Article
Business
Ishwar Khatri
Summary: This study examines the relationship between board gender diversity and sustainability performance in 205 Nordic-listed firms from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden during the period 2002-2020. Based on gender social role theory and upper echelons theory, the results show a positive and significant association between board gender diversity and sustainability performance. Furthermore, the study finds that having a critical mass of at least 30% of women on boards is necessary to have a significant impact on sustainability performance. The association between board gender diversity and sustainability performance is also more pronounced in the carbon-intensive industry subsample.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Business
Ranjita Islam, Erica French, Muhammad Ali
Summary: This study investigates the relationship between board diversity and organizational CSR performance using qualitative data collected from interviews with board directors. The findings suggest that board gender and age diversity positively affect CSR investment and decision-making, leading to improved CSR performance. The effectiveness of these relationships is influenced by the number of women directors, organizational culture, industry regulations, and organizational life-cycle stage.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Business, Finance
Renatas Kizys, Emmanuel C. Mamatzakis, Panagiotis Tzouvanas
Summary: This study examines the impact of boards' genetic diversity on corporate environmental performance using data from 3690 US firms between 2005 and 2019. The findings support the diversity theory, suggesting that genetic diversity improves the quality of management decisions and business ethics, leading to enhanced environmental performance. The study also demonstrates that genetic diversity positively affects carbon and governance performance, as well as ESG disclosure. Overall, the results emphasize the importance of promoting boards' genetic diversity in addressing climate challenges.
JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL MARKETS INSTITUTIONS & MONEY
(2023)
Article
Business
Khwaja Naveed, Fahad Khalid, Cosmina L. Voinea, Nadine Roijakkers, Cosmin Fratostiteanu
Summary: This study examines the changing relationship between board gender diversity (BGD) and corporate environmental commitment (CEC) in the context of Chinese listed firms. It investigates the moderating effect of coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures on this relationship and confirms a positive association between BGD and CEC. The findings highlight the importance of subnational institutional pressures in shaping this relationship.
BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
Rey Dang, Majdi Karmani, L'Hocine Houanti, Michel Simioni, Ilyes Abid
Summary: This article uses Baltagi and Li's (2002) semi-parametric panel fixed effects model and a control function to investigate the impact of board gender diversity on a firm's environmental performance. The study finds an inverted U-shaped relationship between board gender diversity and environmental performance, and demonstrates that this relationship is endogenous and dynamic.
FINANCE RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Psychology, Multidisciplinary
Shahzad Ghafoor, Kwame Asare Duffour, Uzair Farooq Khan, Muhammad Kaleem Khan
Summary: The study shows that female representation on the board of directors enhances firm performance, while the adoption of corporate social responsibility can convert negative effects into positive effects.
FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Business
Walid Ben-Amar, Merridee Bujaki, Bruce McConomy, Philip McIlkenny
Summary: This study examines the relationship between firms' board gender diversity disclosures and transparency and impression management. The results show that firms committed to enhancing board diversity provide clearer disclosures and exhibit more optimism, while firms reluctant to improve diversity policies engage in impression management through obfuscation and show more certainty. The study also finds that optimistic tone is related to enhanced diversity practices, while certainty is negatively related to subsequent diversity performance.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Business, Finance
Sanjukta Brahma, Chioma Nwafor, Agyenim Boateng
Summary: This study shows that appointing three or more females to the board has a more significant and positive impact on firm performance compared to appointing two or fewer females. Additionally, female board members' age, level of education, and whether they hold executive director positions also have a positive effect on financial performance.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FINANCE & ECONOMICS
(2021)
Article
Business, Finance
Truc (Peter) Do
Summary: We find that board ethnic diversity is positively related to executive pay-to-performance sensitivity based on firm-year observations in Australia from 2007 to 2017. This finding is robust even when considering endogeneity through instrumental variable regression analysis and using modified measures of board ethnic diversity. Additionally, we observe that the impact of board ethnic diversity on executive pay-to-performance sensitivity is stronger for firms with high agency costs and when the CEO's ethnicity differs from the majority of the board. This study contributes important insights to the debate on board ethnic diversity in Australia.
ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE
(2023)
Article
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Augustine Donkor, Terri Trireksani, Hadrian Geri Djajadikerta
Summary: This study examines the impact of CEO power and firm environmental sensitivity on board diversity and corporate sustainability performance. The findings show that powerful CEOs and firms operating in environmentally sensitive industries weaken the relationship between board diversity and sustainability performance. Furthermore, the study highlights the greater influence of board gender diversity on sustainability compared to board cultural diversity.
