Attracting CEO directors: the case of Latin America

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 294-315
Author(s):  
Jose Luis Rivas ◽  
Jairo Villamil-Diaz ◽  
Albert Cannella

PurposeTo understand if certain board traits can contribute to attract CEO directorsDesign/methodology/approachPanel data model with firm fixed effects of individual and firm level attributes from 450 public firms in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and PeruFindingsHigher levels of masters abroad, board ties, government experience and foreign members are all negatively related to the appointment of CEO directorsOriginality/valueThe use of non-performance outcome variable such as CEO experience in the family led emergent environment of Latin America

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (12) ◽  
pp. 1110-1136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kipkirong Tarus ◽  
Federico Aime

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of boards’ demographic diversity on firms’ strategic change and the interaction effect of firm performance. Design/methodology/approach – This paper used secondary data derived from publicly listed firms in Kenya during 2002-2010 and analyzed the data using fixed effects regression model to test the effect of board demographic and strategic change, while moderated regression analysis was used to test the moderating effect of firm performance. Findings – The results partially supported board demographic diversity–strategic change hypothesis. In particular, results indicate that age diversity produces less strategic change, while functional diversity is associated with greater levels of strategic change. The moderated regression results do not support our general logic that high firm performance enhances board demographic diversity–strategic change relationship. In effect, the results reveal that at high level of firm performance, board demographic diversity produces less strategic change. Originality/value – Despite few studies that have examined board demographic diversity and firm performance, this paper introduces strategic change as an outcome variable. This paper also explores the moderating role of firm performance in board demographic diversity–strategic change relationship, and finally, the study uses Kenyan dataset which in itself is unique because most governance and strategy research uses data from developed countries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 1747-1763 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Nuruzzaman ◽  
Deeksha Singh

Purpose This paper aims to attempt to examine the effect of firm-customer exchange characteristics, frequency and specificity, on the likelihood of the firm to generate customer-driven innovation. The authors draw from social capital theory and argue that repetitive and customer-specific exchange improves the trusts between firm and customers, which in turn ease the flows of tacit knowledge from customers to the firm. From the perspective of customer knowledge management, the authors contribute by examining the mechanism by which a firm can acquire knowledge from and about customers. The authors further argue that a firm’s ability to absorb knowledge from customers and turn them into innovation also depends on its internal capability. A firm that consistently upgrades its capacity is more likely to generate customer-driven innovation than those that do not. Also, the authors argue that the joint effect of exchange characteristics and internal capability upgrading can further increase the likelihood of customer-driven innovation. Such a joint force implies the positive moderating effect of internal capability upgrading to the relationship between exchange characteristics and customer-driven innovation. Design/methodology/approach The authors test the hypotheses on 3,000 firms from six countries in Latin America. They take advantage of the 2017 World Bank Enterprises Survey. This most recent of the survey asks questions on various types of innovation and firm-customers exchange characteristics and other firm-level variables. Findings The authors find support for our hypotheses that repeated exchange and exchanges tailored to specific customers have a positive effect on customer-driven innovation. Also, they find the support that internal capability upgrading, in the form of investment in product design, marketing and organizational development has a positive effect on customer-driven innovation. The authors also find that investment in product design positively moderates the impact of exchange characteristics on the likelihood of customer-driven innovation. Originality/value While past studies focus on strategies to acquire and manage customers’ knowledge, little has been said about how exchange attributes can encourage or discourage innovation? This question is important because various theoretical perspectives may have a different prediction on the effect of firm-customer relationship and innovation. This study attempts to bridge such theoretical tension.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ca Nguyen ◽  
Alejandro Pacheco

PurposeThis study has two primary objectives. First, it analyzes the information content of confidentiality strictness in corporate loan credit agreements. Second, it examines how confidentiality strictness impacts covenant design, lending syndicate structure and loan pricing.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of 6,327 loan credit agreements originated by US public firms in the period of 1996–2017, this study measures the confidentiality strictness in loan contracts using textual analyses that capture the appearance of confidentiality-related words and the length of confidentiality provision. All regressions include relevant loan characteristics, firm-specific accounting variables, industry and year fixed effects. To address the endogeneity concern, the paper uses borrowing firms' rival cash holdings and R&D expenditures to instrument for confidentiality strictness in two-staged least square regressions.FindingsBorrowers which have higher R&D and operate in more competitive product markets have tighter confidentiality policies. Furthermore, this study reveals that confidentiality strictness is negatively associated with the imposition of financial covenants, especially performance covenants. Loan contracts for borrowers with stricter confidentiality on average have more relaxed covenant intensity, measured by the number of covenants. The study also shows that stricter confidentiality attracts finance companies, which have strong expertise in product markets of their parent firms, into the lending syndicate. However, confidentiality-conscious borrowers with higher degree of information asymmetry are subject to higher loan spreads.Originality/valueThis study provides the first examination of confidentiality policies in loan contracts and supports the idea that loan provisions are not simply made of “boilerplate” language. The results suggest that, for confidentiality-sensitive borrowers, the greater exposure to product market competition helps control managerial slack and substitute monitoring from financial markets.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 455-479
Author(s):  
Yane Chandera ◽  
Lukas Setia-Atmaja

