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Share repurchase programs are the most important form of payout, yet the implications of incomplete share repurchase programs have not been examined in previous literature. This study tests whether incomplete share repurchase programs are seen as a positive or as a negative signal by investors.

The perception of incomplete share repurchase programs by algorithmic traders, institutional investors and analysts is analyzed with structural equation models, seemingly unrelated regressions, propensity score matching and buy-and-hold abnormal returns on data from share repurchase programs in the United States. In contrast to previous literature, algorithmic trading is appropriately estimated as a latent variable, leading to more reliable results. Furthermore, decisions about share repurchases and dividends are appropriately modeled simultaneously and iteratively, based on findings from previous literature.

The results show that sophisticated investors such as algorithmic traders, institutional investors and financial analysts avoid incomplete share repurchase programs over a long-term investment horizon. Thus, incomplete share repurchase programs are interpreted as negative signals. Additional analyses reveal that share repurchase programs are not completed due to insufficient cash flow, as a result of financial difficulties. Overall, this implies that financial managers should be careful to announce share repurchase programs they know cannot be completed, similar to dividends that cannot be maintained over a long-term horizon.

This study is the first to consider incomplete share repurchase programs. The findings are of interest to scholars and practitioners, as this study goes beyond narrow repurchase program announcement windows, and instead focuses on the longer-term investment horizon over the life of the share repurchase program, which is often ignored in prior research.

This study aims to examine the influence of ownership structure and board composition on the probability and intensity of stock repurchases. The study’s sample comprises 3,744 firm-year observations, consisting of 53 repurchasing firms with 96 firm-year observations from 2008 to 2019.

Probit and fixed-effects regression models are used to obtain empirical results. Moreover, a probit model with a continuous endogenous regressor (IV-probit) and an instrumental variable method with two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) estimation are used to address endogeneity.

Corporations with high family or state ownership tend to inhibit stock repurchases to hoard excess free cash flow, supporting agency theory. Conversely, firms with high board independence tend to repurchase their stocks at least once to distribute free cash flows to shareholders, confirming agency theory. Nonetheless, corporations with more female directors on the board or CEO duality tend to conduct stock repurchases at least once but do not repurchase stocks with high values. Interestingly, more female directors on the board may send false signals about undervalued stocks.

This is the first study to reveal that firms with CEO duality repurchase their stocks at least once but avoid repurchasing shares with high values. It is also the first study to explore whether women on a board may cause false signaling about undervalued stocks. Furthermore, this study reveals that family and state ownership are potential determinants of stock repurchases in countries with high ownership concentration. This is the first study to address this issue in Thailand.

Taking advantage of distinctive text-based measures of climate policy uncertainty and firm-specific exposure to climate change, this study aims to examine the impact of firm-specific vulnerability on dividend policy.

To mitigate endogeneity, the authors apply an instrumental-variable analysis based on climate policy uncertainty as well as use additional analysis using propensity score matching and entropy balancing.

The authors show that an increase in climate policy uncertainty exacerbates firm-specific exposure considerably. Exploiting climate policy uncertainty to generate exogenous variation in firm-specific exposure, the authors demonstrate that companies more susceptible to climate change are significantly less likely to pay dividends and those that do pay dividends pay significantly smaller dividends. For instance, a rise in firm-specific exposure by one standard deviation weakens the propensity to pay dividends by 5.11%. Climate policy uncertainty originates at the national level, beyond the control of individual firms and is thus plausibly exogenous, making endogeneity less likely.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first attempt in the literature to investigate the effect of firm-specific exposure on dividend policy using a rigorous empirical framework that is less vulnerable to endogeneity and is more likely to show a causal influence, rather than a mere correlation.

The theoretical basis for the case is information asymmetry and signaling theory, with buybacks providing a mechanism for reducing information asymmetry between management and investors. The controversy surrounding buybacks has led to political and regulatory scrutiny, which, consistent with evidence from academic research, may affect corporate behavior.

The compact case is based on secondary, public information about stock buybacks. All sources used are cited in-text, with full citations included in the references section at the end of the teaching note.

