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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between ethnic diversity on corporate boards and audit fees in the context of South Africa. Additionally, this paper investigates how the interaction between board ethnicity and board independence affects audit fees.

This study uses a quantitative research method with a panel data analysis to test proposed hypotheses. This study’s sample consist of listed firms on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) from 2003 to 2018.

This study finds that firms with more Black directors on corporate board have higher audit fees. It also shows that the positive relation between board independence and audit fees is more pronounced for firms with greater ethnic diversity on corporate boards. Further, this study finds that the presence of Black directors on corporate board can increase board effectiveness. Lastly, firms with more Black directors on corporate board tend to be audited by Big N auditors. The findings of this study illustrate the implication of an equity narrative to board diversity for organisational outcome.

The results reported in this paper have both practical and policy implications regarding the presence of ethnic diversity on corporate boards. The findings also suggest that there is a need to establish an appropriate balance of ethnic diversity on corporate boards as part of regulatory reform. Regulators should be aware of the positive impacts of the requirement for board diversity on corporate boards.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine whether the presence of Black directors on corporate boards affects audit fees. It also investigates the interaction effects between the presence of Black directors on the board and board independence.

This study aims to review the current rules and regulations on micro-takaful in Malaysia to determine whether it addresses the basic principles of micro-takaful. Although the features of the first micro-takaful are slightly different from the customary long-established takaful settings, the rules and regulations remain unchanged following the original guidelines of operating insurance and takaful. Until Perlindungan Tenang makes its first premiere, the rules and regulations on micro-takaful are gaining ground. The dissimilarity of micro-takaful from the original takaful calls for updated guidelines, so that any micro-takaful scheme launched in the market meets the demand and needs of the targeted population.

This study uses content analysis as the best method to review each guideline in the related rules and regulations across several documents such as microinsurance and micro-takaful discussion paper and guidelines on family takaful products.

Overall, the findings reveal that guidelines on micro-takaful operating in Malaysia support the micro-takaful requirement to be affordable, valuable, accessible, understandable and simplified. Matching the rules and regulations with this population feedback, the extended distribution channel may need further scrutiny due to deficit trust among public members toward insurance and takaful.

The insights presented are of important illumination to achieve long-term sustainability financial protection while preserving human well-being among those underserved.

This study aims to determine the impact of basic human values on consumer purchase intention of takaful. The core purpose of this study is to establish the moderation of similarity of competitors between the proposed relationship of tradition value, conformity value and consumer purchase intention of takaful.

This study supports the positivist philosophical paradigm and follows quantitative research methods, cross-sectional approach and close-ended questionnaire technique for data collection. The IBM SPSS and AMOS programs were used to perform data analysis.

The finding reveals that tradition value produces positive effect and stimulation value produces negative effect on consumer purchase intention of takaful. Meanwhile, the similarity of competitors moderates the proposed relationship of tradition value, conformity value and consumer purchase intention of takaful.

The scope of this study is limited to measure the role of tradition value, conformity value, stimulation value and self-direction value. However, future studies should investigate the role of hedonism value, achievement value and universalism value in consumer purchase intention of takaful. Further, the data collection from three major cities of Pakistan is considered as a main limitation of this study including scarcity of time and resources. Future studies should enhance the geographical scope of research by including large and small cities, town and rural areas to enhance the generalization of the study.

The present study highlights leading challenges faced by takaful industry including the perception of similarity of competitors that create confusion in the mind of consumers. This study also introduces the role of basic human values in activating consumer’s intention to purchase takaful services.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between female representation on corporate boards and intellectual capital (IC) efficiency – while prior studies focus on the relationship between gender diversity and firms’ financial performance.

Drawing on data from top 500 UK listed firms for 2007–2016 (3,279 firm-years), this study employs an adjusted-value-added intellectual coefficient as a measure of IC efficiency. Further, the two-step system-generalised method of moments has been applied to account for endogeneity issues.

The results reveal a significant positive relationship between female representation on boards and IC efficiency, including human capital, structural/innovation capital and financial capital efficiency. These results are robust to alternative proxies for the independent variable and difference-in-difference estimation.

