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This study investigates how the interrelated elements of organizational roles – activities, motives, resources and relationships – are mobilized to construct a code of conduct for the proxy advisory (PA) industry in Europe.

This qualitative study uses archival documents from three consecutive regulatory consultations and 16 interviews with key stakeholders. It analyzes how different stakeholder groups (i.e. PA firms, investors, issuers and the regulator) perceive and mobilize the elements of PA firms’ role to construct the accountability regime’s boundaries (accountability problem and action, and users and providers of accounts).

This study shows how PA firms, investors, issuers and the regulator refer to the perceived motives behind PA firms’ activities to construct an accountability problem. The regulator accepted the motives of an information intermediary for PA firms’ role and required PA firms to develop a corresponding accountability action: a code of conduct. PA firms involved in developing the code of conduct formalized who is accountable to whom by aligning this accepted motive with their activities, relationships, and resources into a common role.

The study highlights how aligning role elements to reflect PA firms’ common roles enables the construction of an accountability regime that stakeholders accept as a means of regulation. Analyzing the role elements offers insights into the development and functioning of accountability regimes that rely on self-regulation. We also highlight the role of smaller regional firms in helping shape transnational accountability regimes.

This study aims to analyze the risk profile of banks whose managers sit on Federal Reserve district bank boards in 2023. In particular, to analyze the impact tha Federal Reserve bank directors have on their own banks.

Use a matched sample approach to perform univariate analysis and multiple regression methodology to study whether banks whose managers sit on Federal Reserve Bank boards differ in risk profile from banks whose managers do not sit on Federal Reserve district boards.

There is limited evidence that banks managed by Fed directors have different capital ratios and leverage ratios relative to non-Fed director banks. There does appear to be a slight difference in the growth of Held-to-Maturity (HTM) Securities between the two samples. Specifically, banks managed by a Fed director saw their HTM portfolio grow over the study period, while banks managed by non-Fed directors reduced their HTM securities. Overall, the results suggest that bank directors on Federal Reserve district boards do so with no apparent detriment to the banks that they manage.

Results of this study suggest that stakeholder director relationships are not associated with higher risk-taking at director banks. This study is unique in that, rather than looking at how director ties might influence the firm that they are on the board of, the focus here is how the firm (the Fed district, in this case) might influence director affiliations. Limitations include a small sample size (70 banks, including the matched sample), and data over a short time horizon. Additional measures of risk can also be analyzed in future research.

While there has been much speculation in the industry and in the press regarding the conflict of interest involving bank directors on Fed district boards, this research suggests there is little evidence of any risk differential involving these directors and their specialties to the Fed.

This study involves a unique approach to corporate governance analysis, whereby any conflict of interest that might exist between directors and the firm is studied from an alternate angle – in particular, whether the association with a regulator’s board impacts the director firm’s risk. Furthermore, with the recent events in the banking industry involving the collapse of several banks, including Silicon Valley, the notion that bank management participating on the boards of directors of their own regulator seemed a worthwhile question as to whether this diminished the safety and soundness of the banks that they run.

This study aims to offer insights into the state of research covering cybersecurity, cyber insurance and small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It examines benefits of insurance to an SME’s security posture, challenges faced, and potential solutions and outstanding research questions.

Research objectives were formulated, and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocol was used to perform a systematic literature review (SLR). A total of 19 papers were identified from an initial set of 451.

This research underscores the role of cybersecurity in the value proposition of cyber insurance for SMEs. The findings highlight the benefits that cyber insurance offers SMEs including protection against cyber threats, financial assistance and access to cybersecurity expertise. However, challenges hinder SME’s engagement with insurance, including difficulties in understanding cyber risk, lack of cybersecurity knowledge and complex insurance policies. Researchers recommend solutions, such as risk assessment frameworks and government intervention, to increase cyber insurance uptake/value to SMEs.

There is a need for further research in the risk assessment and cybersecurity practices of SMEs, the influence of government intervention and the effectiveness of insurers in compensating for losses. The findings also encourage innovation to address the unique needs of SMEs. These insights can guide future research and contribute to enhancing cyber insurance adoption.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first SLR to comprehensively examine the intersection of cybersecurity and cyber insurance specifically in the context of SMEs.

Africa has the most deaths from infections yet lacks adequate capacity to engage in vaccine development, production and distribution, the cornerstone of efficiently managing and eliminating several infectious diseases. Research has scarcely explored the role of institutional logics in vaccine development, production and distribution, collectively known as end-to-end vaccine manufacturing. This study aims to explore how institutional logics influence firms to engage in the vaccine manufacturing value chain in Africa.

We conducted multiple case study research using five vaccine manufacturing firms from four African countries in three regions. Qualitative interviews were conducted among 18 executives in 5 vaccine manufacturing firms.

