Firm-level determinants of gender diversity in the boardrooms: Evidence from some emerging markets

This paper examines the determinants of board gender diversity in the context of emerging economies. Specifically, we investigate the impact of organizational characteristics on gender diversity in the boardrooms of Brazilian, Russian, Indian and Chinese firms and compare our findings with a control sample from US and UK. Analysing data for 1002 firms between a period of 2005 and 2012, we find some similarities between developed and emerging economies on the factors determining women representation on boards. In particular, we observe board gender diversity is positively related to the firm size, and it is inversely related to corporate risk across both emerging and developed economies. Family control affects positively board gender diversity only in India, China, UK and US. However, in contrast to developed countries, there is some evidence to suggest that state ownership has a negative effect on board gender diversity in India and Russia.     

Internationalization and breaking the glass ceiling: An institutional perspective

Gender diversity continues to serve as a thought-provoking and challenging topic for society and business alike. Even as organizations implement policies to minimize discriminatory practices in the workplace, evidence of gender inequality in firms around the world persists. Drawing on institutional theory, this study focuses on the effect that foreign investors and host country corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies have on gender diversity, and how professional groups can moderate this relationship. In analyzing 608 observations from listed firms in Taiwan, the findings demonstrate these relationships. It is shown that both foreign investor ownership and good host country CSR in firms are positively linked to the promotion of women into managerial positions. The assurance of professional groups in home countries further enhances this positive relationship. Our results further indicate how institutions carried across borders by organizations can influence firm decisions such as gender diversity through global norms of corporate CSR and also by the assurance of professional groups in the home multinational firm.     

Multiple directorships,family ownership and the board nomination committee: International evidence from the GCC

In this paper, we investigate the association between outside board directorships and family ownership concentration. Using a sample of 1091 firm-year observations of non-financial publicly listed firms from Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) during the 2005 to 2013 period, we find a positive association between family ownership and the number of outside directorships held by board members. This finding is consistent with the notion that family ownership reduces a board's monitoring capabilities. We also test whether the recent corporate governance reforms in GCC, which were designed to protect investors and minority shareholders, affect firms' incentives to establish a board nomination committee (NC). We find the existence of a board NC and the quality and characteristics of NC membership act to suppress the positive association between outside directorships and family ownership. Our results are robust to the use of alternative measures of outside directorships and family ownership and models that test for endogeneity. Overall, our results suggest that the institutional specificities of emerging economies such as those in the GCC can sustain high levels of multiple directorships, which could impair the quality of corporate governance.     

Corporate social responsibility in emerging economies: Investigating firm behavior in the Indian context

Scholars have questioned the appropriateness of using a western‐centric framework to investigate corporate social responsibility (CSR) in emerging economies. This study assesses the appropriateness of using such a framework in one emerging economy—India. More specifically, the drivers of CSR and their impact on firm‐level CSR activity in the Indian context are investigated and compared with those in developed economies. Content analysis of 369 CSR policy statements of publicly traded Indian firms revealed the factors that drive CSR activities of Indian firms are similar to those found in developed economies. However, the ways firms respond to the drivers of CSR are surprisingly different in the Indian context, and these differences can be traced to attributes of the Indian socio‐cultural context. Implications and recommendations for future research conducted in India, and in other emerging economies, are offered.     

The professional service firm (PSF) in a globalised economy: A study of the efficiency of securities firms in an emerging market

This study explores the efficiency of securities firms in Turkey and offers conceptual and managerial insights utilizing data envelopment analysis. Through a sample of local and foreign owned securities firms in Turkey, we examine the impact of liabilities of foreignness (LOF) and localness (LOL) upon knowledge intensive firm efficiency in an emerging market economy. We have extended this approach through our consideration of liability associated with market globalness (LOMG). Our findings indicate the importance of size for firm efficiency with bank affiliation and foreign ownership also having positive effects on efficiency. Our study makes a contribution conceptually, methodologically and empirically to a growing literature on emerging economies. We also make a valuable addition to the limited empirical work conducted on the securities industry to date. Finally, through our contextualization of Turkish securities firms as professional services firms (PSFs), our research extends the narrow focus on law and accounting which currently dominates the burgeoning research strand on PSFs.     