The results posit that female representation on boards is associated with IC efficiency, which is vital for firms’ value creation and competitive advantage in the knowledge-economy era. The study also endorses current legislation to increase female representation on corporate boards.

This is among the limited studies to explore the role of female representation on boards in IC efficiency – while most prior studies relate IC efficiency to financial performance.

The way in which a firm’s actions are perceived by others is driven by the individual values and ethics of directors (Ntim and Soobaroyen, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of “problem” directors on the environmental performance of firms. The authors argue that if a board member has a tainted reputation, then environmental performance will be higher as the problem director seeks to rebuild his/her reputation.

The authors use a sample of the top 500 US companies for 2010 and 2011 and an ordinary least square (OLS) model to capture the impact of “problem” directors on environmental performance. The authors use an independent measure of environmental performance which includes three categories: environmental impact, environmental management (green policies) and environmental reputation (which is affected by disclosure).

The findings of this paper show that the average environmental impact score is 53.32 per cent, the environmental management green policy score is 35.39 per cent and environmental reputation is 49.86 per cent. A firm which is operated by a problem director has a higher score for environmental management and environmental reputation than non-problem director-affiliated firms. Firms which are managed by a problem director(s) have lower scores for environmental impact than non-problem director-affiliated firms in the USA, indicating a higher level of emissions, water use, waste disposal, etc.

The authors posit that problem directors promote environmental performance as a means to enhance their reputation and divert attention from allegations of previous poor professional behaviour. Regulators and investors should interpret the environmental performance of a firm with caution when a problem director is on the board.

Prior research on the relationship between environmental performance and corporate governance has been based on board composition and characteristics. However, board decision-making reflects the professional experience and personal values of the directors. These factors have not been addressed in the literature to-date and, hence, form this paper’s contribution.

This study aims to address a leading challenge of confusion about the concept of takāful confronted by existing and potential consumers of the insurance industry. There are multiple sources of confusion, including the lack of consensus among religious scholars to implement a standardized business model of takāful, the lack of knowledge or awareness and the lack of skilled or trained personnel, which prevent existing and potential consumers from adopting takāful products or services. The fundamental concept of takāful is introduced mainly to fulfill the religious, social and economic needs of Muslims. Thus, the choice of takāful activates the religious, cultural, family and tradition values of individuals. Hence, the primary purpose of this study is to determine the impact of tradition value and stimulation value on consumer adoption of takāful services. Further, the scope of this study is extended to establish the mediating role of religiosity and moderating role of confusion on the association between tradition value and consumer adoption of takāful services.

This study follows quantitative research methods and a cross-sectional approach for data collection. Thus, the sample is collected from 768 respondents belongs to rural and urban areas by using a close-ended questionnaire. The mediation and moderation analysis are performed by using Andrew F. Hayes process Models-4 and −5.

The result reveals that religiosity mediates and confusion moderates the relationship of tradition value and consumer adoption of takāful. However, the tradition value shows a negative effect on consumer adoption of takāful. Moreover, the confusion negatively moderates the association between tradition value and consumer adoption of takāful. Finally, the stimulation value also reflects a negative effect on consumer adoption of takāful services.

The findings of this study shed novel insights into the existing literature of takāful and basic human values. The outcomes of stimulation values contradict with the findings of Wang et al. (2008). The result of mediation analysis reveals that religiosity plays a vital role in activating the goals of tradition value, which motivates consumers to adopt takāful services. The present study is useful for takāful operators to understand the value priorities of prospect clients belong to rural and urban areas.

This paper aims to analyse the link between culture and corporate governance. In particular, it demonstrates the impact of culture in inhibiting convergence of corporate governance. Overall, the paper provides an appraisal of corporate governance laws in stakeholder-oriented states that have endured market pressure for convergence.

The paper utilises historical trend in analyzing changes in corporate governance regulation in six countries covering three continents with stakeholder-oriented corporate governance model to determine the effect of culture in the convergence or divergence of corporate governance.

