Corporate performance patterns of Canadian listed firms: Balancing financial and corporate social responsibility outcomes

Based on stakeholder theory and considering the conflicting performance interests of a wide range of stakeholders, this research investigates corporate performance patterns using a cluster analysis of financial, social, and environmental performance dimensions. An analysis of a Canadian sample of 771 company-year observations for the period 2014–2018 reveals three types of corporate performance: financially focused performance, balanced performance, and corporate social responsibility (CSR)-focused performance. Firms in the largest cluster, financially focused performance, deliver poor sustainable performance and prioritize financial performance over social and environmental performance. The CSR-focused performance cluster scores low for financial performance and high for environmental and social performance. The balanced-performance cluster also has higher levels of sustainable performance but is the smallest cluster, accounting for a quarter of the sample. Overall, this study presents a portrait of corporate performance balancing financial and CSR objectives and the evolution of this activity over the research period.     

The analysis of corporate governance policy and corporate financial performance

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the quality of corporate governance policy and the firm financial performance and. Data were collected from Corporate Library. A sample of 3,068 firms from the database of 2010 Corporate Library was analyzed. Logistic regression models were employed and SPSS statistical package was utilized to perform the analysis. Our results show that when firms have better corporate governance policies, they are more likely to perform better. Specifically, when firms have a better board rating, compensation policy, takeover defense strategy, accounting practice, and a formal governance policy, they are more likely to perform better than their counterparts without such quality corporate governance policies.     

公司绩效提升的方法

Great公司是生产3c电子产品塑料机壳与零件为主的台资企业,在竞争日益激烈的环境下,Great公司将透过企业体质的改善,以满足客户需求为目标导向,不断提升自我竞争力,提升服务质量,创造更高价值.因此,籍由绩效提升方法与工具来达到企业体质的改善已成为企业营运成功与否的主要关键.本文阐述了Grear公司在经营及营运过程中绩效提升的四项主要工具与方法:平衡计分卡(BSC)导入,企业资源规划(ERP)系统应用,6个标准差(6σ)的执行,知识管理(KM)系统整合,通过这四个项目的导入及展开,达到公司绩效提升的目的.     

Institutional investors,corporate governance and the performance of the corporate sector

Proportions of equity held by institutional investors—pension funds, insurance companies and mutual funds—are rising across all OECD countries. Meanwhile institutions are becoming more influential in corporate governance, even in bank-dominated countries, inter alia due to international investment, pension reform and EMU. We provide two forms of evidence on the effects of institutional corporate governance on corporate performance. First we offer a literature survey on micro evidence, the outcome of which is mixed, but on balance suggesting a positive effect on equity returns. We contend that these micro studies face a difficulty that they cannot capture effects of governance initiatives whose effects go wider than “target firms”. Accordingly, we present results for the reduced form empirical relationship between institutional share holding and corporate sector performance at an economy-wide level. These are consistent with significant effects which differ between “Anglo-Saxon” and “relationship banking” countries. For example, institutions appear to accompany lower investment and higher dividends in the former.     

Carbon performance and corporate financial performance: The moderating role of consumer awareness of corporate social responsibility

The paper detects the association between carbon performance (CP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) and the moderating role of consumer awareness (CA) of corporate social responsibility (CSR). We find that CP has consistent positive impacts on CFP in the short and long term, whereas CA has opposite moderating effects on CFP. These results indicate that companies should increase corporate value by improving CP. In addition, improving CA of CSR is an effective way to promote CFP.     

CEO retention,firm performance and corporate governance

This paper seeks to determine if CEO turnover is a function of firm performance, and therefore attempts to gauge the extent to which CEO interests are aligned with those of stockholders. The methodology in this paper focuses primarily on estimating the relationship between the probability of CEO exit and indices of firm performance and corporate governance structure. A major finding of the paper is that the accountability of CEOs to stockholders is significantly limited by CEO power, and CEO turnover is influenced more by internal governance structure than by firm profit or sales performance.     