Graft and business in emerging economies: An ecological perspective

In this study we examine how a firm's engagement in graft in emerging economies is shaped by its organizational attributes. Building on the logic of organizational ecology, we envisage that a firm's engagement in graft is influenced by its (1) institutional structure (e.g., public ownership, foreign ownership, and government ownership), (2) market orientation (foreign vs. local market), and (3) firm capabilities (e.g., capacity utilization, product quality, and leadership quality). Using the World Bank's data, we analyzed 1782 firms in China, Brazil, Russia, Poland and South Africa, and found general support for our argument. The results suggest that a firm's engagement in graft is, at least in part, an organizational phenomenon influenced by the firm's founding conditions, required legitimization in the market, and capability conditions.     

Managing the foreign investment portfolio: How industry and governance diversity influence firm performance

Foreign investment has been seen as an important strategy for learning about new technologies and markets. However, the link between the characteristic of a foreign investment portfolio and firm performance has not been examined in detail. Using panel data from 199 Taiwanese firms, this study examines how the foreign investment portfolio in terms of industry and governance diversity influences firm performance. This study finds that governance diversity has an inverse U-shaped relationship to firm performance, whereas industry diversity does not. In addition, this study also finds that their relationships are affected by R&D capability and industry profitability. The empirical findings of our study are useful for firms that invest in emerging economies.     

Social Capital,Informal Governance,and Post-IPO Firm Performance: A Study of Chinese Entrepreneurial Firms

Social capital can serve as informal governance in weak investor-protection regimes. Using hand-collected data on entrepreneurs’ political connections and firm ownership, we construct several original measures of social capital and examine their effect on the performance of entrepreneurial firms in China after their initial public offerings. Political connections or a high percentage of external investors tend to enhance firm performance, but intragroup related-party transactions commonly lead to performance decline. These forms of social capital have a strong influence on the performance of Chinese firms, whereas formal governance variables such as board size or board independence have little effect. Although social capital may serve as an informal governance mechanism and effectively substitute for formal governance mechanisms in an emerging market, this role of social capital raises several ethical concerns, notably the development of rent-seeking and crony capitalism.     

Foreign acquisition and post-privatization exit of state-owned firms

This paper analyzes the impact of foreign and domestic ownership on the exit rates of privatized state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in transitional countries. The exit of privatized SOEs can have a profound impact on employment and on the development of local economies of transitional countries. An oligopoly model that incorporates country-level trade costs and individual SOE's productivity is developed to assess the exit of SOEs under either foreign or domestic ownership. The model shows that market competition between firms can lead to liquidation of the SOE by a domestic firm when trade costs increase. When the productivity of SOE is high, neither foreign nor domestic firm will liquidate. The predictions of the model are tested using firm-level privatization data from Central and Eastern Europe. By controlling for productivity, trade costs, and other attributes of SOEs after privatization, it is found that foreign ownership significantly reduces the probability of SOE's exit as compared to domestic ownership. Furthermore, there is evidence that as trade costs increase, the exit probability of domestically owned SOEs increases and the exit probability of foreign-owned SOEs declines.     

Corporate Governance and Firm Value: The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility

This study investigates the effects of internal and external corporate governance and monitoring mechanisms on the choice of corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement and the value of firms engaging in CSR activities. The study finds the CSR choice is positively associated with the internal and external corporate governance and monitoring mechanisms, including board leadership, board independence, institutional ownership, analyst following, and anti- takeover provisions, after controlling for various firm characteristics. After correcting for endogeneity and simultaneity issues, the results show that CSR engagement positively influences firm value measured by industry-adjusted Tobin’s q. We find that the impact of analyst following for firms that engage in CSR on firm value is strongly positive, while the board leadership, board independence, blockholders’ ownership, and institutional ownership play a relatively weaker role in enhancing firm value. Furthermore, we find that CSR activities that address internal social enhancement within the firm, such as employees diversity, firm relationship with its employees, and product quality, enhance the value of firm more than other CSR subcategories for broader external social enhancement such as community relation and environmental concerns.     

