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This paper aims to examine the impact of bank’s capital buffer on return on equity (ROE) in the context of Islamic and conventional banks in GCC countries.

The authors collect data from 83 commercial banks comprising of 49 conventional banks and 34 Islamic banks for the period 2010–2019. The final data set comprises of 744 bank-year observations. The authors apply generalized methods of moments estimation technique and panel least square to analyze the data.

The authors document that Tier-1 capital, total regulatory capital (TRC) and equity to asset ratio (EAR) negatively affect banks’ ROE. However, the impact disappears for conventional banks and sustains for Islamic banks if these two clusters of banks are treated separately. Furthermore, the negative impact of equity capital on earning is more pronounced for large and listed commercial banks.

Findings of this research imply that Islamic banks in GCC countries has scope to manage equity capital more efficiently. Hence, they should concentrate on using banks equity wisely to successfully compete with the conventional banks.

Since the global financial crisis of 2009, Islamic banks of GCC countries have been reporting lower ROE compared to their conventional counterparts. On the other hand, Islamic banks maintain higher level of Tier-1 capital, TRC and EAR. This evidence hypothetically suggests that Islamic banks are overly cautious in managing their capital buffer that results in lower ROE. To the best of the author’s/authors’ knowledge, no other study in the literature tests this hypothesis in the GCC context.

This paper aims to highlight firms' profitability as an alternative channel by which changes in leverage could affect stock returns in an imperfect market setting. The author also analytically argues that the benefits of debt, if any, may accrue beyond the usual tax benefit channel.

The author used multivariate regression models based on firms' characteristics and the models' changes along with a two-stage least-square (2SLS) type procedure to estimate the impact of leverage changes on stock returns. The author controls for the varying arbitrage risk that is measured by forecasted idiosyncratic volatility of stock prices and overcome simultaneous or endogenous determination by using inter-temporal non-synchronous variation in leverage and control variables.

The author finds that increase in leverage increase (decrease) stock returns for firms with the gross operating profitability higher (lower) than the cost of debt. The author also finds that the variation in arbitrage risk does not substitute for the primary effect of leverage changes on stock returns.

The author's findings provide tacit support to the recent literature attempting to resolve the empirically puzzling pattern of the negative relationship between profitability and leverage. The findings suggest inclusion of profitability as a crucial asset-pricing factor in the contemporary empirical models.

The non-trivial role of profitability in determining the effect of leverage on firms' stock returns that may be useful to managers, credit analysts and policy makers to assess the impact of net profitability on any change in leverage and its ensuing consequences on firms' value.

The paper develops analytical insights into the marginal role of profitability in influencing the relationship between firms' financing decisions and firms' stock returns beyond the conventional mechanisms of tax benefits, bankruptcy costs and information asymmetry.

Many studies have shown that from a theoretical and empirical point of view, downside risk-based measures of risk are better than the traditional ones. Despite academic appeal and practical implications, downside risk has not been thoroughly examined in markets outside developed country markets. Using downside beta as a measure of downside risk, this study examines the relationship between downside beta and stock returns in Indian equity market, an emerging market with unique investor, asset and market characteristics.

This is an empirical study done by using ranked portfolio return analysis and regression analysis methodologies.

The study results show that downside risk, as measured by downside beta, is distinctly priced in the Indian equity market. There is a direct positive relationship between downside beta and contemporaneous realized returns, indicating a premium for downside risk. Downside risk carries a higher weightage than upside potential in the aggregate return of the stock portfolios. Downside beta is a better measure of systematic risk than conventional market beta and downside coskewness.

The empirical results support the adoption of downside beta in practice and provide a case for replacing traditional beta with downside beta in asset pricing applications, trading and investment strategies, and capital allocation decision-making.

This is one of the first in-depth studies examining downside beta in Indian equity markets using a broad sample of individual stock returns covering a wide time range of 22 years. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first one to compare downside beta and downside coskewness using individual stock data from the Indian equity market.

This study aims to study the sensitivity of nonlisted real estate investment companies’ accounting earnings to house prices. This study evaluates whether house price changes determined these companies’ return on equity (ROE) or if other factors influenced the industry’s profitability beyond house price growth.

