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Policy issues associated with the regulation of the unlisted debenture market have been highlighted in recent times with the collapse of a number of regionally based mortgage companies. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the decline and demise of the unlisted debenture market between 2007-2013 with particular reference to the effectiveness of the regulatory regime in stabilising the industry and protecting investors’ interests.

A database was constructed which reflected the total population of unlisted mortgage companies in the financial sector. A snapshot approach was used to assess the extent to which these companies complied with regulatory provisions.

Findings suggest the regulatory process allowed these companies to continue operating despite not complying with the relevant Australian Securities and Investments Commission benchmarks. In the light of the current inquiry into the financial system, the research suggests that a re-evaluation of the regulatory approach is timely.

This research is restricted to a study of one category of debenture issuers (issuers of mortgage finance). It is based on reports required by regulatory authorities. It does not provide an analysis of the motivations of investors in these companies.

This research has implications for the implementation of regulatory change in respect to oversight of shadow banking activities. It suggested that a passive approach to regulation is not sufficient to ensure that the interests of investors are fully protected.

No prior research has systematically examined the unlisted mortgage and analysed the borrowing and lending activities of companies that have failed and those that have survived.

The purpose of the paper is to introduce a novel methodology to identify and quantify the difference of financial risks exhibited by listed and unlisted companies in their debt payments from an empirical point of view.

The paper attempts to establish the theoretical relationship between the agreed original periods and their corresponding periods of real payments. It is based on Krugman’s curve. This relationship has been implemented using data from listed and unlisted companies of Spain and from Western Europe countries (divided by companies, size and industry).

An alternative model has been implemented with the available information about listed and unlisted companies. There is not a significant difference in the financial risk level corresponding to listed and unlisted firms in Spain.

The paper could provide a useful guidance in applying the risk in project assessment.

This paper provides a new methodology to reduce the subjectivity shown in the treatment of risk by traditional approaches. The method allows to including the financial risk in the time parameter of the discount function. Analysis of the delays in debt payments by both listed and unlisted companies; Alternative model able to describe the expected delays from the initial agreed period; Inclusion of the financial risk in the parameter “time” of a discount function.

This paper aims to examine the influence of the gender diversity in the corporate board on the decision of announcing a firm acquisition on Friday. Prior evidence found the phenomenon of investor inattention.

A sample of 252 cash-financed acquisitions conducted by listed Spanish firms from 2004 to 2018 is analysed. Probit regressions are used.

Firms with greater gender diversity on the board are less likely to make acquisition announcements of listed targets on Friday, thus avoiding investor inattention. Women directors seem to provide higher quality information and are more concerned about investors.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyses the role of women directors in the publication of information on Friday, so it complements studies on the disclosure of quality information by listed companies. The Spanish market is an adequate scenario to analyse the impact of women's participation in business decision-making because Spain was one of the first countries to legislate on gender diversity.

Este trabajo analiza si la participación de mujeres en el consejo de administración puede influir en el anuncio de adquisición empresarial en un memento de poca atención (viernes) o en otro día de la semana.

Se analiza una muestra de 252 anuncios de adquisiciones en efectivo realizados por empresas españolas cotizadas en el periodo de 2004 a 2018. Se utiliza el análisis probit.

Las empresas con mayor porcentaje de mujeres consejeras tienen menos probabilidad de anunciar la adquisición de una empresa cotizada en viernes, evitando así la inatención del inversor. Los resultados sugieren que las mujeres consejeras comunican información de mayor calidad y tienen una mayor preocupación por los inversores.

Hasta donde sabemos este trabajo es el primero que analiza la influencia de las mujeres consejeras en la publicación de información en viernes y refuerza los estudios sobre la calidad de la información publicada por las empresas cotizadas. El mercado español es el contexto ideal para el estudio de la participación femenina en la toma de decisiones empresariales pues España fue uno de los primeros países en establecer cuotas de género en los consejos de administración.

The purpose of this paper is to shed lights on both economic and social impacts associated to the increasing amount of western companies acquired by multinationals from emerging countries. Focussing on the Italian context, its main intent is to analyze changes in targets’ performance and capability to contribute to stakeholders’ wealth to assess the business and social viability of this type of deal.

Operations of mergers and acquisitions (M & As) were identified through Zephyr (Bureau VanDijk’s database). Only acquisitions of a controlling interest were considered for a total of eight case studies. Financial Statements and Management Reports over a eight-year period have been analyzed to understand the rationale of the deal and to assess financial performance and company social impact before and after the merger.

Results suggest that foreign investors mainly search for know-how and technical expertise and their arrival does not lead to better financial performance. Only one target records profits. Four companies are still controlled by Indian investors while the other four have been dismissed. Nevertheless Indian investors are not destroying profitable organizations as these were recording negative results already before the merger. With reference to value added distribution, acquisitions do not reduce local stakeholders’ wealth for the benefits of shareholders. Jobs are preserved and valued added is mainly distributed to employees. Great difficulties in achieving the expected value resulting from synergies emerge.

Observations emerging from this explorative study are limited to the case studies analyzed while it could be important to enlarge the number of companies to investigate, including targets acquired by Russian, Chinese and Brazilian investors. Moreover, additional information could be obtained from interviews with top managers to reveal how they interpret the merger’s success or failure. Also interviews with local stakeholders like suppliers, clients, representatives of employees and local institutions could be of great importance as they can help identify their specific point of view about the social and economic impact of foreign investors’ arrival.

