.

The phenomenon of “broken rungs” has prevented most women from attaining managerial positions relative to men. Despite this gender disparity in management, female executives are more likely to enhance shareholder trust due to higher ethical standards, which can be hypothesized to mitigate the negative impact of family ownership on firm value. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the moderating role of female ownership and female directors in mitigating the unfavorable effects of family ownership on firm value as measured by Tobin’s Q and the Market Value of Equity (MVE).

Multiple linear regression is applied to examine the proposed hypotheses, as well as other vital factors, such as board independence (BI), the dual chief executive officer (CEO)–chairman role (CEO duality) and control variables (i.e. firm size, firm age, leverage and investment ratio).

The results revealed that female directors could buffer the negative impact caused by family ownership, leading to higher firm value, when given a sufficient level of female ownership or the appointment of more female directors, regardless of female ownership levels. Otherwise, female ownership cannot help overcome the negative effects of family ownership in Thai-listed firms. This study also sheds light on corporate governance elements that impact firm value. CEO duality reduces the value of Thai-listed companies, whereas board independence increases firm value.

The managerial roles for women should be promoted in Thai-listed enterprises. The government can support new laws, policies and programs for embracing a cross-cutting gender perspective. Female network initiatives enable women to advance in their managerial careers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study intends to fill the research gap by investigating how female directors and owners can moderate family ownership’s influence on the value of firms listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), which is one of the emerging capital markets.

Financial institutions have a role in harmonising economic purposes with environmental and social purposes through transmission mechanisms whereby the institutions provide channels to promote socially and environmental desirable activities. This study explores the sustainability criteria disclosed at firm-level corporate social responsibility reports for the purpose of providing direction for financial institutions committed to enhancing the contribution to sustainability objectives.

The Delphi Method and the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) system have been employed to systematically analyse the opinions of 15 experts regarding the operation of the 7 Taiwanese financial institutions listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index in 2019 with respect to the capacity to affect sustainability objectives.

The findings reveal a high prominence level for corporate governance, law compliance, risk management and occupational safety and health, representing amongst the sustainability criteria considered. This suggests that financial institutions may benefit from focussing resources on these areas, starting with corporate governance, when considering means for enhancing the sustainability performance.

The study is limited by the small number of financial institutions available in Taiwan which suggests that further research could be directed towards a larger sample of financial institutions, say by international comparison, expanding the range of industries studied or the inclusion for additional sustainability indicators.

Overall, the study has shed light on Taiwan's financial institutions' capacity to contribute to sustainable practices which is an area that has not been extensively investigated. This study may have useful implications for financial institutions in Taiwan.

The authors also recognise other factors that are likely to contribute to social impacts. These include human capacity building and development, information security, green procurement, green building and climate-related financial products.

This study fills the gap by providing useful insights for a better understanding of sustainable development in financial institutions by promoting sustainability practice in general. The authors' analysis will assist decision-makers in identifying and prioritising the driving factors and thus adopting suitable strategies to strengthen sustainability performance.

This study is primarily motivated by the increasing concern of the academic, practitioners, regulators and standard setters regarding the quality of earnings and financial reporting. The purpose is to investigate whether the accrual anomaly exists in Australia; whether the occurrence of the accrual anomaly is attributed to the discretionary accruals component stemming from managerial discretion; and the impact of corporate governance reforms on accrual mispricing.

This study employs the Mishkin (1983) rational expectations test to examine whether the earnings expectations embedded in stock prices accurately reflect the differential persistence of earnings components. It also employs the hedge portfolio trading strategy to examine whether taking a long position in firms with low accruals and a short position in firms with high accruals will yield positive abnormal stock returns.

The results show that investors overestimate the persistence of accruals and underestimate the persistence of cash flows and subsequently, overprice the accruals and underprice the cash flows. The evidence of accrual mispricing is severe for the component of discretionary accruals. Nonetheless, the association between discretionary accruals and abnormal returns are weakened during the corporate governance reforms period.

It should be cautious to attribute the investors' ability to accurately price accruals and cash flows to the passage of corporate governance reform program. Despite there is control for firm size, book-to-market, PE multiple, growth and leverage, other macro-economic factors such as interest rates, inflation and GDP could potentially have an impact on stock returns.