The authors collected a ten-year sample with the aggregate ROE of Portugal’s real estate investment companies, split by regions, and data on house prices and the per capita gross domestic product as a control variable. The authors ran a national-level time series with the canonical cointegrating regression estimator, which is robust to a small sample size; the authors also performed a regression on regional-level panel data with the common correlated effects mean group estimator, thus allowing slope coefficient heterogeneity and controlling for cross-sectional dependence. The authors also ran ordinary least squares regressions as a means of comparison.

This study found that an increase in the house price is not translated into an increase in the aggregate ROE. The results are robust with a reduced survivorship-biased sample, meaning that even the best-succeeded real estate investment companies do not have their accounting ROE dependent on house price growth.

The sample size is small and specific to one country. This paper did not study the housing market structure to verify whether it operates under monopolistic competition, which could further explain the attained results.

Policy decision-makers should know that there are no excess profits in the real estate investment companies’ industry because of house price growth that could be subject to windfall taxes.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the connections between house prices and real estate investment companies’ accounting earnings have never been studied.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether audit committee characteristics, in particular audit committee size, audit committee activity and audit committee gender diversity, are associated with financial performance in Egyptian banks. The second purpose of this paper is to explore the moderating role of board gender diversity on the relationship between audit committee characteristics and financial performance.

A multiple regression analysis is used to estimate the moderating role of board gender diversity on the relationship between audit committee characteristics and financial performance of a sample of Egyptian banks during the period between 2018 and 2022.

The results indicate that audit committee size has a negative and insignificant effect impact on return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE), respectively. The results also indicate that the audit committee gender diversity has a significant positive impact on ROA and ROE, respectively. Regarding audit committee activity, the number of board meetings has a negative and insignificant effect on ROA and ROE, respectively. Regarding gender diversity as a moderating variable, in general there is a positive effect of gender diversity on the relationship between audit committee characteristics and financial performance.

The study was limited to 20 banks in one country, but it sets the tone for future empirical research on this subject matter. The study also relied on one moderating variable, which is board gender diversity. This study provides an avenue for future research in the area of corporate governance and financial performance in other emerging countries, especially other African countries.

This study provides useful insights for managers and policymakers to better understand which audit committee characteristics can best encourage a company to improve financial performance. Furthermore, regulators should ensure that banks strictly adhere to corporate governance principles to build a strong banking industry capable of achieving economic development.

Banks will benefit equally from valuable qualities across demographic groupings in society by having females on the audit committee and appropriate audit committee meetings. Additionally, if audit committee members are correctly selected, banks with more females in audit committee and suitable audit committee meetings can successfully contribute to strengthening financial performance and social welfare of diverse segments of society. A culture of good banking governance must emerge to improve bank financial stability and, as a result, greater stability and economic growth.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is, perhaps, the first to examine the moderating role of board gender diversity on the relationship between audit committee characteristics and financial performance in Egyptian banks. This study adds to the literature by investigating such an issue in a developing economy that operates in a different context than those in developed countries.

Intellectual capital (IC) is a paramount resource for competitiveness in the knowledge-based financial sectors of the economy. As financial technology advances, specifically in the banking industry, it is vital to understand the effect of IC on financial performance. This study aims to investigate the effect of IC on return on equity (ROE), with a unique emphasis on the moderating role of board attributes. Previous studies have overlooked this moderating role.

The study sample consists of 17 banks and a panel data set spanning 2016–2021, extracted from annual reports. Antel Pulic’s value-added intellectual coefficient (VAIC) model is used to compute IC. To analyze the data, a generalized least squares analysis is conducted. The robustness of the analysis is ensured by using the two-stage least squares (2SLS) econometric technique.

The findings indicate that both the VAIC and human capital efficiency (HCE) have a significant impact on the ROE of banks. In terms of moderation, it is observed that board size (BS) exerts a negative effect on the association between VAIC, HCE, structural capital efficiency and ROE. Additionally, BS positively compounds the connection between capital employed efficiency and ROE. Similarly, the presence of independent directors (IND) significantly moderates the effects of VAIC and its components on the ROE of banks in Pakistan.

Banks should focus on the HCE for a higher ROE. Moreover, banks ought to prioritize appointing more independent directors in the boardroom for effective utilization of IC and greater ROE.