The view that corporate governance is converging towards the shareholder model largely ignores cultural differences in states. An appraisal of corporate governance rules and principles that have endured Anglo-American influence reveals a strong propensity for cultural norms to dictate areas where changes occur. This paper demonstrates nominal changes in corporate governance regulation and ideologies, as states still turn to design corporate governance rules around their cultural philosophy. The paper also reveals weak political authority for convergence vis-à-vis market forces.

Laws are strongly embedded in the corporate philosophies of states. Thus, the market and managers need to incorporate national culture into corporate practices for effective implementation.

Few studies have examined the effect of culture on the convergence of corporate governance regulation, especially across different countries. This study does not only analyze corporate governance in developed countries but also examines emerging nations in Africa where research on convergence is very scarce.

This study explores the strategies adopted by companies during the economic crisis of 2008-2009. It investigates whether it is reasonable for companies to intensify their investment in intangibles during recession periods. The purpose of this paper is to find empirical evidence that companies with clear intangible-intensive profiles are likely to outperform those without a clear strategy.

This paper explores the intangible-intensive strategies of companies in terms of their dynamics during the pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods. Through dummy regression applied to data from more than 1,600 European companies involved in the empirical analysis, the paper aims to show moderating effects from intangible-intensive strategies on company performance, expressed in terms of economic value added and market value added.

The results established in this study shed some light on the global economic crisis in 2008-2009. The findings of this study demonstrate that companies with a conservative profile towards intangibles outperform both those without a defined profile and those with an innovative one. However, an innovative profile enables faster recovery after a crisis.

This paper contributes to the literature on the strategic management of companies, and highlights the particular importance of intangible-intensiveness when markets experience systematic distresses. It is emphasized that lessons learned during the recent global economic crisis must be taken into account in the strategic vision of any company.

This study aims to explore value creation through intangibles in corporations, taking into consideration the endogenous nature of managerial decisions. It is stated that intangibles bring extra information asymmetry into a company and make managers and investors’ goals less aligned.

A theoretical model is elaborated and empirically tested on the assumption that managers, while investing in intangibles, simultaneously make a company competitive and attractive to investors. The authors use a conceptual model of endogenous value creation to test how intangibles affect outperforming of a company and provoke the expectations of investors. The research is carried out on a sample of more than 1,650 European companies covering the period from 2004 to 2011. Structural equation modelling is applied for the purposes of empirical analysis.

The authors reveal a diverse impact of intangibles on outperforming of a company measured by economic value added and its ability to create market value. The study discovers that managers are prone to indicate positive signals to investors rather than create sustainable competitive advantages.

This research emphasizes on the particular importance of awareness of policymakers, namely, companies’ top managers, about the outcomes of their decisions. Decision-making in public companies should involve as much deliberation as possible about the potential impact of what is decided.

This work contributes primarily to the field of corporate finance in companies that use intangibles. The endogenous process of value creation is modelled and tested. As a result, a number of essential problems in agent relationships in intangible-intensive corporations are discovered.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between intellectual capital (IC), categorized in terms of four sub-constructs – namely, human capital (HC), relational capital (RC), innovation capital (InnC) and process capital (PrC) – and business performance in the agribusiness industry.

Based on a sample of international agribusiness companies observed over a five-year period, this paper uses correlation and multiple regression analysis to test for the existence of a positive relationship between each IC component and conventional business performance metrics.

The empirical results support the hypotheses that RC and PrC have a positive impact on corporate performance. Counter to the expectations, InnC by itself is negatively associated with performance. Results also failed to confirm the hypothesis that HC directly and positively affects performance. However HC positively moderates the relation between InnC and performance, which suggests that firms that heavily invest in HC are better placed to gain returns from their research and development (R & D) investments.

This study expands the existing research on the link between IC and performance by adding fresh evidence from a highly knowledge-intensive sector which has been under-researched thus far. It may also contribute to the specific literature on R & D and performance as it uncovers that the value-generating effect associated with R & D investments is contingent on the levels of HC.