With reference to the public debate on the increasing number of European companies sold to foreign investors, research findings indicate that FDI from emerging economies do not necessarily lead to job losses or target’s closure. Indian investors are interested in brand, knowledge and other intangible assets (like Chinese ones). However they do not relocate production or expertise abroad. Some target companies record higher investments financed by the new shareholder, indicating that the arrival of new investors owing a large amount of money to invest in financial distressed Italian companies, can be beneficial to the local economy.

Most literature studies M & As from the buyer’s perspective to assess if shareholders’ value is created (Tuch and O’Sullivan, 2007; Meglio, 2009; Dauber, 2012). On the contrary this research adopts the target’s and stakeholders’ perspective, in order to measure the value created and distributed to the territory. Moreover it focuses on unlisted companies, while most studies deal with publicly traded companies (Meglio and Risberg, 2010; Meglio and Risberg, 2012b). Lastly it enriches M & A mainstream literature, which usually adopts a positivistic mindset and rely on statistical analysis, by adopting a qualitative approach based on case study analysis.

The purpose of this study is to examine the cost of the introduction of independent audit inspections in New Zealand.

The research is conducted using audit fee data from New Zealand and examines the overall impact of the reforms on the cost imposed on auditees.

The findings show that there was no general increase in audit fees but a significant increase in audit fees for small listed companies compared to audit fees for unlisted companies and large listed companies.

The practical implications of this study suggest that the introduction of independent inspections led to increased costs for some clients, particularly smaller listed companies, and that audit firms were able to pass on these costs to their clients. These results have important implications for policymakers and auditors alike.

This study provides new insights into the cost of the introduction of independent audit inspections, which have been the subject of ongoing criticisms and recommendations for improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between fraudulent financial reporting and firms' characteristics, i.e. size, type of ownership and audit quality in companies audited by the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) after the implementation of a self assessment system in Malaysia.

The paper employs an empirical research design, using data on companies audited by IRBM. The hypotheses of the study are tested using both univariate and multivariate statistical methods.

It was found that company size and audit quality have significant negative relationships with fraudulent financial reporting.

The sample of companies used in this study is unlisted companies and the results are not generalisable to listed companies. Listed companies may have more stringent rules for listing and have better corporate governance mechanisms within the company as control.

The paper's findings may assist IRBM in identifying possible cases for audit in the future.

The paper describes the first empirical study that uses real tax cases where the non‐compliance with the Malaysian statues and tax laws are used as the measurement of the fraudulent financial reporting.

The purpose of this article is to address certain gaps and contribute to enriching the literature on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Africa; describe the phenomenon taking into account the particularity of the country; address recommendations to public policies and investors and make this article a ground-breaking article on research into the phenomenon of the M&A market in North Africa.

With description and an exploratory intention, the authors develop phenomenon driven research. As appropriate phenomenon driven research, the authors focus on characteristics of Moroccan M&A market. The authors use scientific investigation to provide descriptions and explanations of the phenomena in order to add a new perspective to the M&A literature in North African region. The authors work on the particularity of companies in Morocco, typology of M&A, geographic areas, socio-economic indicators, trade agreements, politics and culture.

Understand that the phenomenon of domestic M&A is a phenomenon of big cities and knows the participation of small and medium enterprises. The political variable, the trade agreements and the socio-economic weight of the countries influence the cross-border M&A in to out. Sharing a border and common culture has no impact on cross-border M&A but the history of colonization has an impact.

The scientific contribution is first an extension of the neoclassical theory on the initiation of M&A operations. Throughout these 29 years of history, the existence of external shocks such as regulations has influenced the activity of M&A operations. Privatization, partial opening of sectors to foreign investment tax incentives have contributed to the realization of M&A operations.

This paper also has an economic and practical contribution, as it informs about the absence of M&A operation in the agriculture and agri-food sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. This region recognizes a food shortage that will increase by 70–100% between 2010 and 2050 with a strong population growth. The authors also note that regulations, royal directives, influence the activity and geographic choices of M&A. The political variable remains decisive for the cross-border M&A activity between Morocco and Algeria, but encourages acquisitions in countries in West and Central Africa.

M&A research in Africa is poor and suffers from several shortcomings; these barriers push researchers to produce fewer papers on this phenomenon. Through data collection, description and explanation, the authors tried to produce a paper focusing on the M&A phenomenon in a country in North Africa. To the authors’ knowledge, no article has dealt with this phenomenon in this country which is known for its strong M&A activity.

Directors can become overextended when they serve on multiple boards simultaneously. Previous scholars mostly considered directorships held at listed companies. This study aims to investigate the extent and impact of director overboardedness in an emerging market by using a comprehensive measure.

The analysis covered 1,600 directors who served on the boards of the 100 largest companies listed in South Africa over the period 2011–2016. In addition to directorships held at listed companies, board positions at unlisted companies and other entities such as state-owned enterprises were considered. Board committee memberships at the sample companies were furthermore included. Random effects ANOVA was conducted to test for significant differences in board and committee meeting attendance.

Two-thirds of the considered directors were overboarded when accounting for all their positions. Board committee memberships increased notably over the research period. There was no significant difference in the percentage of board meetings attended between overboarded and non-overboarded directors. However, those directors who held three or more positions simultaneously attended significantly more board committee meetings than their counterparts who held fewer positions. Of the considered committees, the remuneration committee typically had the highest proportion of overboarded directors.

Eligible board candidates are in high demand given the limited talent pool in South Africa. The findings contradict the busyness hypothesis and suggest that director overboardedness should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

The following is an introductory profile of the fastest growing firms over the three-year period of the study listed by corporate reputation ranking order. The business activities in which the firms are engaged are outlined to provide background information for the reader.