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1 – 10 of over 2000
Article
Publication date: 23 June 2023

Qian Wang, Xiaobo Tang, Huigang Liang, Yajiong Xue and Xiaolin Sun

In public firms, the largest shareholder can make decisions on cash dividends in favor of its own interests at the expense of other investors. While the second largest shareholder…

Abstract

Purpose

In public firms, the largest shareholder can make decisions on cash dividends in favor of its own interests at the expense of other investors. While the second largest shareholder can actively participate in corporate governance and protect the interests of investors, its impact has not been fully understood. This research investigates how shareholding ratio and ownership type of the second largest shareholder moderate the relationship between controlling shareholder's shareholding ratio and cash dividends.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted econometrics analysis based on a panel data of China's A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2017.

Findings

The authors find that the controlling shareholder's shareholding ratio has a significant negative impact on cash dividends. However, this influence is conditional on the shareholding ratio of the second largest shareholder. The negative impact is weakened when the second largest shareholder holds a large proportion of shares or when the shareholding gap between the second largest and the controlling shareholder is small.

Originality/value

This research extends the existing literature by highlighting the nuanced moderating effect of the second largest shareholder on the relationship between the controlling shareholder and cash dividends, thus making a unique contribution to the understanding of corporate governances in the emerging financial market in China.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 December 2023

Qi-an Chen, Anze Bao, Junpei Chen and Yi Lu

The primary objective of introducing nonstate ownership into state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is to enhance corporate performance. This study explores how nonstate ownership affects…

Abstract

Purpose

The primary objective of introducing nonstate ownership into state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is to enhance corporate performance. This study explores how nonstate ownership affects corporate performance, emphasizing agency costs as the primary mechanism.

Design/methodology/approach

Using data from 2010 to 2019 for listed SOEs, the authors measure nonstate ownership based on shareholding ratios, control rights and shareholding–control matching. The authors also use fixed-effects and mediation-effects models, with agency costs as the primary mechanism.

Findings

Increased nonstate shareholding ratios, stronger control rights and improved shareholding–control matching promote SOE performance. Nonstate shareholding ratios boost performance through resource effects, while control rights and shareholding–control matching promote performance by mitigating agency costs. A heterogeneity analysis indicates stronger effects in local SOEs and highly marketized regions. Moreover, control rights and shareholding–control matching reinforce the positive impact of shareholding ratios on performance.

Originality/value

The mixed-ownership reform of Chinese SOEs aims to optimize shareholding and control structures between state and nonstate shareholders. Therefore, research on the impact of nonstate shareholding ratios, control rights and shareholding–control matching on corporate performance is highly pertinent. However, existing studies have focused on the effects of single factors on performance, without exploration of the economic implications of shareholding–control matching. This study not only prioritizes the optimization of shareholding and control structures but also underscores the importance of granting nonstate shareholders control rights proportionate to their shareholding, providing critical evidence of the value of improving SOEs' ownership structure.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 February 2022

Yen-Yu Liu, Pin-Sheng Lee and Chih-Hao Yang

This study aims to discuss whether a new accounting policy can help enterprises withstand operating risks and whether corporate governance can play a supervisory role. Taiwan took…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to discuss whether a new accounting policy can help enterprises withstand operating risks and whether corporate governance can play a supervisory role. Taiwan took the lead worldwide in allowing companies to distribute cash dividends from capital reserves. Compared with traditional cash dividends distributed from retained earnings, this move was aimed at maintaining the stability of cash dividends and helping listed companies address the risks of temporary downturns. However, the distribution of cash dividends from capital reserves may violate the principle of capital maintenance and damage creditors’ equity. The authors sought to examine whether corporate governance could play a supervisory role.

Design/methodology/approach

The present study targeted Taiwanese listed companies and cited data from the Taiwan Economic Journal. The study period was from 2011–2019. The authors tested the hypotheses using the least square method.