CEO ownership, corporate control, and bank performance

This study examines the relation between CEO ownership and bank performance. In contrast to Pi and Timme (1993), we find that, when economic measures of performance are used, the relation between ownership and the performance of commerical banks is nonlinear. Additionally, in contrast to previous studies, we find the question of whether or not the CEO also holds the title of chairman of the board has an insignificant impact on bank performance. We conclude that, in commercial banks, management entrenchment may offset the effects predicted by Jensen and Meckling's (1976) convergence-of-interest hypothesis.     

企业社会责任对企业绩效的影响研究

以2013-2015年高新技术企业的数据为样本,研究企业社会责任对企业财务绩效和经营绩效的影响.研究结果表明:企业积极承担社会责任能够直接促进企业的经营绩效提升,但对财务绩效的提高没有显著影响.最后,根据分析结果,提出了促进企业转变履行社会责任的意识,积极履行企业社会责任相关建议.     

Working capital management and corporate performance： Case of Malaysia

Working capital always being disregard in financial decision making since it involve investment and financing in short term period. However, it is an important component in firm financial management decision. An optimal working capital management is expected to contribute positively to the creation of firm value. To reach optimal working capital management firm manager should control the trade off between profitability and liquidity accurately. The intention of this study is to examine the relationship between working capital management and firm profitability. Cash conversion cycle is used as measure of working capital management. This study is used panel data of 1628 firm-year for the period of 1996-2006 that consist of six different economic sectors which are listed in Bursa Malaysia. The coefficient results of Pooled OLS regression analysis provide a strong negative significant relationship between cash conversion cycle and firm profitability. This reveals that reducing cash conversion period results to profitability increase. Thus, in purpose to create shareholder value, firm manager should concern on shorten of cash conversion cycle till optimal level is achieved.     

Sophisticated capital budgeting systems and their association with corporate performance

Prior empirical studies have been unable to establish any clear relationship existing between the capital budgeting practices adoted and corporate performance. This may partly be explained by the restrictive definition of capital budgeting employed in these studies. The present study, based on data gathered from 144 major companies, examines the relationship between the degree of sophistication identified in capital budgeting systems and corporate performance levels achieved over a number of years, when controlling for the interactive corporate characteristics of size, risk, capital intensity and industry class. The results are surprising. They reveal a consistent, significant negative association between the level of capital budgeting sophistication and corporate performance.     

The remuneration of CEOs and corporate financial performance in Norway

Economics and management literatures advocate that senior company executives should be remunerated on the basis of the financial performance of the firms they manage. This helps align the interests of management with those of stockholders. There are, however, problems in implementing pay for performance schemes and these, along with other factors, may lead to there being no empirical relationship between compensation and stockholder returns. This study set out to explore the determinants of chief executive compensation in Norwegian stock exchange listed firms. To date there have been very few studies on this topic using data from Norway; most previous research has employed American data. The results show a positive relationship between CEO pay and corporate size but there was no significant association between remuneration and corporate financial performance as measured by accounting profitability and as measured by stock returns. Estimates of the value added by companies were significantly related to chief executive pay. There was also a positive and significant relationship between a CEO's compensation and the average wage level of the company. This association may be due to the unique characteristics of Norway's social and economic structure.     

The relationships among corporate social responsibility,corporate image and economic performance of high-tech industries in Taiwan

The economic development of high-tech industries in Taiwan focuses on IC design, opt electrics, semiconductors, computer science and telecommunication. It is necessary for business to understand the relations and significance of the economic performance to take the responsibility and keep a positive corporate image, thus they can earn more admiration and trust from customers. How do they take the social responsibility to improve their corporate image and create the economic performance, and finally reach the top one of the whole world? This study discusses the subject concerning the continuing development of business and relevant issues stated above. We found that 68.1% of high-tech industries in Taiwan are in accordance with business ethics and norms of conduct. Businesses take their responsibility practically by participating in public welfare activities. The more responsibilities they fulfill; the better image they have. High-tech industries should target the social responsibility as their first goal and secondly improve their corporate image to increase the economic performance.     

