Search results

This paper argues that the process of globalization represents an involuntary constraint on the sovereignty of decision making in a country. To this extent globalization may appear to be inimical to democracy which represents the sovereign will of the people. Countries with weak democratic institutions and undiversified, externally dependent economies, are particularly vulnerable to the pressures of globalization. The extent to which a country can cope with globalization depends on the strength of their democratic institutions and their capacity to structurally diversify their economies. Strengthening democracy and widening the incidence of benefits from globalization will serve to enhance the legitimacy and sustainability of the process.

States that the health of a population is determined by different socio‐economic, locational and cultural factors in society. Uses Bangladesh as a case study, showing how its health is affected by factors such as economics, food and nutrition, social factors, political issues, environmental issues, healthcare facilities and international issues. Concludes that the health of this nation is in a dismal state, with a population victim to food shortages, limited income and little healthcare access.

Like many developing countries, Bangladesh has been experimenting with decentralization for a long period. However, despite numerous efforts undertaken over the years, decentralized governance remains elusive in Bangladesh. Drawing on historical and contemporary evidence, this paper analyzes the factors underlying the non‐functioning of decentralization in Bangladesh.

Examines the financial sector reform experience of Bangladesh. Finds that, while there have been some improvements in competition and efficiency, loan defaults still remain a significant problem. Also finds urban bias in loan allocation and shift of resources away from the rural sector. The main obstruction in the area of loan recovery is political interference. Provides a principal‐agent explanation of politicians’ behavior. Concludes that effective implementation of an optimal policy mix depends on complex political and institutional factors. Agues that without moral norms donor agency‐engineered formal institutional reforms become meaningless. Emphasizes the role of civil society organizations in creating and maintaining ethical social behavior, when state agents themselves are involved in fraudulent activities. In the absence of generalized morality and in a society where transactions are still guided predominantly by relationships, perhaps market‐oriented policy reform may increase transactions cost.

Female entrepreneurs have made increasing contributions to entrepreneurial activity and economic development worldwide, especially in emerging economies. It is well acknowledged that Bangladesh is one such South Asian emerging economy with many institutional and sociocultural challenges. This study aims to examine the effect of the institutional environment (formal and informal institutional factors) that influences female entrepreneurs in an emerging country, namely, Bangladesh.

The authors used a quantitative research method using a questionnaire. The authors established the conceptual framework reflecting a model so that they could test their assumptions among female entrepreneurs from an institutional perspective. The conceptual framework was empirically tested and validated. Consequently, this study comprised 324 usable survey responses. To analyse the quantitative data, partial least squares-structural equation modelling was used.

The findings highlight that social networks, access to finance and non-economic support have negative and insignificant effects on informal female entrepreneurs. Conversely, entrepreneurial attitudes, cultural context, institutional policy, family roles and education were positive and significant and found to be more important for female entrepreneurship in Bangladesh.

The results of this study offer empirical evidence of institutional factors as well as focus on three dimensions, women’s experiences from an institutional perspective, Asian culture and the operation of female entrepreneurial activity in an emerging economy (contextual perspective).

This study examines the moderating role of female directors on the relationship between the firms’ characteristics and tax avoidance in an emerging economy.

This study employs the second-generation unit root test and the generalised method of moments (GMM) techniques. The Kao residual cointegration test corroborates a long-run cointegration among variables.

Female directors demonstrate mixed and unusual findings. No significant impact of female directors on tax avoidance is found. In addition, the presence of female directors does not show any negative or significant moderating impacts on the relationship between leverage, firm age, board size and tax avoidance. However, having more female directors can negatively and significantly moderate the relationship between more profitable firms, larger firms and tax avoidance. These findings show that the board of directors could use the presence of female directors to maximise their opportunistic behaviour, such as to avoid tax.

Research limitations – The study is limited by considering only 62 listed firms. The scope could be extended to include non-listed firms.

Research implications – There is increasing pressure for female directors on boards from diverse stakeholders, such as the European Commission, national governments, politicians, employer lobby groups, shareholders, and Fortune and Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) rankings. This study provides input to decision-makers putting gender quota laws into practice. Our findings can help policy-makers adopt regulatory reforms to control tax avoidance practices and enhance organisational legitimacy. Policymakers can change their policy to include female directors up to the threshold suggested by the critical mass theory.

This is the first attempt in Bangladesh to explore the role of female directors in the relationship between the firms' characteristics and tax avoidance. The current study has significant ramifications for bringing gender diversity into practice as a component of good corporate governance.