PurposeThis study examines the impact of firm-bank relationships on bank loan spreads and the mitigating role of firm credit ratings on that impact.Design/methodology/approachThe study sample consists of Indonesian publicly listed companies for the period 2006 to 2016; bank-loan data was extracted from the Loan Pricing Corporation Dealscan database. For the degree of firm-bank relationships, the data on each loan is manually computed, using five different methods taken from Bharath et al. (2011) and Fields et al. (2012). All of the regression analyses are controlled for the year fixed effects, heteroscedasticity, and firm-level clustering. To address the endogeneity issues, this study uses several methods, including partitioning the sample, running nearest-neighbour and propensity score matching tests, and using instrumental variables in two-staged least-squares regression models.FindingsIn line with relationship theory and in opposition to the hold-up argument, this study finds that lending relationships reduce bank loan spreads and that the impact is more noticeable among non-rated Indonesian firms. Specifically, each additional unit in the total number of years of a firm-bank relationship and the number of previous loan contracts with the same bank are associated with 7.34 and 9.15 basis-point decreases, respectively, in these loan spreads.Practical implicationsCorporations and banks should maintain close, long-term relationships to reduce the screening and monitoring costs of borrowing. Regulators should create public policies that encourage banks to put more emphasis on relationships in their lending practices, especially in relation to crisis-prone companies.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of lending relationships on bank loan spreads in Indonesia. The study offers insights on banking relationships in emerging markets with concentrated banking industries, underdeveloped capital markets and prominent business-group affiliations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erwin Hansen ◽  
Jennifer Zegarra

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between six different dimensions of political risk in a country and its spread for a sample of 12 Latin American countries. Design/methodology/approach The methodology applied consists of panel estimators with fixed effects. In addition, a panel data model with instrumental variables is considered to tackle with potential problems of endogeneity in the model. Findings The results show there is a strong positive relationship between political risk and sovereign spread in Latin America, i.e., greater political risk is associated with greater sovereign spread. This effect is particularly significant when the political risk is associated with a weak rule of law or low-quality regulation in the country. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of this study concerns the potential risks of endogeneity which might exist between sovereign risk and political risk measures, which may not have been completely eliminated with the econometric methodology used. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature of sovereign risk by studying the dimension of political risk in detail. Specifically, six dimensions of political risk are studied. Additionally, it provides empirical evidence, including the 2008 financial crisis period, regarding the determinants of spreads on Latin American economies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waleed M. Albassam ◽  
Collins G. Ntim

Purpose The study aims to examine the effect of Islamic values on the extent of voluntary corporate governance (CG) disclosure. In addition, the authors investigate the effect of traditional ownership structure and CG mechanisms on the extent of voluntary CG disclosure. Design/methodology/approach The authors distinctively construct Islamic values and voluntary CG disclosure indices using a sample of 75 Saudi-listed firms over a seven-year period in conducting multivariate regressions of the effect of Islamic values on the extent of voluntary CG disclosure. The analyses are robust to controlling for firm-level characteristics, fixed-effects, endogeneities and alternative measures. Findings The authors find that corporations that depict greater commitment towards incorporating Islamic values into their operations through high Islamic values disclosure index score engage in higher voluntary CG disclosures than those that are not. Additionally, the authors find that audit firm size, board size, government ownership, institutional ownership and the presence of a CG committee are positively associated with the level of voluntary CG disclosure, whereas block ownership is negatively associated with the extent of voluntary CG disclosure. Practical implications The study has clear practical implications for future research, practice and broader society by demonstrating empirically that corporations that voluntarily incorporate Islamic values into their operations are more likely to be transparent about their CG practices and thereby providing new crucial insights on the effect of Islamic values on voluntary CG compliance and disclosure. Originality/value This is the first empirical attempt at explicitly examining the effect of Islamic values on the extent of voluntary CG disclosure. The authors also offer evidence on the effect of traditional CG and ownership structures on the extent of voluntary CG disclosure.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (6) ◽  
pp. 1151-1170
Author(s):  
Liis Roosaar ◽  
Jaan Masso ◽  
Urmas Varblane

