Search results

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between the impact of COVID-19 on the performance of financial managers of medium and large companies.

This research used the data of 173 listed large and over-the-counter as medium-size companies from 2018 to 2021. The results of these tests have been analyzed using panel data and STATA 15 software.

The results showed that COVID-19 has no significant relationship with the return on equity in large and medium-size companies. This variable does not significantly affect Tobin’s Q index in medium-size companies either. Other financial indicators examined in this research have decreased considerably in all companies under the influence of COVID-19. Still, the intensity of this effect is different in large and medium-size companies. Funds from borrowings and Tobin’s Q ratios in medium-size companies compared with large companies have been more severely affected by the COVID-19 disease; the return on assets, book value to market value and large companies compared with medium-size companies have been more severely and significantly affected by COVID-19; and financing funds through the issuance of shares in large companies and medium-size companies have been affected by COVID-19 almost equally.

Despite the studies related to financial crises and their effect on the performance of companies, no research has examined the financial performance indicators during the outbreak of COVID-19 in large and small companies. Therefore, the results of this research can affect different groups: financial managers and the board of directors of companies to better understand the impact of the corona disease on the company’s performance; investors benefit from research results in line with investment decisions; developing theory and educational topics for the benefit of students and studying and conducting more experimental research in this regard; and the stock exchange organization and regulatory and support institutions need to find out the depth of the disaster and the effect of COVID-19 on the performance of companies.

In public firms, the largest shareholder can make decisions on cash dividends in favor of its own interests at the expense of other investors. While the second largest shareholder can actively participate in corporate governance and protect the interests of investors, its impact has not been fully understood. This research investigates how shareholding ratio and ownership type of the second largest shareholder moderate the relationship between controlling shareholder's shareholding ratio and cash dividends.

The authors conducted econometrics analysis based on a panel data of China's A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2017.

The authors find that the controlling shareholder's shareholding ratio has a significant negative impact on cash dividends. However, this influence is conditional on the shareholding ratio of the second largest shareholder. The negative impact is weakened when the second largest shareholder holds a large proportion of shares or when the shareholding gap between the second largest and the controlling shareholder is small.

This research extends the existing literature by highlighting the nuanced moderating effect of the second largest shareholder on the relationship between the controlling shareholder and cash dividends, thus making a unique contribution to the understanding of corporate governances in the emerging financial market in China.

This paper aims to understand whether, and if so how, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) influence large companies’ adoption and implementation of a broader corporate purpose, beyond profit maximization.

Adopting a multiple-case study method, data were collected from semi-structured interviews with 28 managers from 16 large companies in Australia and Japan, and from secondary sources. Grounded theory methods were used to analyze the data and draw out key findings.

The study revealed the influence of the SDGs on corporate purpose depends on the SDG integration level: where and how the SDGs are integrated into management practices. The influence was more significant when the companies implemented the SDGs at a normative level compared to those implementing the SDGs at a strategic and/or operational level.

Due to the exploratory nature of the study, the sample size is limited and covers only companies in two countries. Future studies could examine the validity of the findings and the explanatory model by testing with a larger sample and expanding the scope into different countries. The study provides practical implications on how large companies’ could scale up their contributions to achieving the SDGs.

While the extant literature suggests a simple relationship between sustainability (the SDGs) and corporate purpose, this paper identified a more complex relationship. It presents in a multi-pathway model that explains the relationship, based on empirical evidence from 16 large companies in two different institutional contexts.

The purpose of this study is to examine the benefits and challenges of using logistics service providers (LSPs) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large corporations.

This study uses the focus group interview method with eight LSP companies of varying sizes in the UAE. The aim is to obtain detailed insights into the advantages and obstacles associated with using LSPs.

The interview results reveal differences in the services and payment options offered by large and small-medium-sized LSPs, leading to varying impacts on SMEs. Additionally, both large and small-medium-sized LSPs encounter challenges in delivering services to SMEs, including sustaining logistic excellence in a competitive market, meeting the high customer expectations from SMEs and large enterprises, difficulty in recruiting skilled and competent employees and high costs of business technology.

This study is limited to the UAE context and the perspectives of eight LSP companies. The findings may not be generalizable to other regions or industries.

The findings of this research provide valuable insights for SMEs and large corporations considering the use of LSPs. Understanding the benefits and challenges associated with outsourcing logistics services can assist in making informed decisions and developing effective collaborations with LSPs.

This research contributes to the existing literature by specifically examining the benefits and challenges of using LSPs for SMEs and large corporations. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the factors that influence logistics outsourcing decisions and highlights the unique challenges faced by LSPs and SMEs in the context of the UAE.

Previous research has explored the link between sustainability disclosure and reputation but produced contradictory results. This study aims to clarify the sustainability disclosure–reputation relationship through a quantitative analysis of the correlations between these variables reported in empirical research papers. The second objective was to determine how various moderators affect the sustainability disclosure–reputation link.

The meta-analysis was based on a systematic review of the literature covering empirical research on the corporate sustainability disclosure and reputation relationship. A total of 92 articles were meta-analyzed to compile their findings on four extrinsic moderators: company size, ownership, stock listing status and activity sector.

The findings confirm that a significant positive correlation exists between corporate sustainability disclosure and reputation. The moderator analysis also revealed that companies’ different characteristics can explain researchers’ divergent results.

The results have considerable practical relevance for organizational management. First, they can motivate managers to improve and disclose their company’s social and environmental impacts to strengthen their reputation, which in turn will help accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Second, the findings can ensure organizations develop disclosure and reputation management strategies adapted for each firm’s size, ownership, stock listing status and activity sector.