Findings

The results showed that ultimate controlling shareholders of listed companies can maximize their own interests through ownership arrangements, whereas corporate governance cannot play a supervisory role nor protect creditors’ equity. The findings provide insight on whether, in the development process of corporate governance, appropriate measures are taken to protect creditors’ equity in addition to shareholders’ equity, or achieve a good coordination of interests among all stakeholders.

Originality/value

The ultimate controlling shareholders or directors of a listed company would seek to maximize their own interests, and transfer the operating risks to creditors through the arrangement of dividend policy, thus harming creditors’ equity. However, independent directors cannot play a supervisory role. The authors inferred that corporate governance standards previously focused on the shareholder level or alleviation of the agency problem between controlling shareholders and non-controlling shareholders but ignored creditors’ equity.

Details

Pacific Accounting Review, vol. 34 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0114-0582

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 January 2023

Xiaoxi Zhu, Juan Liu, Meifei Gu and Changhui Yang

To examine how shareholding affects optimal profits, R&D innovation, NEV market scale and social welfare in two supply chain models with partial and cross ownership patterns.

Abstract

Purpose

To examine how shareholding affects optimal profits, R&D innovation, NEV market scale and social welfare in two supply chain models with partial and cross ownership patterns.

Design/methodology/approach

The gradual retreat of government subsidies has directly weakened the financial support available to the stakeholders of new energy vehicles (NEVs). In this context, upstream and downstream enterprises of NEV are constantly seeking new business models of cooperation to achieve possible win-wins. NEV supply chain shareholding is an emerging new practice for such explorations. However, its performance in the NEV supply chain is seldom investigated. In this paper, we employ a Stackelberg game model to investigate how partial and cross-ownership affect the optimal decisions in a NEV supply chain.

Findings

Results showed that: (1) Compared with the unilateral shareholding model, the battery supplier will benefit from cross-ownership in the supply chain, while the NEV manufacturer will not necessarily benefit from it. At the same time, cross-ownership will bring the greatest incentive for battery R&D (2) Supply chain downstream competition will not necessarily lead to the improvement of the total consumption of NEVs or the level of battery design. Pareto improvement can be brought only when one of the manufacturers holds less than a certain equity threshold. In addition, downstream competition will also not necessarily bring more benefits to the battery supplier.

Originality/value

At present, NEV supply chain management has attracted widespread attention from scholars from all walks of life. Previous studies have been carried out that covers topics such as pricing strategies and optimal profits and the role of NEV in the sustainable development of the automotive industry supply chain, or disparate impacts of government subsidies and carbon emission regulation on supply chain members. However, as far as the authors know, compared with the new emerging NEV corporate practice, the shareholding phenomenon between upstream and downstream in the supply chain of NEV has not been studied in the existing studies.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 53 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 February 2024

Xin Huang, Ting Tang, Yu Ning Luo and Ren Wang

This study aims to examine the impact of board characteristics on firm performance while also exploring the influential mechanisms that help Chinese listed companies establish…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the impact of board characteristics on firm performance while also exploring the influential mechanisms that help Chinese listed companies establish effective boards of directors and strengthen their corporate governance mechanisms.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses machine learning methods to investigate the predictive ability of the board of directors' characteristics on firm performance based on the data from Chinese A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges in China during 2008–2021. This study further analyzes board characteristics with relatively strong predictive ability and their predictive models on firm performance.

Findings

The results show that nonlinear machine learning methods are more effective than traditional linear models in analyzing the impact of board characteristics on Chinese firm performance. Among the series characteristics of the board of directors, the contribution ratio in prediction from directors compensation, director shareholding ratio, the average age of directors and directors' educational level are significant, and these characteristics have a roughly nonlinear correlation to the prediction of firm performance; the improvement of the predictive ability of board characteristics on firm performance in state-owned enterprises in China performs better than that in private enterprises.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide valuable suggestions for enriching the theory of board governance, strengthening board construction and optimizing the effectiveness of board governance. Furthermore, these impacts can serve as a valuable reference for board construction and selection, aiding in the rational selection of boards to establish an efficient and high-performing board of directors.

