Reputation repair and corporate donations: An investigation of responses to regulatory penalties

According to the risk management and reputation insurance theory of corporate social responsibility, corporate donations can help a company to repair its reputation after a crisis. This study uses a propensity score matching–difference in difference (PSM + DID) methodology to investigate the charitable donation activities of companies that have been subject to regulatory penalties. The analysis of a sample of A-share listed companies in the 2004–2016 period shows that companies significantly increase their charitable donations after regulatory penalties, but this effect weakens over time. Further analysis reveals that non-state-owned companies, companies with higher ownership concentrations, and companies receiving severer penalties are more motivated to make donations after regulatory penalties. By studying the reputation repair behavior of companies that have been subject to regulatory penalties, this study offers further support for the risk management and reputation insurance theory of corporate social responsibility. It also enriches our understanding of companies’ active responses to regulatory penalties and provides insights into companies’ motives for making charitable donations.     

Does good corporate governance reduce information asymmetry around quarterly earnings announcements?

We examine the relationship between the quality of corporate governance and information asymmetry in the equity market around quarterly earnings announcements. We use the change in market liquidity (i.e., bid–ask spreads and depths) around the announcements as a proxy for information asymmetry. We use principal components analysis to identify three factors, board independence, board structure and board activity, that capture the information in the eight individual corporate governance variables we examine. We then use ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares to estimate the relations between market liquidity changes and the following four explanatory variables: directors’ and officers’ percentage stock holdings, board independence, board structure, and board activity. Our results indicate that changes in bid–ask spreads at the time of earnings announcements are significantly negatively related to board independence, board activity, and the percentage stock holdings of directors and officers. We also find that depth changes are significantly positively related to board structure, board activity, and directors’ and officers’ percentage stock holdings. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that firms with higher levels of corporate governance have lower information asymmetry around quarterly earnings announcements.     

企业社会责任报告鉴证意见是否具有信息含量——来自我国上市公司的经验证据

近年来,我国上市公司披露企业社会责任报告的现象越来越多,企业保证社会责任报告质量的方式有两种:一是独立第三方出具的企业社会责任报告鉴证意见;二是企业董事会对企业社会责任报告质量出具的自我承诺。这两种保证形式是否具有信息含量是大家所关心的问题。本文以沪深两市2009—2010年披露企业社会责任报告的940家上市公司为研究对象,依据信号传递理论,运用事件研究法研究发现:企业社会责任报告鉴证意见具有正向的市场反应,而董事会承诺不具有市场反应。根据我国的制度背景、理论分析和实证结果,从如何完善我国的企业社会责任报告鉴证标准、鉴证主体、鉴证客体、政府部门对董事会承诺的监管重点等方面提出了政策建议。     

Bankers in the Boardroom and Firm Performance in China

We use a dataset comprising the appointments of commercial bankers as board of directors at Chinese listed firms and find that financially distressed firms are more likely to recruit a commercial banker as a director of the board. The presence of a banker on the board increases access to bank loans, yet many investors react negatively to announcements of such appointments. We also find that such appointments are typically followed by a drop in the appointing firm’s operating performance, and an increase in rent-seeking activities. This suggests that bank directors cannot strengthen corporate governance. Most financial resources are expropriated by corporate insiders.     

公司治理对财务控制的影响——来自我国制造业上市公司的证据

本文以代理理论为指导,运用我国制造业上市公司调查数据和公开数据,考察了公司治理对财务控制的影响。实证研究发现,第一大股东持股比例、独立董事制度、董事会活跃程度等因素对财务控制效果有显著影响。改善财务控制需要从公司治理方面入手,包括建立健全约束大股东行为的相关机制,提高董事会独立性作为制衡大股东的重要措施,运用组合治理机制,实现对财务控制的再控制;多元化经营的公司要重视企业集团的内部治理,重视财务控制系统的更新与变革。     

Board generational cohorts,gender diversity and corporate environmental and social disclosures: Evidence from China

We examine the association between board generational cohorts and corporate environmental and social disclosure. We find that older board members have a positive association with corporate environmental and social disclosures. In contrast, the moderately younger and youngest board members limit corporate environmental and social disclosures. Our results are robust to potential endogeneity with the use of alternative model specifications, with the youngest board members accounting for a lower level of corporate environmental and social disclosures. Furthermore, we find that the presence of gender diversity on the board moderates the relationship between board generational cohorts and corporate environmental and social disclosures and reporting incentives are important to oldest and youngest board members in their push for environmental and social disclosures. Finally, additional analysis indicates that firms with governmental shareholding are associated with a higher level of corporate environmental and social disclosures as compared to firms without governmental shareholding when board members are moderately young.     