Stock buybacks, a means of providing returns to shareholders, have recently received increased scrutiny by politicians, media and shareholder activists. Proponents have argued that buybacks result in efficient allocation of capital by returning funds to shareholders, whereas opponents have criticized buybacks for enriching executives, providing tax advantages to shareholders and contributing to income inequality. Corporations did not curtail their use of buybacks after the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 imposed an excise tax. The case frames the buyback debate in current events and focuses on the buyback activity of Apple. The case provides students the opportunity to analyze alternative ways that companies can provide returns to shareholders, evaluate impacts of buybacks on corporate stakeholders and appraise the reasons for, and implications of, current controversy regarding buybacks.

This compact case is appropriate for upper-level undergraduate or graduate courses in financial accounting, tax and finance. This case provides an opportunity to analyze and evaluate stock buyback decisions in the context of the current controversy related to buybacks.

The study aims to examine the dividend omissions and dividend cuts behaviour of manufacturing and non-financial services firms to identify the determinants of dividend omissions and dividend cuts.

The study analyses the financial data of 3,546 firms from 2011 to 2020 (35,460 firm-year observations) using a dynamic random-effect probit panel regression model.

The results suggest that profitability, growth opportunity, leverage, liquidity, risk, extraordinary income, shareholding pattern and buyback are major determinants of dividend omissions. Similarly, dividend cut in the previous year, profitability, operating cash flow, risk and extraordinary income are major factors leading to dividend cuts.

Firms which omit the dividend are less likely to start paying dividend in subsequent years, whereas firms which cut the dividend may increase dividend in later years. Also, profitability decreases for a significant number of firms post dividend omission and cut. This indicates that dividend omission is a more prominent signal than a dividend cut for the financial health of a firm.

The determinants identified in the study enable analysts and portfolio managers to decide the propensity of dividend omission and cut even before actual announcements and can alleviate the significant loss in the portfolio. Also, managers and the board of directors would be able to monitor the firm’s financial performance to avoid the situation leading to dividend omissions and cuts.

The study strongly recommends that firms should voluntarily pay dividends to shareholders to encourage the healthy participation of retail shareholders in the equity market and create a long-term win–win situation for all stakeholders in society. If a large number of firms continue not to pay the dividend, the study appeals to the regulators to intervene to protect shareholders' interests for the greater good of society.

To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the first study to empirically identify the determinants of dividend omission and cut in the unique setting like India where dividend taxation had undergone a significant change.

The primary goal of this paper is to investigate the relationship between stock market liquidity and firm dividend policy within a market implementing the tax imputation system. The main aim is to understand how the tax imputation system influences the relationship between firm dividend policy and stock market liquidity within a cross-sectional framework.

This paper investigates the relationship between stock market liquidity and the dividend payout policy under the full tax imputation system in the Australian market. This study uses the Generalized Least Squares regressions with firm- and year-fixed effects.

In contrast to the negative relationship between the liquidity of common shares and the firms' dividends documented in countries with the double tax system, the study reveals that in Australia, the dividend payout ratios are positively associated with liquidity after controlling for various explanatory variables with both the contemporaneous and lagged time periods. Such a finding is robust to the use of alternative liquidity proxies and to the sub-period tests and remains during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

The insights derived from this study have significant implications for various stakeholders within the economy. The findings provide regulators with valuable insights to conduct a more holistic assessment of how the tax system impacts the economy, especially concerning the dividend choices of firms. Within the context of a full tax imputation system, investors can make investment decisions without factoring in the taxation impact. Simultaneously, firms can be relieved of concerns about losing investors who prioritize liquidity, particularly when a high dividend payout might not align optimally with their financial strategy.

This study contributes to the literature by extending the literature on the tax clientele effects on dividend policy, providing evidence that the tax imputation system can moderate the impact of liquidity on dividend policy. This study examines the impact of the dividend tax imputation system on the substitution effect between dividends and liquidity.

Research on the effect of executive equity incentives is equivocal. Based on agency theory, some scholars take the convergence of interest logic to highlight the benefits of executive equity incentives. In contrast, others adopt the entrenchment logic to emphasize the increased agency costs. This study attempts to reconcile the debate on executive equity incentives and integrates the opposing views to unveil how executive equity incentives impact corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance.

Using the panel dataset of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2006 to 2022, this study integrates the convergence of interest and entrenchment logic to examine how executive equity incentives affect CSR performance.