The findings of the study, which analyzed data from Pakistan’s banking sector, are original and provide additional insights into the literature on IC and board attributes.

This study examines the determinants of idiosyncratic risk (IR) or unsystematic risk. The study also examines the determinants of IR by dividing the firms into different categories: beta-based firms, liquid and illiquid firms and financially constrained (FC) and unconstrained (FUC) firms.

The fixed effects static panel data model specifications are formulated based on Hausman (1978) test for BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) member countries over the period 2000–2019. Moreover, the t-test is applied to see whether the returns of different types of portfolios are significantly different.

The portfolio analysis results show that, on average, high IR firms tend to be small in size, highly leveraged, have low competitiveness, low profitability, less dividend yield and low returns for all the sampled countries. The sample paired t-test also confirms that a significant difference exists between extreme portfolios: small and large size and low IR and high IR portfolios. The panel regression results show that firm size, market power, price-to-earnings ratio, return on equity (ROE) and dividend yield negatively relates to IR. Yet, both leverage and liquidity are positively related to IR. However, the sign of momentum returns is mostly positive for the entire sample. The coefficient values for high-beta, FC and illiquid firms are more significant and large than the firms' counterparts for all BRICS member countries. These results support the hypothesis of an under-diversified portfolio and suggest that the above-mentioned firm-specific variables are the significant determinants of unsystematic risk.

The securities exchange commission, as the supervisor of the public limited companies, needs to increase its role in investor protection related to the uncertainty of investment in the capital market. Accordingly, in making investment decisions in a stock exchange, investors can use the information that captures unsystematic risk for investment decision-making.

This study is the first to explore the determinants of IR in top emerging countries. Second, none of the existing studies has focused on the determinants of the IR based on different categories of firms.

The choice between different financing sources is governed by a number of finance theories, particularly, trade-off theory and pecking order theory. However, the special characteristics of Islamic finance, which forces the exclusion of conventional bonds, leave Islamic banks with limited number of alternatives. Tier 1 sukuk are distinguished type of sukuk that combines the features of conventional bonds and stocks. This paper aims to answer the following question: Does the issuance of Tier 1 sukuk positively affect Islamic banks’ profitability or is their impact concentrated on enhancing Islamic banks’ capital adequacy ratios?

The data set used in this study consists of all United Arab Emirates (UAE) Islamic banks that issued Tier 1 sukuk over the period 2010–2020. Pooled and fixed effects panel regressions of Tier 1 sukuk and other control variables on three proxies of Islamic banks’ profitability were run. The selection of fixed-effect model is based on Hausman test, redundant fixed effects and likelihood ratio test.

This study reveals novel findings. Tier 1 sukuk increases both earnings per share (EPS) and capital adequacy ratios. That is, this study finds that there is a positive significant impact of Tier 1 sukuk on EPS, which indicates that issuing more Tier 1 sukuk will generate more return to shareholders in terms of higher EPS because of the lower cost of Tier 1 sukuk compared to equity. However, this study finds that there is an insignificant impact of Tier on sukuk on both return on assets and return on equity. Hence, it is concluded that Tier 1 sukuk does not increase the risk appetite of UAE Islamic banks.

Tier 1 sukuk is a niche instrument that has been recently used by Islamic banks. Hence, there are a limited number of Islamic banks that have issued this type of sukuk and consequently limited number of observations. Therefore, with the increased use of this instrument, a larger set of data will be available for examination. In addition, future research could examine the relationship between issuing Tier 1 sukuk and profitability in other countries where such sukuk have loss absorption feature. The impact of other types of sukuk, such as liability sukuk, on Islamic banks’ profitability could also be an interesting field of study.

This study recommends Islamic banks to issue more Tier 1 sukuk to enhance their profitability indicators while meeting Basel III accord. This study also recommends investors to purchase the stocks of Islamic banks that issue Tier 1 sukuk because they are able to offer them higher EPS. The authors advise the UAE regulators to allow Islamic banks to issue Tier 1 sukuk with loss absorption feature to enable Islamic banks engage in more risky activities that usually provide larger profits. This study also suggests that the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) reclassifies Tier 1 sukuk, with loss absorption feature, within the highest quality of capital, common equity Tier 1, to encourage Islamic banks to issue this type of sukuk, especially Basel III accord and IFSB 15 require higher ratios of common equity Tier 1 to risk-weighted assets.