Credit ratings and long-term IPO performance

We examine the impact of credit ratings on long-term IPO pricing. Our findings suggest that the provision of credit ratings prior to IPO reduces information asymmetry and improves market efficiency. The increase in disclosure through credit ratings can reduce information risk and price discounts. IPOs with (without) credit ratings are less (more) underpriced and more positively (negatively) perceived by outside investors. The market reactions for rated IPOs are more immediate and more complete (as the result of improved transparency), while long-term performance is insignificant when information asymmetry is reduced.     

Diversification,capital structure,and performance: A simultaneous equation approach

This paper examines the relationships between diversification, capital structure, and performance jointly on the financial sector. Our dataset covers 412 French financial institutions over the period ranging from 2002 to 2012. Furthermore, we use a three‐stage least squares to check reverse causality. Our three‐stage least squares results show positive significant simultaneous interdependencies between performance and leverage. Performance reduction and debt levels increase are associated with activity diversification. Performance and leverage reduction is due to geographic diversification. Our estimation confirms reverse association between the interaction of diversification, leverage, and performance. Moreover, the findings are robust after taking into account alternative measures of diversification.     

Corporate social responsibility and corporate performance: a quantile regression approach

This paper investigates the impact of corporate social responsibility activities on corporate performance. In view of the inconsistent empirical findings in the literature, and the limitations of least squares regressions, we adopt a quantile regression method to fill this gap in the literature. An important finding is that the sensitivity of a company’s performance to its engagement in corporate social responsibility activities does not vary with the quantile location of the firm’s performance level, and the engagement in corporate social responsibility activities has a significant positive relation with corporate performance across all quantiles. This study argues that undertaking corporate social responsibility leads to greater financial returns than the related costs. Therefore, this study concludes that engaging in corporate social responsibility is beneficial for firms, and thus worth implementing.     

The influence of managerial satisfaction on corporate environmental performance and reputation

Organizational studies have widely debated the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. Some papers have dealt with managerial satisfaction and businesses' performance adopting agency theory to interpret the results. However, no studies have yet considered the relationship between the satisfaction levels of an environmental manager and corporate environmental performance. This paper thus analyses the role played by the environmental manager's satisfaction in enhancing corporate environmental performance and reputation. The paper uses data from a survey of 412 Eco Management and Audit Scheme registered organizations. The results show a positive relationship between managerial satisfaction and environmental performance, whereas no such positive relationship was found when considering eco‐innovation performance. In addition, the environmental manager's satisfaction has a positive and indirect influence on the corporate environmental reputation. These results contribute to the literature on agency theory and aim to extend the debate between job satisfaction and job performance to the sustainable business field.     

Announced layoffs: Their effect on corporate financial performance

Conventional wisdom holds that when a firm gets into trouble due to lagging sales and rising costs, cutting the size of the organization to reduce fat and waste is a normal and effective response. In this study, evidence was found to suggest that just the opposite might be true. The financial performance of Fortune 100 companies was tracked over a five-year period—two years prior to the announced layoff, the year of the layoff announcement, and two years following it. Contrary to expectations, the results indicate that financial performance worsened, rather than improved, following announced layoffs. Strategic and human resource implications for the management of corporate downsizing are provided.     

Evolving corporate governance and firms performance: evidence from Japanese firms

This study is an attempt to investigate the implications of the ownership structure and control transfers in the Japanese corporate market, which are attributed mainly to the government’s liberalization policies during 1990s. It appears that institutional shareholdings—either financial or non-financial corporations—are associated with poor performance, whereas the foreign and domestic private ownerships lead to an improvement in the performance of the firms. We observe that unwinding the cross-shareholding between banks and corporations and mutual transfers among non-financial institutions allows for efficiency gain. Furthermore, the ownership transfer to private and foreign individuals is consistently associated with high market value, which implies that individuals’ transfers lead to an increase in efficiency.