The passage of corporate governance reform program has increased the level of financial reporting disclosure and the monitoring of management, which subsequently improved accruals persistence and earnings quality. A direct practical implication is that investors should better understand the information in accruals for future earnings when the corporate disclosure environment is strengthened.

This study provides useful information to regulators, academics and investors interested in market efficiency and accrual mispricing. The results suggest that the reform of corporate governance is associated with more efficient prices. This may be of interest to the regulators who intend to improve earnings quality and financial reporting environment through the regulatory reform.

To test the accrual anomaly in the period of corporate governance reforms is particularly useful to regulators and policy makers. It allows regulators and policy makers to gain insight as whether the change of regulation has been effective – more transparent and timely reporting of financial information are supposed to help the investors to better understand the accruals and thus mitigate the potential for accrual mispricing.

This study aims to explore corporate earnings management practices in Australia and New Zealand before and after the regulatory changes and corporate governance reforms. The study argues that the effectiveness of regulatory reforms has to be reflected in constraining earnings management in post-reform period as compared to pre-reform period.

Using a sample of 3,966 firm-year observations, including all ASX and NZX listed firms for the period 2001-2006, the study examines earnings management practices in both countries in pre- and post-reform periods with appropriate statistical methods.

The results indicate some interesting phenomenon: the magnitude of earnings management did not decline after the governance reform as a positive time trend is observed in the entire sample as well as in Australian and New Zealand sub-samples, suggesting that earnings management has been growing over time. Additional test indicates no structural change has occurred before and after the new regulations. The shifting from decreasing earnings management to increasing earnings management can be interpreted as an evidence that earnings become more ‘informative’ in a more transparent disclosure regime to capture short-run benefits from regulator reforms.

The shifting of earnings management behaviour from decreasing to increasing income can be interpreted as the outcome of more “informative”, rather than “deliberate”, earnings management in a more transparent disclosure regime to capture short-run benefits of regulatory reforms, which is worth further investigation. The findings of the study can lead regulatory authorities taking appropriate measures to promote earnings quality in corporate financial reporting from a long-run decision usefulness context. Any future reforms should be directed to protecting the interest of stakeholders as well as ensuring benefits outweighing costs for them.

The findings of the study can lead regulatory authorities in taking appropriate measures to promote earnings quality in corporate financial reporting from a long-run decision usefulness context.

The study adds value to the existing earnings management literature as well as effectiveness of regulations for the benefit of wider stakeholder groups.

There have been limited investigations on the mechanical characteristics of tunnels supported by corrugated plate structures during fault dislocation. The authors obtained circumferential and axial deformations of the spiral corrugated pipe at various fault displacements. Lastly, the authors examined the impact of reinforced spiral stiffness and soil constraints on the support performance of corrugated plate tunnels under fault displacement.

By employing the theory of similarity ratios, the authors conducted model tests on spiral corrugated plate support using loose sand and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) spiral corrugated PE pipes for cross-fault tunnels. Subsequently, the soil spring coefficient for tunnel–soil interaction was determined in accordance with ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) specifications. Numerical simulations were performed on spiral corrugated pipes with fault dislocation, and the results were compared with the experimental data, enabling the determination of the variation pattern of the soil spring coefficient.

The findings indicate that the maximum axial tensile and compressive strains occur on both sides of the fault. As the reinforced spiral stiffness reaches a certain threshold, the deformation of the corrugated plate tunnel and the maximum fault displacement stabilize. Furthermore, a stronger soil constraint leads to a lower maximum fault displacement that the tunnel can withstand.

In this study, the calculation formula for density similarity ratio cannot be taken into account due to the limitations of the helical corrugated tube process and the focus on the deformation pattern of helical corrugated tubes under fault action.

This study provides a basis for the mechanical properties of helical corrugated tube tunnels under fault misalignment and offers optimization solutions.

The phosphorus and zinc contained in zinc dialkyl dithiophosphate (ZDDP) caused severe environment pollution and catalyst poison. Thus, the phosphorus-free additive, such as borate esters, has become one of studying hot topics in the area of oil additive. However, the stability of hydrolysis greatly limited the use of borate esters. The purpose of this paper is to improve the stability of hydrolysis by synthesizing a new kind of N-containing heterocyclic borate ester (MTTDB) as a lubricant additive.