Originality/value

The study findings unequivocally demonstrate the superiority of nonlinear machine learning approaches over traditional linear models in examining the relationship between board characteristics and firm performance in China. Within the suite of board characteristics, director compensation, shareholding ratio, average age and educational level are particularly noteworthy, consistently demonstrating strong, nonlinear associations with firm performance. Within the suite of board characteristics, director compensation, shareholding ratio, average age and educational level are particularly noteworthy, consistently demonstrating strong, nonlinear associations with firm performance. The study reveals that the predictive performance of board attributes is generally more robust for state-owned enterprises in China in comparison to their counterparts in the private sector.

Details

Chinese Management Studies, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-614X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 July 2020

Yi Feng, Abeer Hassan and Ahmed A. Elamer

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

3247

Abstract

Purpose

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.

Design/methodology/approach

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.

Findings

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.

Research limitations/implications

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.

Practical implications

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.

Originality/value

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.

Details

International Journal of Accounting & Information Management, vol. 28 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1834-7649

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 22 June 2022

Ziyu Jiang, Guojian Ma and Wenyue Zhu

The purposes of this paper are to analyze whether digital finance can contribute to enterprises' innovation performance and to determine the mediating effect of government…

4671

Abstract

Purpose

The purposes of this paper are to analyze whether digital finance can contribute to enterprises' innovation performance and to determine the mediating effect of government subsidies.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper empirically examines the impacts of digital finance on enterprises' innovation performance by looking at Chinese companies listed on the SME and GEM boards from 2011 to 2018 to build an econometric model to test our hypotheses. The mediating effect of government subsidies, the moderating effect of financial constraints are examined, as well as shareholding of the largest shareholders in each selected company and the asset-liability ratio.

Findings

The results show that digital finance has a significant promotional effect on firms' innovation performance and that government subsidies play a partial mediating role in digital finance's contribution to firms' innovation performance. In addition, financial constraints and the shareholding of the largest shareholders in each selected company have a negative moderating effect on the relationship between government subsidies and firms' innovation performance. On the contrary, the asset-liability ratio is found to positively affect the relationship.

Originality/value

There has been limited research to date on the relationship between digital finance and firms' innovation performance, particularly with regard to the extent to which digital finance can influence innovation performance and the mechanisms for doing so. Therefore, it is of great significance to examine the relationship between digital finance and enterprises' innovation performance, which can also provide guidance for both the Chinese government and enterprises.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 25 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 January 2013

Guojin Chen, Aihuan Xu and Xiangqin Zhao

The aim of this paper is to empirically analyze the source of commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market.

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to empirically analyze the source of commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper used two‐step test method in Coughenour and Saad and empirically tested the relationship between institutional investors' involuntary trading behaviors and commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market.

Findings

The results showed that to take the open‐end fund as a representative of institutional investors, their involuntary trading behaviors were an important source of commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market.

Originality/value

For a long time, the domestic researchers have ignored the study about the source of commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market. But, this study's conclusion expanded the explanation about the source of commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market from a new point of view that the demand‐side explanation. Because there is no market‐maker trading behaviors in China's stock market, the paper cannot explain the source of commonality in liquidity change in China's stock market from the point of view of the supply‐side explanation.

Details

China Finance Review International, vol. 3 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2044-1398

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 July 2014

PuCha Wang, Fei Che, ShanShan Fan and Chen Gu

This paper aims to explore the determinants of circular economy accounting information disclosure quality, and also to make empirical analysis on the relationship between circular…

3867

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the determinants of circular economy accounting information disclosure quality, and also to make empirical analysis on the relationship between circular economy accounting information disclosure quality and corporate ownership governance and institutional pressures according to institutional theory and corporate governance theory. Finally, this paper provides some corresponding suggestions for heightening circular economy accounting information disclosure quality.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper constructs enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure model with Chinese characteristics. First, it takes disclosure index method to measure enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure quality, followed by the hypotheses of this study. Then, this study employs a statistical analysis technique to empirically study the relationship between enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure quality and ownership governance and institutional pressures, to study the ways to heighten enterprise circular economy accounting information disclosure quality in Chinese background.