Ownership structure and earnings management in emerging markets—An institutionalized agency perspective

Previous earnings management research has largely focused on firm-level governance mechanisms in single countries or on macro-level variables in multiple countries. Building on this research, we incorporate firm ownership predictors along with national institutional dimensions to explore why firm decision makers in emerging markets vary in their earnings management behavior. Our theoretical framework integrates agency and institutional theories proposing that firm-level ownership mechanisms do not function in isolation, but are reinforced or attenuated by elements of the institutional governance environment. The multilevel empirical analysis of 1200 firms in 24 emerging markets indicates that controlling ownership is positively related to earnings management. We find that the level of minority shareholder protection in a country weakens this positive relationship. We also find that regulatory quality strengthens the negative relationship between institutional ownership and earnings management activity. It is hoped that awareness of how firm ownership structures interact with national-level institutions in affecting firm-level behavior will help managers and investors develop skills and practices to better cope with business norms in emerging economies.     

Institutional investors and international investments in emerging economy firms: A behavioral risk perspective

While the extant literature has examined the influence of controlling and non-controlling principals on the internationalization decisions of emerging market firms, heterogeneity among non-controlling principals is largely ignored. The risk characteristics of different groups of owners, shaped by their institutional environments, could contribute to the differences in their preferences for firm internationalization. In this paper, we draw insights from institutional theory and behavioral risk perspective to examine the risk propensities and risk perceptions of various non-controlling principals, such as pressure-resistant (FIIs and mutual funds) and pressure-sensitive (banks, insurance companies and lending institutions) institutional investors. Empirical results from a sample of 2364 unique Indian firms during the 2005–2014 time-period show that, after controlling for firm-level resources and capabilities identified in prior literature, the ownership share of different types of institutional investors is associated with firms’ international investments differently. While pressure-sensitive institutional investors, such as banks and insurance companies, are not supportive of foreign investments by firms, pressure-resistant institutional investors, such as FIIs and mutual funds, are supportive of this strategic decision. Furthermore, our results show that the family ownership in a firm (measured in terms of family shareholding) further lowers the preference of pressure sensitive institutional investors for internationalization, whereas family ownership positively moderates the pressure resistant investors towards internationalization.     

Corporate governance and returns to emerging economy firm acquisitions in tax havens: An empirical test on Indian firms

Cross‐border acquisitions (CBAs) by emerging economy firms are known to yield positive stockholder returns. A nontrivial fraction of CBAs by emerging economy firms are in tax havens. We argue because of weak corporate governance in emerging economies and the secrecy afforded by tax havens, emerging economy firm CBAs in tax havens yield lower stockholder returns than their CBAs in nontax havens. We also argue the negative effect of tax haven destinations is greater for firms with greater business group ownership and for firms with greater foreign insider ownership. Furthermore, we argue the negative effect of tax haven destinations is mitigated for firms whose stock is actively traded in the market. Empirical tests in a sample of nearly 800 CBAs by Indian firms from 2002 to 2011 support our hypotheses. Our study contributes to a better understanding of stockholder returns to CBAs by emerging economy firms and the influence of corporate governance on these returns.     

Foreign Investors' Reaction to Lower Profitability – The Role of Information Asymmetry*

Owners of firms in trouble are more exposed to moral hazard problems than owners of successful firms. Foreign owners who face higher costs to monitor the firm should be more vulnerable to these problems than domestic ones. Consequently, a downward revision in a firm's expected future earnings should push foreign investors to sell their shares to a larger extent than domestic investors. We test this hypothesis on profit warnings issued at the Helsinki Stock Exchange. Our results reveal that in the wake of profit warnings foreign investors will predominantly sell, while domestic investors pick up the net sales by foreigners. Differences in the scale of the foreign investor sell‐out reaction are explained by a number of variables. The most significant one is our proxy for the magnitude of surprise in the warning. The reaction also increases with the degree of perceived information asymmetry for the firm that issued the warning, while foreign members on the firm's board have a moderating impact. By contrast, a number of general corporate governance‐related variables have no statistically significant impact on the reaction.     