Article
Business
Giovanna Gavana, Pietro Gottardo, Anna Maria Moisello
Summary: We analyze the impact of structural and demographic board diversity on family firms' corporate social performance (CSP), considering institutional and business environment factors. The study includes nonfinancial listed firms in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal from 2014 to 2021. We compare family and nonfamily firms and focus on family businesses. The findings show that female directors contribute positively to CSP in family firms, while independent directors enhance CSP in nonfamily businesses. Family directors, however, have a negative effect on CSP in family firms.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism
Juhwan Lim, Yue Vaughan, Jichul Jang
Summary: This study examines the impact of employees' perceptions of diversity management on a company's financial performance and the moderating effect of board members' diversity on this relationship. The findings suggest that employees' perceptions of diversity management positively influence financial performance, and this relationship is further enhanced by the diversity level of the board members. The study also emphasizes the importance of considering multiple aspects of diversity and inclusion and bridging the gap between board members and employees in implementing diversity management.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Business
Stefania Veltri, Romilda Mazzotta, Franco Ernesto Rubino
Summary: The study found that the structural diversity of boards has a positive effect on corporate social performance, while gender diversity has no impact. There are differences in the effects of board features on corporate social performance between family firms and non-family firms.
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Business
Rania Beji, Ouidad Yousfi, Nadia Loukil, Abdelwahed Omri
Summary: The study found a positive association between board diversity and corporate social responsibility performance, with different characteristics of boards influencing various aspects of CSR performance. External directors, gender diversity, and age diversity all have a positive impact on CSR performance, while family boards are typically less diverse.
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS
(2021)
Article
Business, Finance
Melsa Ararat, B. Burcin Yurtoglu
Summary: The study in Turkey found that female directors may contribute to higher firm value when they have a more active role in board governance and are represented in board committees in larger numbers. Female independent directors, on the other hand, were associated with higher profitability. Female directors can influence firm outcomes through improving financial statement quality, reducing violations of market laws, and decreasing the hoarding of negative news and stock price crash risks. Limited systematic differences were found when comparing female directors to their male counterparts.
EMERGING MARKETS REVIEW
(2021)
Article
Economics
Nada Kobeissi, Iftekhar Hasan, Bo Wang, Haizhi Wang, Desheng Yin
Summary: This study investigates the impact of social capital on regional innovation in the United States. The findings suggest a positive association between regional social capital and quantity, quality, and novelty of innovation by private firms at the county level. The study also reveals that the positive relationship between social capital and regional innovation is more prominent in counties with lower financial capital supply. Additionally, social capital complements investments in research and development for inventive outcomes in local areas.
Article
Economics
Bill Francis, Iftekhar Hasan, Maya Waisman
Summary: The concentration of firms in central metropolitans is found to have a significant impact on the cost of public corporate debt. Bonds issued by companies in urban agglomerations have lower yields compared to those issued by firms in remote, sparsely populated areas. The proximity to a larger number of institutional investors in metropolitan areas drives the spatial variation in bond spreads. This effect is particularly evident for more difficult to value bonds, bonds issued by smaller firms, and bonds without protective covenants.
JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
Iftekhar Hasan, Miriam Marra, Thomas Y. To, Eliza Wu, Gaiyan Zhang
Summary: We study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global company credit risk. We find that higher infection rates have a more adverse effect on firms, leading to wider increases in their credit default swap (CDS) spreads, especially for larger, more leveraged, closer to default, poorly governed, and less engaged with stakeholders firms in highly exposed industries. Country-level factors, such as GDP, political stability, foreign direct investment, and crisis management measures, also influence the sensitivity of CDS spreads to COVID-19 infection rates. A negative amplification effect exists for high default probability firms in fiscally constrained countries. Comparing global CDS and stock markets reveals that the CDS market reflects unique corporate traits and government policies during a pandemic.
JOURNAL OF BANKING & FINANCE
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
Yiwei Fang, Franco Fiordelisi, Iftekhar Hasan, Woon Sau Leung, Gabriel Wong
Summary: Based on the Competing Values Framework (CVF), this study uses 10-K text scores to measure the impact of company culture on firm stability. The research finds that companies with stronger controlling culture perform better during the 2008-09 crisis, particularly among financially-constrained firms.
JOURNAL OF BANKING & FINANCE
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
Salvador Contreras, Amit Ghosh, Iftekhar Hasan
Summary: This study examines the impact of bank failures on income inequality by analyzing the timing and location of failed bank branches. The findings show that bank failures increase the GINI by 0.3 units (or 0.7%). The rise in inequality is primarily driven by a decrease in the incomes of the poor, particularly those with lower levels of education. The decline in small business loans is identified as the main factor explaining income inequality, as it reduces the formation of new small businesses and their capacity to create jobs for low-income earners.
JOURNAL OF BANKING & FINANCE
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
Manthos D. Delis, Iftekhar Hasan, Maria Iosifidi, Chris Tsoumas
Summary: We propose and empirically demonstrate that regional economic preferences for risk-taking influence firm financing costs. By matching firms' regions with regional risk-taking preferences worldwide, we find a positive correlation between higher regional risk-taking and measures of firm risk and investments. Our results indicate that credit and bond pricing increase as risk-taking preferences increase. For an average-sized loan, a one-standard-deviation increase in regional risk-taking leads to a $0.54 million increase in interest expense. Furthermore, these effects are demand-driven and stronger for firms with more local shareholders.