We identified that the state, corporate and market institutional logics disparately influence the different parts of the vaccine manufacturing value chain. These institutional logics co-exist in a constellation that also shapes the organizational forms. Their constellation has dominant logics that guide behavior, while subdominant and subordinate logics influence behavior to a limited extent. The findings show that institutional logics are a function of contextual factors, such as historical events, technological changes and pandemics.

The study developed a typology that identifies vaccine manufacturing firm archetypes, institutional logics and their constellations underpinned by contextual factors. The findings have implications for firms and policymakers, as they may guide the end-to-end vaccine manufacturing interventions adapted for their regions.

This study examines the effect of non-audit fees (NAF) provisions on interest payments classification shifting. In addition, we investigate to what extent the NAF economic bonding and interest payments classification shifting is contingent on internal governance and firm financial well-being.

This study employed probit regression using a sample of UK non-financial firms indexed in FT UK (500) over the period from 2009 to 2017.

We find evidence that the economic bonding of NAF between external auditors and their clients is more likely to encourage managers in UK firms to manipulate operating cash flows through interest payment classification shifting. In addition, and interestingly, our results evince that classification-shifting may be the less costly and soft choice of managers in firms with strong governance and charging higher NAF. Furthermore, we show that financially distressed firms associated with their auditors in purchasing non-audit services are more prone to attempting to manipulate and engage in interest payments classification-shifting. Our result did not provide a significant effect of external auditor tenure on the interest payments classification shifting.

Our findings are subject to the following limitations: First, this study uses a composite index to measure the quality of internal corporate governance. It focuses only on the board of directors, but this index does not reflect other internal governance mechanisms. Second, this study is subject to limited study time due to the implementation of key IFRS standards (IFRS 9 Financial Instruments and IFRS 15 Revenue from Contract with Customers) from 2018–2019.

This study was motivated by the UK’s Financial Reporting Council regulators' pressure on the Big 4 audit firms to move more audit time into main auditing activities, reduce cross-selling to audit clients and separate their audit practices by 2024. Overall, we provide new evidence that directs a close spotlight on the threats of NAF that are potentially useful to regulators, shareholders and investors.

It is motivated by the UK’s Financial Reporting Council regulators' pressure on the Big 4 to move more audit firm time into main auditing activities, reduce cross-selling to audit clients and separate their audit practices by 2024. Overall, we provide new evidence that directs a close spotlight on the threats of NAS that are potentially useful to regulators, shareholders and investors.

This study examines the types, quality, and financial effects of explanations for non-compliance (NCEs) with corporate governance codes.

This study used content analysis to examine various types of NCEs and developed an NCE index (NCEI) to assess their quality and degree of informativeness. Static and dynamic multivariate panel data regression models were used to analyze the relationship between NCEI and firm performance (FP) of 38 non-financial listed Mauritian firms from 2009 to 2019.

Listed Mauritian firms do not provide explanations for all non-compliance, and the most common type of NCE is momentary deviation. The NCEI is 0.243, which implies that the overall quality of the NCEs is poor or uninformative. The NCEI varies according to the listing status and industry type. NCEI has a negative and insignificant relationship with both ROA and Tobin’s Q. The results are inconsistent with the agency, stakeholder, stewardship, and resource dependency theories. Sensitivity analysis indicated that the findings were robust.

Multiple theoretical frameworks offer a deeper understanding of corporate governance practices than a single theory does. A decline in the NCEI in 2019 indicates that the move from the “comply or explain” to the “apply or explain” principle does not necessarily result in enhancements in the degree of informativeness. Regulators should develop guidelines on how to disclose NCEs better. Investors appear to be more concerned about “comply/apply or perform” than the “comply/apply or explain” approach.

This study adds to the extant literature by providing new evidence on the types and quality of NCEs as well as their relationship with FP in emerging economies, where such studies are rare.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained tremendous importance after several corporate scandals, financial crises and the rise of the hyper-competitive world. Firms must address multiple stakeholders’ interests to increase firm value. This study aims to investigate the effect of CSR on firm value. This study also examines the mediating role of enterprise risk management (ERM) and the moderating influence of corporate governance (CG) in this CSR-firm value relationship.

The sample of the study comprises 119 Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) listed firms and the study covers the period from 2010 to 2021. The corporate social responsibility performance has been quantified across five dimensions. These aspects are product, environment, employee relations, diversity and community. Four proxies i.e. strategy, operation, reporting and compliance, have been used to measure ERM. The governance quality of the sample companies was evaluated using the governance index, which included 29 governance provisions. The authors used the dynamic panel data technique (system-GMM) is used to achieve the objectives of the study. Furthermore, a firm’s engagement in CSR activities can also be measured through a multinational financial approach to check the robustness of the result.