The Impact of Operational Diversity on Corporate Philanthropy: An Empirical Study of U.S. Companies

This paper investigates the impact of diversity on corporate philanthropy. Compared to previous studies that have considered the influence of board diversity and CEO gender on corporate philanthropy, this study introduces the concept of operational diversity, which is the implementation of diversity programs at management, employee, and supply chain levels, and further, it explains why operational diversity influences corporate philanthropy, by using the premises of resource dependence theory. Second, this study also investigates the influence of board diversity on corporate philanthropy. Third, this study uses a large sample of U.S. firms over the period of 1991–2009 and tries to mitigate possible omitted variables and endogeneity problems that are often overlooked in previous research. We demonstrate that firms with operational diversity programs are likely more dependent on a broad variety of resources and give more to community as a strategic maneuver; hence, operational diversity is a better indicator for predicting future corporate giving than board diversity alone. However, having a woman or a member of a minority as a company’s chief executive officer is not sufficient to impact its charitable giving. A battery of robustness tests support our conclusion and confirm that our results are not driven by a firm’s general corporate social responsibility (CSR) score, gender or independence of board members, or firm ownership. This paper will assist researchers, practitioners, and other stakeholders in deepening their understanding of the predictors of corporate giving.     

Antecedents of firm performance in emerging economies: Business groups,strategy, industry structure,and state support

A rich literature has investigated the antecedents of firm performance in developed economies, resulting in a consensus view that firm resources and strategy are the key determinants. Several arguments, however, suggest that in emerging economies other factors are more important for firm performance. This study analyzes the impact of firm strategy and industry structure as well as business group membership and state support on firm performance in an advanced emerging economy, Turkey. Using a data set compiled from a selection of the 1000 largest manufacturing firms in this country, the study employs several regression models to identify the main determinants of firm performance as measured by productivity and net profit margin. In contrast to studies of developed economies, the investigation finds that firm-related factors (competitive strategies) do not significantly influence performance; instead factors related to industry structure and business group membership are the strongest determinants of firm performance; further, state support interacts with business group membership and is positively related to productivity.     

Does gender diversity on corporate boards increase risk‐taking?

We study the impact of board gender diversity on firm risk‐taking in a developing market. Our study is drawn from a sample of 30 Tunisian‐listed firms between 1997 and 2010. First, we found that women have a risk perception that leads to risk avoidance behaviour: the presence of women directors, even when there is one woman director, is positively associated with cash ratio. Second, we showed no significant relationship between board gender diversity and the propensity to take strategic or financial risk‐taking. Third, the presence of state officer/bureaucrats and/or politically connected women have a positive effect on cash holding and investment opportunities. Finally, we found that foreign investors do not invest in firms with gender‐diverse boards. We conclude with a discussion of contributions to scholarship and practice, and present avenues for future research. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mitigating the dual liability of newness and foreignness in capital markets: The role of returnee independent directors

Foreign firms undergoing an initial public offering in developed economies face a dual liability of newness and foreignness that can negatively impact the firm’s ability to access capital. In this study, we examine the ability of returnee independent directors to overcome such a liability among 232 foreign listings in the U.S. We find that returnee independent directors positively impact the price premium of the foreign IPO. We also find that this relationship is contingent on the level of ownership retained by non-independent directors, the level of ownership retained by venture capitalists, and investor protection in the firm’s country of origin.     

Corporate governance and MNE strategies in emerging economies

We explore factors of convergence and divergence in corporate governance of emerging and developed market economies, focussing on the role of firm internationalisation. In particular, foreign investments by emerging economy firms led to upgrade of their governance capabilities. These firms also became advocates for home-country policy reforms that mandated the development of similar capabilities for local firms. We present a broad overview of the literature and propose an approach that considers the evolution of corporate governance, both at the national level and the firm level, with MNEs from both emerging market economies and developed economies as active actors in this process.     

The Signaling Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Economies

What signals do firms in emerging economies send to stakeholders when they adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices? We argue that in emerging economies, firms that adopt CSR practices positively signal investors that their firms have superior capabilities for filling institutional voids. From an institution-based view, we hypothesize that the institutional environment moderates the signaling effect of CSR on a firm’s financial performance. Based on a sample of firms from ten Asian emerging economies, we find a positive relationship between CSR practices and financial performance. This positive relationship is stronger in the less developed capital market than in the more developed one. The financial benefits of CSR practices are also more salient in the low information diffusion market than in the high one. We emphasize that signaling theory and the institution-based view can jointly contribute to the CSR literature.