India and Bangladesh are historically, geographically, and culturally tied to each other to an extent that try as they might they cannot escape this reality and so have to inevitably deal with each other. India's role in the establishment of an independent Bangladesh in 1971 meant that for few years India enjoyed a privileged relationship with the new state. India's assistance to the refugees from East Pakistan as well as its relief and reconstruction aid went a long way in establishing the foundations of a new state. India, not surprisingly, was also the first state to grant recognition to Bangladesh; by pulling its troops out of Bangladesh soon after the end of the war it also acknowledged the new state's sovereignty.¹ In 1972, the two states even signed a “Treaty of Friendship and Peace” for a term of twenty-five years, declaring that each side would respect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the other, and also refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first is to explore the convergence of corporate governance (CG) codes of 11 Asian emerging economies with the United Nations (UN) CG guidelines (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development ISAR benchmark). The second is to find the compliance level of firms in each country with the UN CG guidelines.

Based on the 2017 GDP growth rate, the top 11 emerging economies were selected. CG codes of each country were then analyzed by using content analysis to find the convergence level with the UN CG guidelines. To find the compliance level of individual firms in each sample country, a sample of the top 15 non-financial listed firms were selected from each country, and their annual reports were analyzed. The binary scoring method was used.

After analyzing the 11 national CG codes, 1 UN CG guidelines and 150 annual reports, this study found that Pakistan and Philippines CG codes have the highest level of convergence toward the outsider model recommended by UN CG guidelines, whereas China and India have the lowest compliance score. The Indian, Chinese, Malaysian and Indonesian listed firms showed more compliance toward the UN CG guidelines than their respective national CG codes.

By analyzing the top 11 emerging economies, and top 15 listed enterprises in each country, this study offered a combined convergence and compliance evidence at two different levels, i.e. country and firm-level. This study’s findings would be equally helpful for regulators, policymakers and investors in assessing their country’s CG codes against the international recommended best practices.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of financial reporting quality (FRQ) on share price movement (SPM) of listed companies in an emerging and developing economy – Bangladesh.

The study analyzed 296 annual reports for the year 2015 and 2016 in examining the effect of FRQ on SPM. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model is used to examine the hypothesized relationship among the variables. A modified version of Lang et al. (2003) has been adopted in measuring the SPM. FRQ is measured using the qualitative characteristics approach as defined by the International Financial Reporting Standard Framework and used by Beest et al. (2009) and Braam and Beest (2013).

The study finds a positive association (though not significant statistically) between the FRQ and SPM in the country’s leading stock exchange (Dhaka stock exchange). Furthermore, the effect of enhancing quality on SPM is found to be stronger as compared to fundamental quality. Majority of the FRQ constructs demonstrate an improvement in the quality score in the year 2016 as compared to 2015 except for relevance.

The key limitation of the study is that it focuses only on two years (2015 and 2016) annual reports data in measuring FRQ and its effect on SPM.

The study uses qualitative characteristics approach in measuring the FRQ and to examine its effect on SPM using the context of an emerging and developing economy – the case of Bangladesh.

This paper aims to contribute to the existing capital structure and board structure literature by examining the relationship among corporate governance, ownership structure and capital structure.

The paper uses a panel data of 595 firm-year observations from a unique and comprehensive data set of 119 Chinese real estate listed firms from 2014 to 2018. It uses fixed effect and random effect regression analysis techniques to examine the hypotheses.

The results show that the board size, ownership concentration and firm size have positive influences on capital structure. State ownership and firm profitability have inverse influences on capital structure.

The findings suggest that better-governed companies in the real estate sector tend to have better capital structure. These findings highlight the unique Chinese context and also offer regulators a strong incentive to pursue corporate governance reforms formally and jointly with the ownership structure. Finally, the results suggest investors the chance to shape detailed expectations about capital structure behavior in China. Future research could investigate capital structure using different arrangement, conducting face-to-face meetings with the firm’s directors and shareholders.

The findings offer support to corporate managers and investors in forming or/and expecting an optimal capital structure and to policymakers and regulators for ratifying laws and developing institutional support to improve the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms.

This paper extends, as well as contributes to the current capital structure and corporate governance literature, by proposing new evidence on the effect of board structure and ownership structure on capital structure. The results will help policymakers in different countries in estimating the sufficiency of the available corporate governance reforms to improve capital structure management.