Based on the regression analysis, the authors discovered that CSR was positively connected with firm value, validating the stakeholder view of CSR. Furthermore, following Baron and Kenny’s (1986) mediation technique, the findings confirm that ERM mediates this association. These results are robust by using the bootstrapping tests by Preacher and Hayes (2004). Furthermore, the result shows that corporate governance (CG) is positively connected with firm performance, and this relationship is strengthened in the presence of an effective governance system in the organization.

This study provides useful insights to regulators, investors and policymakers to consider CSR as a value-enhancing factor and encourage the development of enterprise risk management and compliance with CG mechanisms to improve firm value.

The presented analysis strengthens the existing CSR–firm value relationship by analyzing the mediating and moderating roles of ERM and CG, which have not yet been tested, particularly in the context of Pakistan.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms on earnings management (EM) within the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries. In addition, the impact of firm’s political connections (PCs) on EM is investigated, as well as whether it moderates the relationship between CG and EM.

Fixed-effects model is used on a sample of non-financial firms across the GCC countries to test the hypotheses. Moreover, a two-stage least squares method and a propensity score matching procedure are used to mitigate potential reverse causality and sample selection bias.

This study reveals that CG mechanisms such as board size and board independence are negatively associated with EM, while CEO duality is positively association with EM. In addition, this study shows that institutional ownership and blockholders do not influence EM. Furthermore, PCs are shown to play a moderating role in the relationship between CG and EM. The results of this study are robust to endogeneity testing and to alternative measures of CG.

Because of a lack of data, the authors do not consider additional CG attributes such as tenure, education and age of board members. Future research could explore the impact of these attributes when data becomes available.

This study provides valuable insights for government officials, policymakers, standard-setters, regulators and corporations by presenting new evidence on the relationship among CG, PCs and EM. Moreover, this study underscores that, in the absence of a strong institutional infrastructure and investor protection, relying solely on strong CG and Islamic values and GCC culture may have a limited impact on effective monitoring of opportunistic managerial behaviors.

This study contributes to existing literature with a specific focus on the unique political, legal, institutional, social and cultural setting of the GCC region. Moreover, this study provides new insights that PCs serve as a governance mechanism in mitigating EM because relatively little attention has been given to the impact of PCs in improving accounting outcomes, especially in the context of the GCC region where Islamic ethical norms often shape business practices.

This study aims to examine the relationship between climate change disclosure performance (CCDP) and audit pricing. The moderating effect of corporate governance characteristics on that relationship is also investigated.

Using a sample of top 300 Australian Securities Exchange listed non-financial firms over the period 2008–2019, this study investigates the association between CCDP and audit fees. The findings are robust to a difference-in-difference test thereby alleviating potential endogeneity concerns.

CCDP is found to be significantly positively related to external auditor fees.

The findings show some important implications for firm management, regulators, investors and auditors. This study presents empirical evidence that climate change, as a factor of external risk, influences audit fees.

Firms with governance structures characterized by larger more independent boards, larger audit committees and audit committees with a higher level of independence significantly moderate the relationship between CCDP and audit fees.

Investors’ demand for firm transparency and disclosure of information regarding the risks of climate change, effects and opportunities has increased significantly over the past decade, as these factors could have a significant effect on valuation and investment decisions.

Importantly, stakeholders need to be aware of the costs of climate change, the quantification of climate change impacts and how firms address climate change in their business risk management processes. This study quantifies the impact of CCDP on auditor risk assessments via audit fees.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between corporate governance characteristics and the financial performance of both Islamic and conventional banks in the context of an emerging market, i.e. Malaysia.

This study includes 300 bank-year observations from Islamic and conventional banks over the period 2010–2021. The dynamic panel model (generalized method of moments [GMM]) was considered the primary estimation model that solves simultaneity, endogeneity and omitted variable problems as most governance variables are endogenous by nature. Hence, static models are considered biased after conducting the DWH test of endogeneity, and considering dynamic panel GMM is valid proven by Sargan and Hensen and first-order (ARI) and second-order (ARII) tests.

Based on the regression results, the authors discovered that board size, female participation in the board and director remuneration have a significant positive impact on bank performance, whereas board meetings have a significant negative impact. Furthermore, the board governance structure of commercial banks is found to be more passive than that of Islamic banks.

The study’s findings added a new dimension to governance research, which could be a valuable source of knowledge for policymakers, investors and regulators looking to improve existing governance mechanisms for better performance of conventional and Islamic banks.

The goal of this study is to add to the existing literature by focusing on the impact of female board participation and other board governance mechanisms in both conventional and Islamic banks on bank performance.