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to clarify whether the age-productivity curve is different for low-waged and high-waged employees. Design/methodology/approach Productivity growth is decomposed at the firm level into contributions by hired, separated and staying workers. Based on a matched employer-employee database of Estonian firms from 2006 to 2014 and considering the age as well as wages of employees, a panel data model with fixed effects is constructed to show the relative productivity of each cohort of employees. Findings High-waged employees appeared to be relatively more productive than low-waged employees and middle-aged were more productive than young or old employees. However, the productivity difference between young and old employees was not statistically significant. The age-productivity curve of high-waged employees appeared to be flatter than that of low-waged employees. Only in knowledge intensive services were the low-waged old employees statistically significantly less productive than high-waged old employees. In the manufacturing industry, the young were more productive than in services, in knowledge intensive services the old were less productive than in traditional services. Research limitations/implications The productivity of employees is only analysed for cohorts of employees. Practical implications Employers can be encouraged to hire older employees because old employees are shown to remain at least as productive as young employees. Originality/value The decomposition of labour productivity at the firm level is further developed, as the statistical difference between the productivity of different groups of employees is analysed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-212
Author(s):  
Saverio Minardi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of two-tier firm-level collective agreements on firms’ propensity to use temporary employment, accounting for the process of self-selection of firms into different bargaining levels in the Italian context. It further examines which firm-level characteristics drive this process of selection. Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis uses a panel data set of Italian firms for the years 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2015. Estimations are produced and compared through ordinary least square regression, random-effects and fixed-effects models. Findings Results show that enterprises adopting two-tier firm-level agreements (TTFA) are associated with lower levels of temporary workers. However, a longitudinal analysis suggests that introducing a TTFA does not impact firms’ propensity to employ temporary workers. This novel finding highlights the presence of a selection process based on firm-level time-constant characteristics. The paper argues that these characteristics refer to management orientation toward high-road rather than low-road employment strategies. Further evidence is brought in support of this claim, showing that firms’ propensity toward the provision of training for their labor force partially explain the process of selection. Originality/value The study is the first to analyze the impact of secondary-level collective agreements on firms’ reliance on temporary employment, offering new evidence on the causes of the expansion of temporary employment. It further highlights the relevance of employers’ strategies in shaping the impact of the bargaining structure.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Concepción López-Fernández ◽  
Ana María Serrano-Bedia ◽  
Manuel Palma-Ruiz

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore to what extent different obstacles (financial, knowledge, market, and perception) affect the propensity of Mexican family firms to engage in innovation activity. Second, it examines whether the perception of these obstacles differs between two subgroups of family firms, considering levels of ownership and family management control. Design/methodology/approach Information was gathered through a CIS methodology-based questionnaire applied to 161 CEOs of Mexican family firms. Binomial logistic regressions were performed identifying obstacles that were truly relevant for the family firm subgroups in the sample. Findings For subgroup 1, knowledge and market factors were significant and negatively related to the propensity to engage in innovation activities; for subgroup 2, only market factors were relevant. The results also show how the tenure of the CEO, the number of generations involved, and the family involvement in management and non-management positions affect the results obtained. Practical implications Implications for family business scholars embrace the assessment criteria of different family business definitions. While the implications for managers and policy makers include the recognition of the factors that affect innovation in Mexican family firms in order to design and implement adequate strategies to overcome them. Originality/value This study addresses some of the raised demands in the literature. First, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first attempt to explore the factors hampering innovation in family firms in Latin America. Second, this study was undertaken in response to the call for exploring variations in innovation behavior across different family business types in regards to ownership and family management control. Moreover, this study responds to the call to analyze financial and non-financial factors separately and to expand the geographical areas, sectors, and sizes of family firms, more specifically in Latin America.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shengnian Wang ◽  
Liang Han ◽  
Weiting Gao

Purpose – This paper aims to make a comparison, different from existing literature solely focusing on voluntary earnings forecasts and ex post earnings surprise, between the effects of mandatory earnings surprise warnings and voluntary information disclosure issued by management teams on financial analysts in terms of the number of followings and the accuracy of earnings forecasts. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses panel data analysis with fixed effects on data collected from Chinese public firms between 2006 and 2010. It uses an exogenous regulation enforcement to minimise the endogeneity problem. Findings – This paper finds that financial analysts are less likely to follow firms which mandatorily issue earnings surprise warnings ex ante than those voluntarily issue earnings forecasts. Moreover, ex post, they issue less accurate and more dispersed forecasts on former firms. The results support Brown et al.’s (2009) finding in the USA and suggest that the earnings surprise warnings affect information asymmetries. Practical implications – This paper justifies the mandatory earnings surprise warnings policy issued by Chinese Securities Regulatory Commission in 2006. Originality/value – Mandatory earnings surprise is a unique practical regulation for publicly listed firms in China. This paper, for the first time, provides empirical evaluation on the effectiveness of a mandatory information disclosure policy in China. Consistent with existing literature on information disclosure by public firms in other countries, this paper finds that, in China, voluntary information disclosure captures more private information than mandatory information disclosure on corporate earnings ability.


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