This research contributes to the existing literature in two ways. First, it adds to the existing literature on the impact of sukuk on Islamic banks profitability. That is, contrary to prior studies that merely investigate the impact of issuing ordinary sukuk on profitability, this study explores a distinguished type of sukuk, that is Tier 1 sukuk, that has been surprisingly ignored so far. Second, this study shows that it is not only capital adequacy ratios that have improved as a result of issuing Tier 1 sukuk but also Tier 1 sukuk reduce the cost of capital of UAE Islamic banks which has been reflected in a higher profitability proxied by EPS. Hence, these sukuk serve a dual function for Islamic banks by improving both capital adequacy and profitability ratios.

This study aims to examine the link between boards and audit committees and firm performance in Kuwaiti listed firms in the context of recent and extensive corporate governance regulatory reform.

Panel data regression analysis with fixed effects and clustered standard errors of firm performance for 61–97 listed industrial and services firms in Kuwait over a seven-year period. The dependent variables are the returns on assets and equity, the debt-to-equity ratio and leverage and Tobin’s Q and the independent variables comprise board of directors and audit committee characteristics, including size, the number of meetings and the numbers of independent and outside board and expert committee members. Firm size, subsidiary status and cash flow serve as control variables.

Mixed results with respect to the characteristics of the board of directors. Board size and independent and outsider board members positively relate only to Tobin’s Q and insiders only to debt to equity. For audit committee characteristics, committee size, independence and expertise positively relate to the return on equity and committee size and expertise only to Tobin’s Q. Of the five performance measures considered, board and audit committee characteristics together best determine Tobin’s Q.

Data from a single country limits generalisability and control variables necessarily limited in a developing market context. Need for qualitative insights into corporate governance reform as a complement to conventional quantitative analysis. In combining accounting and market information, Tobin’s Q appears best able to recognise the performance benefits of good corporate governance in terms of internal organisational change.

The recent corporate governance code and guidelines reforms exert a mixed impact on firm performance, with audit committees, not boards, of most influence. But recent reforms implied most change to boards of directors. One suggestion is that non-market reform may have been unneeded given existing market pressure on listed firms and firms anticipating regulatory change.

Kuwait’s corporate governance reforms codified corporate governance practices already in place among many of its firms in pursuit of organisational legitimacy, and while invoking substantial change to audit committees, involved minor change to firm performance, at least in the short term. Some firms may also have delisted in expectation of stronger corporate governance requirements. Regardless, these direct and indirect processes both improved the overall quality of listed firm corporate governance and performance in Kuwait.

Seminal analysis of corporate governance reforms in Kuwait, which have rapidly progressed from no corporate governance code and guidelines to an initially voluntary and then compulsory regime. Only known analysis to incorporate both board of directors and audit committee characteristics. Reveals studies of the corporate governance–firm performance relationship may face difficulty in model specification, and empirical significance, given the complexity of corporate governance codes and guidelines, leads in changing firm behaviour and self-selection of firms into and out of regulated markets.

This paper explores the connection between capital structure and financial performance within European listed firms. The primary objective is to demonstrate an inverse U-shaped relationship between these two variables and pinpoint an optimal debt-equity mix.

In this study, we adopt a dynamic modeling approach to investigate the relationship between a firm’s capital structure and financial performance. Drawing on well-established theories and prior empirical studies, our model examines 3,121 dividend-paying firms from 41 European countries over 14 years, from 2008 to 2021. To enhance the reliability of our findings, we employ two distinct estimation techniques: the fixed effect model (FE) and the system generalized method of moments (System-GMM).

This study reveals an inverse U-shaped relationship between the firm’s financial performance, measured by the return on equity (ROE) and its capital structure (total liability to total assets ratio). Furthermore, an optimal capital structure of about 29% is determined for all firms in the sample, and about 21%, 28% and 41% industry-specific capital structure for manufacturing, real estate and wholesale trade, respectively.

This paper contributes to existing knowledge by empirically determining an optimal capital structure for listed firms across various industries in Europe, which very few studies have attempted to do in the past. An optimal capital structure is an invaluable benchmark for managers and other stakeholders, informing their decision-making.