非公有制企业党组织与企业捐赠

与公有制企业党组织受到较多关注不同,非公有制企业党组织是否真正发挥影响力是同样重要但却被学术界忽略的待研究问题。本文基于手工收集的民营上市公司党组织的相关数据,从社会捐赠这一视角研究党组织影响力对其履行社会责任的影响。结果发现:民营上市公司党组织的影响力越大,企业的社会捐赠力度越大,且显著高于同行业和同地区的平均捐赠水平;这种影响力的促进作用在民营上市公司党组织基础更加稳固的企业、管理层对党组织重视程度更高的企业和党代会时期更加明显。上述结果在控制了可能的内生性问题后依然稳健。本文的发现意味着非公有制企业党组织有助于促进其履行社会责任,这有助于评估和促进非公有制企业党组织的建设及其作用的发挥。     

Employee Layoffs, Shareholder Wealth and Firm Performance: Evidence from the UK

Abstract:  We examine the financial performance of UK listed companies surrounding the announcement of permanent employee layoffs. We find that poor operating and stock price performance, increased gearing, and threats from external markets for corporate control precede employee layoffs. Layoff announcements elicit a significantly negative stock price reaction, which is driven by announcements that are reactive to poor financial conditions. We also find that layoffs result in significant increases in employee productivity and corporate focus. We conclude that layoffs represent an efficient response to poor financial conditions, but that their occurrence is strongly dependent on pressure from external control markets.     

Corporate governance and the timeliness of corporate internet reporting by U.K. listed companies

This study is an examination of the timeliness of corporate internet reporting by U.K. companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The research examines the significance of several corporate governance and firm-specific characteristics as potential determinants of the timeliness of corporate internet reporting.Our primary analysis provides evidence of a significant association between timely corporate internet reporting and the corporate governance characteristics of board experience and board independence. Our findings provide evidence that boards with less cross directorships, more experience in terms of the average age of directors, and lower length in service for executive directors provide more timely corporate internet reporting. We find that board independence is negatively associated with timely corporate internet reporting.Follow-up analysis provides additional evidence of a significant association between the timeliness of corporate internet reporting and board experience. The evidence indicates that role duality and block ownership are associated with less timely corporate internet reporting.Our findings also reveal strengths and weaknesses in the Internet reporting of U.K. listed companies. Companies need to voluntarily focus on improving the timeliness dimension of their corporate internet reporting so that the EU and U.K. accounting regulators do not replace recommendations with regulations.     

Corporate Governance and Firm Performance in Iran

This study uses data from companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) for the years 2005–2006 to investigate the role of corporate governance indices on firm performance. We use board size, board independence, board leadership and institutional investors on the board as corporate governance indices and EPS, ROA and ROE as firm performance surrogates. Our regression results show that board size is negatively associated with firm performance. Moreover, the presence of outside directors strengthens the firms' performance. We find, however, no relationship between leadership structure and firm performance. Likewise, the presence of institutional investors on the board of directors is not positively associated with firm performance.     

董事网络、独立董事治理与高管激励

独立董事的治理行为受到所处社会网络的影响。基于"董事在董事会同时任职的直接或间接联结关系"而形成的董事网络,本文利用社会网络分析方法检验了独立董事的网络特征对其发挥在促进高管激励有效性影响中的作用机理。结果发现:公司独立董事网络中心度越高,高管薪酬-业绩敏感性越强;与非国有上市公司相比,国有上市公司中独立董事网络中心度与高管薪酬-业绩敏感性的正相关关系更弱;进一步研究发现,用独立董事网络中心度解释的高管薪酬部分对未来业绩有促进作用。结论丰富了"网络和治理"研究的证据。     

Voluntary disclosure of corporate venture capital investments

In this paper, we investigate drivers of corporate venture capital investment announcements. Consistent with voluntary information disclosure theories, we find that a public announcement is less likely to be made when the start-up firm is in the seed stage but more likely when the parent company is large, active in concentrated markets and in non-high-tech industries; spends heavily on internal R&D and capital expenditures; has low leverage ratio; and faces more information asymmetry problems. In addition, corporate venture capital programs managed externally disclose more often than internal programs. We find that parent companies facing more severe asymmetric information problems enjoy the highest abnormal returns in response to announcements. This study contributes to the literature on voluntary information disclosure in that it evidences that larger corporations use disclosure of some of their investments in innovative startups strategically as a way to convey valuable information to the market.     

Corporate Governance and the Investment Efficiency of Diversified Corporate Asset Buyers

Many corporate assets are bought and sold each year in the U.S. and most scholars believe these transactions improve economic efficiency. But given the reality that the interests of corporate managers may diverge from those of their shareholders and reflect empire‐building or other managerial entrenchment strategies—and that such agency problems tend to be worse in highly diversified, multi‐divisional companies—the authors tested the proposition that diversified corporate asset buyers with more effective governance structures can be expected to allocate capital more efficiently, as reflected in higher rates of return on operating capital and more favorable market reactions to the announcements of their purchases. Using a sample of diversified U.S. companies that announced large asset purchases between 1988 and 2006, the authors report finding that the investment allocation process following such asset purchases was more consistent with value creation in the case of diversified buyers with more effective governance structures, which were identified by their greater board independence, higher‐quality audit committees, and higher levels of stock ownership by institutional ownership, directors, and CEOs.     