JOURNAL OF CORPORATE FINANCE
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
Bill B. Francis, Iftekhar Hasan, Gayane Hovakimian, Zenu Sharma
Summary: Studies show a persistent unexplained gender-based wage gap in labor markets. At the executive level, when skill and education are similar, career interruptions and differences in risk preferences primarily account for the existing gender-based pay gap. This study specifically examines CFO compensation contracts of Execucomp firms from 1992 to 2020 and finds no gender-based pay gap. The paper offers explanations for this phenomenon, including novel evidence on the risk preferences of females with financial expertise and changes in the social and regulatory climate.
JOURNAL OF CORPORATE FINANCE
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
Iftekhar Hasan, Jianfu Shen, Gaiyan Zhang, Winnie P. H. Poon
Summary: In this article, the divergence between credit ratings and Moody's market-implied ratings is investigated. The findings show that rating gaps provide additional information to the market about issuers' default risk, outperforming credit ratings over extended time periods. The predictive ability of rating gaps is stronger for more opaque and volatile issuers. The study also identifies signals from rating gaps that do or do not lead to subsequent Moody's actions. Negative signals from MIR gaps have a real economic impact on issuers' fundamentals, supporting the recovery-efforts hypothesis.
JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL RESEARCH
(2023)
Review
Business, Finance
Afsheen Abrar, Iftekhar Hasan, Rezaul Kabir
Summary: This study compares microfinance banks and commercial banks in terms of efficiency, business orientation, stability, and asset quality using a large sample of banks from 60 countries worldwide. The findings indicate that microfinance banks have higher intermediation, non-interest income, wholesale funding, and liquidity, but lower efficiency and asset quality. These significant variations are mainly influenced by smaller microfinance banks and are predominantly observed in African and Latin American microfinance banks.
BORSA ISTANBUL REVIEW
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
Iftekhar Hasan, Miriam Marra, Eliza Wu, Gaiyan Zhang
Summary: We examine the impact of creditor rights on the nonsynchronicity of global corporate credit default swap spreads (CDS-NS). We find that CDS-NS is negatively correlated with country-level creditor-control rights, particularly with restrictions on reorganization. The effect is more pronounced in firms with high investment intensity, asset growth, information opacity, and risk. Pro-creditor bankruptcy reforms lead to a reduction in CDS-NS, suggesting that less firm-specific idiosyncratic information is priced into credit markets. Our findings highlight the strategic-disclosure incentive of debtors to avoid creditor intervention, indicating the influence of strengthened creditor rights on the power dynamics between creditors and shareholders.
REVIEW OF CORPORATE FINANCE STUDIES
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
William Francis, Xian Gu, Iftekhar Hasan, Joon Ho Kong
Summary: This paper investigates the impact of state ownership on financial reporting practices in China and finds that increased state ownership leads to decreased financial statement comparability. The lower earnings quality and accounting conservatism among state-owned enterprises may explain the lower comparability between state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises.
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS FINANCE & ACCOUNTING
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
Iftekhar Hasan, Joseph A. Micale, Qiang Wu
Summary: This paper investigates the relationship between a firm's stock return asynchronicity and its auditor's perspective. The results suggest that stock return asynchronicity is more likely to capture firm-specific information rather than the quality of its information environment, as it is significantly and positively associated with audit fees. Additionally, asynchronous firms are more likely to receive adverse opinions on their internal controls over financial reporting, but they have lower costs of capital and auditor litigation, providing further evidence in support of the firm-specific information argument. The positive association between asynchronicity and audit fees is driven by firms with higher accounting reporting complexity.
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS FINANCE & ACCOUNTING
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
June Cao, Zhanzhong Gu, Iftekhar Hasan
Summary: This study utilizes an unsupervised machine learning approach to explore the evolution of accounting research and identify the economic reasons and dynamic changes in topics. By analyzing articles and citation maps, we uncover the tribalism phenomenon and emerging research trends in accounting research.
JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTING RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Business, Finance
Iftekhar Hasan, Qing He, Haitian Lu
Summary: Evidence from a Chinese peer-to-peer lending platform shows that regional social capital has a significant impact on trust and credit quality. Borrowers from regions with higher social capital are more likely to receive higher bids from lenders and have higher funding success, while lenders from these regions are more prone to taking risks and experiencing higher default rates.
JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
(2022)
Article
Business, Finance
Manthos D. Delis, Iftekhar Hasan, Maria Iosifidi, Steven Ongena
Summary: This study examines the influence of owners' gender on bank credit decisions and post-credit-decision firm outcomes using loan applications from small and micro-enterprises. The findings suggest that female entrepreneurs are more cautious loan applicants and have a lower default risk, while male applicants exhibit more aggressive behavior and achieve higher average firm performance after loan origination.
JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
(2022)