Findings

Ownership governance and institutional pressures mainly determine quality of circular economy accounting information disclosure. This paper draws the following conclusions: Chinese listed companies have heightened their circular economy accounting information disclosure quality due to ownership concentration, shareholding of institutional investors, mandatory disclosure, capital structure and assets size. However, the circular economy accounting information disclosure quality has low correlation with the profitability and the location of listed companies.

Originality/value

Both in China and the West, few scholars or experts adopt empirical research to study the determinants of circular economy accounting information disclosure quality in an institutional theory and corporate governance theory perspective based on China’s supervisory system background. This paper makes a thorough analysis of the factors that affect listed companies’ circular economy accounting information disclosure quality, and provides some corresponding suggestions relevant for heightening circular economy accounting information disclosure quality.

Details

Chinese Management Studies, vol. 8 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-614X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 November 2019

Zhengyong Zhang and Hong Chen

Because corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports in China are surging in quantity but are low in quality, impression management in CSR reports has become a hot research topic…

1293

Abstract

Purpose

Because corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports in China are surging in quantity but are low in quality, impression management in CSR reports has become a hot research topic in recent years. This paper aims to research whether and how media coverage affects CSR report impression management and whether CSR report disclosure attributes have different regulating effects.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the effective supervision hypothesis and the market pressure hypothesis, this study uses Heckman’s two-stage regression model to examine the effect of media coverage on CSR report impression management from the perspective of managers’ self-interest.

Findings

The results support the market pressure hypothesis, which suggest that firms with higher levels of media coverage are more likely to engage in CSR report impression management, and this effect is especially significant in firms with a higher proportion of institutional investor shareholding and more analysts tracking. Further cross-sectional group studies show that market pressure is only present in firms whose CSR reports are subject to mandatory disclosure without third-party assurance or policy-oriented media attention.

Research limitations/implications

This paper does not consider the attention of other forms of media. The findings of this paper has policy implications for a better understanding of the motivation underlying impression management in CSR reports, encouraging voluntary disclosure and assurance to relieve the market pressure from media coverage.

Practical implications

From the perspective impression management of social responsibility report, further understanding the governance role of media coverage. A large number of previous literatures have shown that media coverage has a good supervisory role, but these studies mainly focus on the financial level of enterprises. Media coverage seems to be a “double-edged sword”. While it plays a supervisory role and inhibits earnings management or irregularities at the financial level, it also brings enormous market pressure to the enterprises, which is reflected in the increase of impression management behavior of social responsibility reports at the non-financial level, and this pressure is probably caused by the financial level.

Social implications

Voluntary disclosure and verification of social responsibility reports, as an important mechanism to improve the quality of social responsibility reports, supports the correctness, scientificity and rationality of the current policies of the SFC and the exchange on encouraging voluntary disclosure and verification. In the future, changing regulatory thinking, encouraging voluntary disclosure of social responsibility reports and introducing more independent and authoritative certification agencies should be the direction and focus of policy-making, so that social responsibility reports can play a better role in helping investors make decisions.

Originality/value

From the perspective of impression management of CSR reports, this paper provides evidence regarding the effect of media coverage and its transmission mechanisms. This paper uses China's unique institutional environments to study the impact of different types of media coverage on impression management in CSR reports in emerging market economy. Different from the institutional environment of developed countries such as the USA, mandatory disclosure and voluntary disclosure coexist in CSR reporting in China. The authors provide critical evidence to show that third-party assurance and voluntary disclosure improves the quality of CSR reports.

Details

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, vol. 11 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-8021

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 2000