Search results

This paper examines contextual factors that affect the association between board gender diversity and firm performance.

The authors use a global sample of listed firms in the tourism industry in 30 countries from 2015 to 2020.

First, firm performance is positively associated with the proportion of female directors on a board. Second, the positive association between firm performance and the proportion of female directors on the board is higher in (1) countries with stronger shareholder rights, (2) countries with stronger securities law regulation stipulating disclosure of board diversity, (3) countries with stronger economic empowerment of women, and (4) during the COVID-19 crisis. Third, corporate financial distress risk is lower in firms with higher proportion of female directors on the board. Fourth, the negative association between corporate financial distress risk and the proportion of female directors on the board is more pronounced in (1) countries with stronger securities law regulations stipulating disclosure of board gender diversity, (2) countries with stronger economic empowerment of women, and (3) during the COVID-19 crisis.

The results indicate that contextual factors (comprising country-level corporate governance structures, economic empowerment of women and economic crisis) can affect the association between board gender diversity and firm performance.

This study examined the effect of different types of politically connected (PCON) Malaysian firms on analysts' forecast accuracy and dispersion.

The study identified different types of PCON firms according to Wong and Hooy's (2018) classification, which divided political connections into government-linked companies (GLCs), boards of directors, business owners and family members of government leaders. The sample covered the period 2007–2016, for which earnings forecast data were obtained from the Institutional Brokers' Estimate System (IBES) database and financial data were extracted from Thomson Reuters Fundamentals. We deleted any market consensus estimates made by less than three analysts and/or firms with less than three years of analyst forecast information to control for the impact of individual analysts' personal attributes.

The study found that PCON firms were associated with lower analyst forecast accuracy and higher forecast dispersion. The effect was more salient in GLCs than in other PCON firms, either through families, business ties or boards of directors. Further analyses showed that PCON firms—in particular GLCs—were associated with more aggressive reporting of earnings and poorer quality of accruals, hence providing inadequate information for analysts to produce accurate and less dispersed earnings forecasts. The results were robust even after addressing endogeneity issues.

This study found new evidence of the impact of different types of PCON firms in exacerbating information asymmetry, which was not addressed in prior studies.

This study has a significant practical implication for investors that they should be mindful of high information asymmetry in politically connected firms, particularly government-linked companies.

This is the first study to provide evidence of the impact of different types of PCON firms on analysts' earnings forecasts.

Building information modeling (BIM) is recognized as a major innovation in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Understanding the factors that influence the AEC’s adoption of BIM will benefit the research and practice of BIM. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This study provides empirical evidence for the accumulated knowledge of BIM adoption by examining the context of Chinese construction industry. Based on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework in the innovation diffusion literature, the authors develop a research model that integrates the critical success factors related to the technology of BIM, the construction company and the environment in Chinese construction industry. The authors collected two different data sets from engineering consulting firms and construction firms in China, and conducted rigorous analyses using a sophisticated statistical approach.

The authors found that the relative advantage of BIM was a major factor that enabled BIM adoption, while the complexity of BIM was an inhibiter. In addition, management support was also a significant antecedent of BIM adoption. However, organizational readiness was significant for engineering consulting firms but not for construction firms. Surprisingly, the authors did not find consistent significant impacts of any environmental factors. Last, younger firms were more likely to adopt BIM.

One of the first to apply the TOE framework to integrate three groups of factors that may explain BIM adoption in China. Such a comprehensive framework provides a much broader perspective of BIM adoption to evaluate the impacts of different antecedent factors. The authors conducted an empirical study based on survey data collected from two different types of companies, i.e., engineering consulting firms and construction firms, representing the two parties in the principal-agent relationship of a construction project. One of the first to apply a sophisticated statistical approach, i.e., partial least squares, to analyze the data in the BIM literature.

This article aims to compare smart meters' acceptance studies worldwide to consolidate trends and highlight factors that are not a consensus.

This work performs a statistical meta-analysis, using the Hunter–Schmidt method and the UTAUT2 model, of the factors of acceptance of smart meters in the world literature. A meta-regression was also conducted to verify the moderation exercised by gender, level of education and timeline context of the articles.

The main results point to hedonic motivation, performance expectancy and effort expectancy as the leading influencers for smart meter's acceptance. Meta-regression indicates that the influence is more significant among the male gender and that over the years, the social influence must gain weight in the smart meter's acceptance.

Specific strategies are suggested to improve projects for the implementation of smart meters based on the obtained results.

The contribution given by this work is relevant, considering it is the first meta-analysis focused on smart meters' acceptance published in the literature