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This study examines the association between keiretsu affiliation and corporate equity value in Japan. We hypothesize that, ceteris paribus, keiretsu firm value, measured as Tobin's Q, is higher than non-keiretsu firm value, reflecting the improved or active monitoring role of the keiretsu arrangement. The empirical tests are supportive after controlling for other financial and ownership variables. The results also show that keiretsu firm value is positively related to the strength of the keiretsu. This is additional evidence that the monitoring provided by the keiretsu relationship does indeed increase corporate equity value, and that the source of the increase in value is not merely a result of cross-shareholding, but inherent to the keiretsu arrangement. However, the effect of keiretsu membership and influence on market equity values has apparently diminished since 1990 (the post-market crash period in Japan).

This paper examines stock repurchases from an agency perspective by identifying agency costs across three dimensions — interest conflicts and information asymmetry, managerial discretion, and the use of alternative mechanisms to mitigate agency conflicts. We use ownership structure as a proxy for interest conflicts and information asymmetry, employ cash balance and free cash flow as two measures of managerial discretion, and consider cash dividends and interest-bearing liabilities as alternative vehicles for distributing cash. We find that a monitoring structure motivates managers to mitigate agency costs through stock repurchases. Particularly, monitored firms with higher levels of cash balance prefer cash dividends to stock repurchases, whereas monitored firms with more cash dividends repurchase more shares because of their stronger incentive to mitigate agency costs. However, when firms have a very high level of dividends, they substitute stock repurchases for dividends to avoid a dividend cut in the future.

The paper examines the relationship between ownership concentrations and tax avoidance for small–medium enterprises (SMEs) in India. With a panel dataset built from small- and medium-sized enterprise surveys over the period between 2013 and 2014, we find that SMEs with concentrated ownership have a negative association with tax avoidance. The result is more pronounced for SMEs headquartered in states/provinces with stronger economic and institutional environment. The results also indicate that for any two SMEs with similar levels of ownership concentration, the SME with higher capital needs is more likely to avoid taxes.

This paper proposes a brief review of the use of power indices in the corporate governance literature. Without losing sight of the field of application, it places the emphasis on the game-theoretic aspects of this research and on the issues that arise in this framework. It should be noted that the views presented in this paper are not necessarily those of the IMF.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between intellectual capital efficiency and the attributes of corporate governance in the top 116 companies from 2012 to 2018. The VAIC has been calculated for the sample chosen, which did not include financial companies. The relationship between corporate governance structure and intellectual capital performance was investigated using panel data regression analysis. Results have shown that board size is negatively associated with intellectual capital and its components. CEO duality, on the other hand, is not found to be associated with intellectual capital performance. This study also shows that intellectual capital performance and human capital efficiency are negatively correlated with board independence, Indian promoters, institutional ownership, and foreign ownership. The components of intellectual capital performance, on the other hand, have yielded mixed results. The findings could be useful to policymakers while deciding on the composition and structure of the board.

This study examines whether better environmental performance of a firm facilitates its access to bank loans in China and how state ownership and regional environmental pollution moderate this relationship. Using a sample of Chinese firms listed on the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2007 to 2015, we find that better environmental performance is associated with greater access to bank loans, which is consistent with the predictions of risk-management theory. Furthermore, we find that the relationship between environmental performance and access to bank loans is weakened for state-owned firms and strengthened for firms operating in the regions with higher environmental pollution, suggesting that institutional factors play an important role when banks make lending decisions. Our results have implications for managers, policymakers, and banks in the transition to a green economy.

Main objective of the study is to analyze firm characteristics which affect stock illiquidity. The paper aims to give suggestions and policy implications to corporates and investors while dealing with investments in illiquid stocks. ANOVA, chi-square tests, correlation analysis, univariate and multiple regression models are employed on Amihud (2002) (Amihud, Y., (2002). Illiquidity and Stock Returns: Cross-Section and Time-Series Effects, Journal of Financial Markets 5, 31–56) illiquidity measure and various firm characteristics. Findings of this paper suggest that firms with illiquid stocks can be characterized with low promoter’s stakes, high leverage, poor financial health, small size and low/negative profitability. The findings of the paper will be of relevance to retail investors who are at the mercy of informed investors. The results portray basic characteristics that an investor should look into before investing in any stock. The study is of value to the investors who are grieved because of the adverse selections and information asymmetry. Moreover, the basic nature of illiquid firms has never been studied.

Research and development is an emerging competitive advantage to gain maximum market share. This study is conducted to empirically investigate the relationship between research and development intensity and firm performance in selected non-financial firms listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Moreover, the role of ownership structure and board structure have been evaluated between predictor and outcome variable. For this purpose, 27 non-financial firms listed on PSX have been selected for the period of eight years from 2009 to 2016 and unbalanced panel data was obtained. Research and development intensity has been used as an independent variable. ROA, ROE, and TQ are used as measures of financial performance, i.e., dependent variable. Ownership concentration, institutional ownership, and managerial ownership are used as the proxies for ownership structure. Board size, board independence, and board meeting frequency are used as the proxies for board structure. Moreover, firm size, firm age and leverage have also been used as a control variables in data analysis. Based on data analyses, it is concluded that research and development intensity has a positive and significant relationship with all three proxies of firm performance, i.e., ROA, ROE and Tobin’s Q. Afterward, the researchers have investigated the moderating role of ownership structure and board structure between research and development intensity and three proxies of firm performance. It is also concluded that in general ownership structure as well as board structure are negatively moderating the relationship between research and development intensity and firm performance which raises a question mark on the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanism in terms of R&D performance.

This study is investigated the impact of ownership structure on bank’s risk and efficiency in Bangladesh. We have used Z-Score as risk-taking variable. As ownership structure is the main variable here, we have taken managerial ownership, institutional ownership, and general public ownership as proxies for ownership structure. Here, another important main variable efficiency has been used as a stability. For our study, we have selected 32 banks randomly. Data have been collected from annual reports of these banks. The time frame of the data is 2000–2014. The study results suggested that using Z-score as proxy for risk taking and the proxy of managerial ownership has negative association and the institutional ownership has significant positive effect on Z-score of commercial banks in Bangladesh. The proxies we have used for ownership structure i.e., managerial ownership and general public ownership have significant negative association on efficiency. On the other hand, institutional ownership has positive effect on the overall efficiency of the banks in Bangladesh. At the end of the study, we have also suggested some policy implications regarding ownership structure, risk, and efficiency of the banks.

The decision on the magnitude of dividend has been identified to be highly related to the decisions to pay or not to pay dividends in formulating dividend policy. However, literature seems to be homogeneous and focused on examining the effect of ownership structure on dividend level or probability of paying dividends. Therefore, the paper examines the effect of ownership structure on dividend policy using Heckman’s two-stage technique. Utilizing 304 firm-year observations from industrial and consumer goods firms listed in the Nigerian Stock Exchange for the period within 2009-2019, the result shows that in the first stage, only foreign ownership has a negative significant effect on the probability of paying dividends. However, after accounting for a possible correlation between the probability of paying dividends and dividend pay-out, the result on the second stage exhibits a significant negative effect with block-holders and foreign ownerships on dividend policy while institutional ownership reveals a positive significant effect. The overall results show that the lower the foreign ownership the higher the possibility of paying dividends. Also, higher dividend pay-out is associated with the lower level of block-holders and foreign ownerships coupled with higher institutional ownership in listed industrial and consumer goods firms in Nigeria.