The results have considerable practical relevance for organizational management. First, they can motivate managers to improve and disclose their company’s social and environmental impacts to strengthen their reputation, which in turn will help accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Second, the findings can ensure organizations develop disclosure and reputation management strategies adapted for each firm’s size, ownership, stock listing status and activity sector.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this meta-analysis is the first to clarify the link between disclosure and reputation, which makes a unique contribution to the field of social and environmental accounting. A larger sample of primary research was collected, and key extrinsic moderators were examined to explain prior studies’ contradictory findings.

This study aims to provide archival evidence on the impact of board characteristics on corporate social responsibility (CSR) monetary performance and how they interact with the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of CSR monetary performance.

This study analyzes listed companies in Oman’s capital market from 2016 to 2021, using pooled ordinary least squares and unique CSR performance measures such as budgeting and spending.

The study finds that companies with more expertise and frequent meetings are more likely to allocate a larger budget for CSR activities. However, this does not apply to larger boards or to independent directors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the effect of independent directors on CSR budgeting and spending is more pronounced, and boards with more expertise and meetings show a negative interaction with the pandemic. The interaction of board characteristics with COVID-19 in terms of CSR monetary performance varies depending on company size. Board independence and expertise show a significant reaction to COVID-19 infection and death cases when setting CSR budgeting and spending.

The findings of this study are stimulating, but stem from an emerging country with unique cultural and institutional characteristics. Methodological issues were also encountered during the analysis, so readers should exercise caution when applying the results to other settings.

This study highlights board involvement in deciding a company’s CSR investment, as it was believed that chief executive officers are considered responsible for CSR activities. Additionally, this research underscores the significance of incorporating the financial aspects of CSR into reporting.

This study examines the seldom explored relationship between corporate boards and CSR monetary aspects during regular and irregular times, offering theoretical and practical insights that benefit multiple stakeholders.

Industry 4.0 is recognised as a competitive strategy that helps implementers optimise their value chain. However, its adoption poses several challenges. This study investigates and ranks the drivers and barriers to implementing Industry 4.0 in the Thai sugar industry, the world's second-largest sugar exporter. It also evaluates the industry's readiness for Industry 4.0.

The drivers and impediments were identified based on a systematic literature review (SLR) and further investigated using a questionnaire, expert interviews, Pearson's correlation and nonparametric statistical analyses. The IMPULS model was used to assess the industry's readiness.

Most companies expect to minimise costs, develop employees and improve various elements of operational performance and data tracking capability. Thai sugar producers are still at a low readiness level to deploy Industry 4.0. High investment is the major challenge. Small businesses struggle to hire competent employees, collaborate with a highly credible technology provider and adapt to new solutions.

The findings can serve as a benchmark or guide for sugar manufacturers and companies in other sectors, where Industry 4.0 technologies are not yet widely utilised, to overcome existing roadblocks and make strategic decisions. They can also assist governments in developing policies that foster digital transformation and increase national competitiveness.

There is a scarcity of research on Industry 4.0 execution in the sugar industry. This study addresses this gap by investigating the reasons for the hesitancy of sugar producers to pursue Industry 4.0 and proposing solutions.

The European Union (EU) has recently adopted gender quotas for corporate boards (CBQ), anticipating ripple effects on women’s careers in the companies concerned, as well as throughout the economy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether CBQ has spurred ripple effects and discuss mechanisms hindering or facilitating women’s occupancy of top executive positions.

Norway was the first country in the world to introduce CBQ in 2003, with full effect from 2008. The policy requires company boards to be composed of 40% of each gender. Drawing on original data mapping boards and executive committees in Norway’s 200 largest companies, the authors analyze the association between CBQ and the gender composition of executive management almost 15 years after the full implementation. The data include both companies covered by the CBQ and large companies not covered.

The investigation does not find a positive association between CBQ and more women in executive positions. Thus, the ripple effect hypothesis of CBQ is not supported. CBQ may have contributed to an increased awareness of gender imbalances, yet these findings indicate that to achieve more gender balance in executive positions, scholars and practitioners may need to focus more on gendered conditions and processes in organizations and society throughout executive careers than on the gender composition of boards.

This paper provides empirical analyses of original data 15 years after the implementation of CBQ. The authors further contribute to scholarly debate by identifying and discussing possible mechanisms that explain how requiring more women on corporate boards may – or may not – have ripple effects on executive management.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel and new direct measurement of small investor sentiment in the equity market. The sentiment is based on the individual investors’ internet search activity.

The author measures unexpected changes in the small investor sentiment with AR (1) process, where the residuals capture the unexpected changes in small investor sentiment. The author employs vector autoregressive, Granger causality and linear regression models to estimate the association between the unexpected changes in small investor sentiment and future equity market returns.

An unexpected increase in the search popularity of the term bear market is negatively associated with the following week’s equity market returns. An unexpected increase in the spread (the difference in popularities between a bull market and a bear market) is positively associated with the following week’s equity market returns. The author finds that these effects are stronger for small-sized companies.

By author’s knowledge, the paper is the first that measures the small investor sentiment that is based on the internet search activity for keywords used in the American Association of Individual Investor’s (AAII) survey questions. The paper proposes an alternative small investor sentiment measure that captures the changes in small investor sentiment in more timely fashion than the AAII survey.

Motivated by the growing interest of governance regulators and researchers on internal audit function (IAF), this study examines the influence of family ownership on the levels of investment in IAF.

A sample of Malaysian listed companies for the period 2009 to 2016 is used. To test our hypothesis, the authors use pooled panel data regression based on two-way cluster-robust standard errors (firm and year).

The findings show that family ownership is negatively related to investment in IAF; in particular, investment in IAF is lower for family companies than non-family companies.

This study contributes to existing knowledge of IAF, and it provides significant insights for regulators and managers into the variation in governance structures between family and non-family companies, particularly in emerging markets in which substantial family ownership is common.