The tribological properties of novel borate ester (MTTDB) as an additive in the base oil were studied by a four-ball machine. The element composition and chemical state of the tribofilm were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectrometer and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

The results showed that the base oil lubricated by MTTDB exhibited high hydrolytic stability, good anti-wear property and excellent extreme pressure performance. When 2.5 per cent MTTDB was added into the 100N base oil, the smallest wear scar diameter (0.46 mm) was obtained. Furthermore, the decomposed borate ester, organic sulfide adsorbed on the worn surface was detected, and S element reacted with the steel surface and generated FeSO4, both of which contributed to the formation of the tribofilm.

Based on N-containing heterocyclic compounds, for instance, thiadiazole derivatives, introducing nitrogen and sulfur elements into borate ester, a new kind of N-containing heterocyclic borate ester (MTTDB) exhibited excellent property in hydrolysis stability, friction-reducing, anti-wear and extreme pressure. This synthesized method would be helpful for the borate ester used as additive in engine oil, gear oil and other industrial lubricants.

The purpose of this chapter is to compile the expected scenarios of development of information economy in the global economic system, determine the role of scenario that envisages practical implementation of the new model of a well-balanced information economy among these scenarios according to the criterion of effectiveness and probability, and select and substantiate the optimal scenario.

Due to the absence of initial statistical information that allows characterizing the basic conditions for further development of information economy in the global economic system, the method of stochastic modeling is used for describing forecast scenarios in this chapter. This method is used due to its applicability for forecast analysis in the conditions of uncertainty. With the help of this method, qualitative description of the expected scenarios of development of information economy in the global economic system is accompanied by selected quantitative characteristics, which are conventional, that is, they are given for comparing various scenarios, not for specifying a precise value of estimate indicators. Comparison of the expected scenarios of development of information economy in the global economic system is conducted using comparative analysis method.

It is concluded that the most effective and optimal scenario is the one that supposes implementation of the offered new model of a well-balanced information economy – despite its lower probability as compared to the other scenarios.

The set optimal expected scenario of development of information economy, which envisages application of its new well-balanced model, is recommended for practical implementation in the modern economic systems.

This paper aims to consider the thrust force generated by two plunging and pitching plates in a tandem configuration in forward flight to find out the configuration that maximizes the propulsive efficiency with high-enough time-averaged lift force.

To that end, the Navier–Stokes equations for the incompressible and two-dimensional flow at Reynolds number $500 are solved. As the number of parameters is quite large, the case of constant separation between the plates (half their chord length), varying seven non-dimensional parameters related to the phase shift between the heaving motion of the foils, the phase lag between pitch and heave of each plate independently and the frequency and amplitude of the heaving and pitching motions are considered. This analysis complements some other recent studies where the separation between the foils has been used as one of the main control parameters.

It is found that the propulsive efficiency is maximized for a phase shift of 180° (counterstroking), when the reduced frequency is 2.2 and the Strouhal number based on half the plunging amplitude is 0.17, the pitching amplitude is 25° and when pitch leads heave by 135° in both the fore -plate and the hind plate. The propulsive efficiency is about 20 per cent, just a bit larger than that of an isolate plate with the same motion as the fore-plate, but the corresponding lift force is negligible for a single plate. The paper discusses this vortical flow structure in relation to other less efficient ones. Finally, the effect of the separation between the plates and the Reynolds number is also briefly discussed.

The kinematics of two flapping plates in tandem configuration that maximizes the propulsive efficiency are characterized discussing physically the associated vortical flow structures in comparison with less efficient kinematic configurations. A much larger number of parameters in the optimization procedure than in previous related works is considered.

At the beginning of 1987, it was decided to integrate the activities of the Library and Information Group at the Thornton Research Centre of Shell Research Ltd with those of the Office Systems and Report Production Group and to rehouse them under one roof. Gradually the idea of a forward‐looking Information Centre began to take shape, and the opportunity to create a high‐profile activity was seized with enthusiasm. A modern information service relies very heavily on computer and communications systems. The systems used in Thornton's Information Centre are based on an IBM network and use SUN workstations and Apple Macintosh II computers.