STOCK BUYBACKS, CORPORATE PERFORMANCE, AND EVA

Most studies of corporate stock repurchase focus on the effect of stock buyback announcements on the stock price performance of companies announcing the programs, and on the corporate motives for undertaking stock buyback programs. The study described in this article examines the effects of actual stock buyback activities on corporate performance, addressing the question whether buybacks are associated with increases in economic value or EVA. In general, the study reports that the operating performance of buyback companies is better than that of non-buyback companies, and that performance improves in the year following the initiation of repurchasing activities. Although it is not the central focus of this study, the findings are consistent with both the free cash flow and the information signaling hypotheses as motives for engaging in stock buybacks.     

基于动态内生性的董事会结构与公司绩效间的跨时期相互作用

在董事会结构与公司绩效间关系的研究中,动态内生性问题通常被忽略。本文以2002-2011年410家上市公司为样本,在动态内生性的框架下,运用动态面板的System GMM估计方法,研究了董事会结构与公司综合绩效间的关系。结果表明：董事会结构与公司绩效间存在动态内生性问题,当期董事会结构与公司绩效没有显著的相关性,前期的董事会结构与公司绩效间存在显著的正相关关系,且前期公司绩效对当期董事会规模产生了显著的正向的反馈效应,但前期公司绩效并未对当期董事会的独立性产生显著影响。     

Oil supply expectations and corporate social responsibility

This paper examines how changes in oil supply expectations affect the social responsibility scores of Chinese listed companies and attempts to identify the source of this expectations in terms of uncertainty and orderliness of OPEC production. We document strong evidence that supply news shocks have a statistically and economically significant impact on corporate social responsibility. Supply expectations strongly impact social responsibility performance in the energy sector, with negative news leading to higher oil prices and increased economic uncertainty. Based on real options theory and precautionary storage effects, firms increase oil inventories when OPEC announcements are disclosed. This leads to increased tension in firms' cash flows, which provides evidence of the expected supply channel operation.     

Multi-dimensional corporate social responsibilities and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China

Worldwide, there has been an ongoing debate about whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) can lead to better financial market performance, or whether corporations can do well by doing good. Working with a sample of all listed companies in China from 2010 to 2017, this study examines the impacts of three dimensions of CSR on stock price crash risk. We find that CSR, especially firms' responsibility to the environment and stakeholders, significantly reduces stock price crash risk, while social contributions such as charitable donations have no significant effect on stock crash risk. Attracting long-term institutional investors is the primary mechanism through which CSR can curb crash risk. Mitigating earnings management is also a channel through which overall CSR and stakeholder responsibility contribute to a lower stock crash risk. Finally, we find that stakeholder responsibility and environmental responsibility can help improve stock market performance.     

Factors influencing corporate governance disclosures: evidence from Alternative Investment Market (AIM) companies in the UK

This study examines the relationship between company and ownership characteristics and the disclosure level of compliance with Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) recommendations on corporate governance in Alternative Investment Market (AIM) companies. We report clear evidence that compliance increases with company size, board size, the proportion of independent non-executive directors, the presence of turnover revenue, and being formerly listed on the Main Market. However, we find that shell and highly geared AIM companies disclose relatively lower levels of corporate governance than recommended under QCA guidelines. Our findings suggest that market regulators should review the potential impact of the quality of corporate governance in these companies on the future vibrancy of AIM. We find no evidence that ownership structure or the type of Nominated Advisor is related to disclosure of compliance with QCA guidelines. Overall, in a lightly regulated environment such as the AIM market, it seems that companies will ultimately pursue a cost–benefit strategy in voluntarily complying with good corporate governance practice.     

保险公司治理评价:指标体系构建与评分计算方法

保险公司治理评价是保险公司治理理论与实践的重要组成部分。本文构建了一个涵盖股东权益机制、董事会治理、监事会治理、经理层治理、信息披露机制、利益相关者治理、公司治理文化、公司社会责任等8个一级指标以及与之相关的33个二级指标和117个三级指标的保险公司治理评价指标体系。本文基于层次分析法对保险公司治理评分的计算方法进行了探讨,并籍此对保险公司治理评分进行了算例分析。该保险公司治理评价指标体系与评分计算方法有利于促进保险公司自身的治理诊断控制,并能为保险公司的股东、债权人、员工、客户等各类利益相关者的相关决策及政府的监管提供有益的指导与参考。