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This paper aims to demonstrate how financial leverage impacts firm investment and the extent to which this relationship is conditional on the level of information asymmetry as well as growth.

The paper relies on data from 2,403 Indian firms during the period 1995-2014, generating a total of 19,544 firm-year observations. Analysis is conducted by using various panel econometric techniques.

Drawing insights from agency theories, the paper uncovers that financial leverage is negatively and significantly related to firm investment. It is also observed that the impact of financial leverage on firm investment is significant for high information asymmetric firms. Finally, the paper shows that the relationship between leverage and firm investment is significant for low-growth firms. However, no significant relationship is found between leverage and investment for high-growth firms.

This paper provides fresh evidence on the leverage–investment nexus and, to the authors’ knowledge, it the first paper to examine the extent to which this leverage–investment relationship is driven by the level of information asymmetry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine Toshiba’s fraudulent financial reporting in relation to the fraud diamond (pressure, opportunity, rationalisation and capability).

A quantitative empirical research, analysing secondary data from Toshiba’s published annual reports before restatement, from 2008–2014 has been used. A simultaneous equations approach was used to test the hypothesis. Excel software was used to analyse secondary data and to carry out correlation analysis and descriptive statistics analysis.

This study uncovers evidence that pressure proxied by return on assets (ROA), the opportunity proxied by ineffective monitoring (BDOUT), rationalisation proxied by audit opinion (AO) and capability proxied by board member changes (BCHANGE) had moderate to strong relationship to financial statement fraud (FSF) (proxied by Beneish M-score model). However, ROA has a negative and significant effect on Toshiba’s FSF. BDOUT, AO and BCHANGE have positive and significant effect on Toshiba’s FSF. Furthermore, there is no multicollinearity problem within the four variables. Overall, this study has statistically proven that all dimensions of fraud diamond are required for the explanation of Toshiba’s accounting scandal.

Although a few studies discuss the four dimensions (fraud diamond), none, to our surprise, exists which explain the circumstances led Toshiba’s high-level executives to commit fraud. This study is the first thorough investigation of Toshiba’s accounting scandal that uses all four dimensions to explain Toshiba’s FSF.

Building on the upper echelons theory and sustainability orientation (SO) literature, this paper aims to examine the possibility that the relationship between chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) SO and venture growth might be mediated by levels of corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation.

The authors used data obtained from 211 new ventures operating in Ghana. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

The authors found that CSR implementation mediates the relationship between SO and venture growth. In addition, the authors found that, at higher levels of financial slack, the effect of SO on CSR implementation is attenuated. However, the results show that, at higher levels of CEO power, the influence of SO on CSR implementation is amplified.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is among the first to examine the mediating role of CSR implementation in the relationship between SO and venture growth and also examines two internal contingency factors (i.e. CEO power and financial slack) on this association.

This study aims to examine the impact of executive bonus compensation on a firm’s financial leverage policy and the extent to which this compensation–leverage relation is moderated by firm growth and executive ownership.

Using data from 213 non-financial and non-utility UK FTSE 350 firms for the period 2007–2015, generating a total of 1,784 firm-year observations, panel econometric methods are used to test the model.

Drawing insights from agency theoretic view, this paper uncovers that managerial cash bonus compensation is negatively and significantly related to financial leverage. However, stock bonus compensation has a positive and significant impact on leverage. This study also observes that compensation–leverage is moderated by both firm growth and executive ownership. The results remain robust to alternative econometric models.

While this paper builds on the risk-motivated argument of executive bonus compensation literature, it is the first – to the best of the knowledge – to explore the bonus compensation-corporate financial leverage and, particularly, examine the extent to which firm growth and corporate executive ownership matter in this relationship.

The main purpose of this study is to understand how collective operational practices are adapted or stimulated by a firm's competitive strategy.

This study employed a data set drawn from 124 plant managers and directors of Indian manufacturing firms. Multiple regression was used to examine the impact of operational practices of lean, total quality management (TQM) and supply chain management (SCM) within competitive clusters of cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategy.

Results of the study show that the pattern of impact of operational practices on firm's performance varies according to type of the competitive strategy employed. All the three competitive strategy clusters have reported that TQM is the most important trigger for Indian manufacturing firms with relative effect of TQM practices on firm's performance being higher than that of lean and SCM practices.

Cross-sectional data from Indian manufacturing firms were used, and it would be interesting to test the analytical framework of the study for more sectors and countries. Future studies can take a longitudinal research approach to strengthen the findings of the study.

The findings explain how operational practices are aligned with competitive strategies for practitioners so that they can assign limited resources to build diverse operational capabilities based on their strategic choices.

Although very few classical studies are reported in various contexts involving competitive strategy, operational practices and firm's performance, no existing study focuses on how these three domains are linked together in the context of Indian manufacturing sector.