We find that the relationship between executive equity incentives and CSR performance follows an inverted U-shaped form. According to the convergence of interest logic, executive equity incentives reduce agency costs when allocating resources to engage in CSR activities and enable firms to increase their CSR investments, ultimately realizing increased CSR performance. After a threshold, however, the accumulation of extensive equity incentives causes the entrenchment effect, resulting in declined CSR performance. Our empirical results also shed new light on its contingent perspective – the inverted U-shaped relationship is attenuated when firms’ stock liquidity is high.

This study attempts to reconcile the debate on executive equity incentives and integrates the opposing views to unveil the inverted U-shaped relationship between executive equity incentives and CSR performance. Our study opens promising avenues for further research on corporate governance and CSR strategies.

This study aims to investigate the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the link between board independence, board diversity and dividend payouts underpinning the agency theory perspective. As boards are ultimately responsible for decision-making, it includes CSR, dividend payouts and other strategic decisions.

Board independence and board diversity (female director, female independent director) are used as explanatory variables, CSR scores as a mediator and dividend payout explained variables. The relevant data were collected from 159 listed firms of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) from 2013 to 2019, consisting of 1,113 year-firm observations. For empirical estimation, the study used the Tobit regression analysis and Sobel test to check the significance of the mediation to confirm the hypothesis.

The results confirm that independence and diversity on the board are positively related to dividend payouts. Further, CSR partially mediates the link between independence and diversity on board-dividend payouts, which confirms the argument that firms with involvement in CSR practices are also associated with dividend payouts.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is novel to address whether CSR mediates the link of the board’s independence and diversity and dividend payouts in Pakistan’s setting. The results of this study have restricted generalizability due to the specific nature of the sample characteristics; future researchers can extend the research scope.

Theoretically practically, the results imply that CSR spending also enhances the distribution to firms' shareholders, thus becoming attractive to investors. This study enriches the literature on board attributes-dividend policy nexus, which strengthens through CSR practices and is relevant to practice in line with sustainable development in an emerging context.

CSR practices are an understudied but significant factor that links stakeholders' beliefs about firms' decision-making strategies, enhancing dividend announcements. In doing so, this study's findings contribute to the literature, regulators, shareholders and investor at various levels.

By integrating the Uses and Gratifications Theory and Flow Theory, this research seeks to untwine the veiled effects of interactive commerce enhancements (ICEs), specifically haptic imagery and social presence, in promoting user immersion and sustaining social commerce (SC) users' usage intention, considering the moderating role of autotelic personality.

The research utilized purposive sampling of Malaysian SC app users with recent transactions. A dual-source data collection approach, encompassing offline and online channels, was employed to ensure a broad and diverse respondent pool. Partial least squares–structural equation modeling was chosen for its adeptness in analyzing complex relationships in predictive studies.

The findings revealed the significant positive effects of haptic imagery and social presence on user immersion and continuance intention within SC apps. Social presence and immersion were found to mediate the proposed paths. Additionally, autotelic personality traits were identified as moderators, influencing the strength of these relationships.

This research makes a unique contribution by addressing critical gaps in SC environments, extending the concept of ICEs, understanding the impacts of underlying mediators and pioneering the examination of autotelic personality traits' moderating effects. It introduces a fresh perspective on how individual differences impact user engagement. This groundbreaking study benefits social media and interactive marketing literature by comprehensively understanding how ICEs elevate SC, fostering innovation and heightened engagement.

This study aims to apply machine learning (ML) to identify new financial elements managers might use for earnings management (EM), assessing their impact on the Standard Jones Model and modified Jones model for EM detection and examining managerial motives for using these components.

Using eXtreme gradient boosting on 23,310 the US firm-year observations from 2012 to2021, the study pinpoints nine financial variables potentially used for earnings manipulation, not covered by traditional accruals models.

Cost of goods sold and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization are identified as the most significant for EM, with relative importances of 40.2% and 11.5%, respectively.

The study’s scope, limited to a specific data set and timeframe, and the exclusion of some financial variables may impact the findings’ broader applicability.

The results are crucial for researchers, practitioners, regulators and investors, offering strategies for detecting and addressing EM.

Insights from the study advocate for greater financial transparency and integrity in businesses.

By incorporating ML in EM detection and spotlighting overlooked financial variables, the research brings fresh perspectives and opens new avenues for further exploration in the field.