Are female leaders more efficient in family firms than in non-family firms?

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per-Olof Bjuggren ◽  
Louise Nordström ◽  
Johanna Palmberg
Keyword(s):  
Family Firms ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Female Leadership ◽  
Female Leaders ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Corporate Leaders ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate whether female leaders are more efficient in family firms than in non-family firms. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a unique database of ownership and leadership in private Swedish firms that makes it possible to analyze differences in firm performance due to female leadership in family and non-family firms. The analysis is based on survey data merged with micro-level data on Swedish firms. Only firms with five or more employees are included in the analysis. The sample contains more than 1,000 firms. Findings The descriptive statistics show that there are many more male than female corporate leaders. However, the regression analysis indicates that female leadership has a much more positive impact on the performance of family firms than on that for non-family firms, where the effect is ambiguous. Originality/value Comparative studies examining the impact of female leadership on firm-level performance in family and non-family firms are rare, and those that exist are most often either qualitative or focused on large, listed firms. By investigating the role of female directors in family and non-family firms, the study adds to the literature on management, corporate governance and family firms.

scholarly journals Bank concentration and SME financing availability: the impact of promotion of financial inclusion in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 1329-1349
Author(s):  
Zhiqiang Lu ◽  
Junjie Wu ◽  
Jia Liu
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Substitution Effect ◽  
Financial Inclusion ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Bank Concentration ◽  
Sme Financing

PurposeThe promotion of financial inclusion can disturb the composition of traditional bank concentration and change the relationship between bank concentration and the availability of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financing. This paper concentrates on a less frequently explored area of research by examining the relationships between bank concentration, financial inclusion and SME financing availability respectively, and the interaction between bank concentration and financial inclusion after the implementation of a financial inclusion strategy in China.Design/methodology/approachUsing firm-level data from 1,509 listed SMEs in China from 2007 to 2017 and applying rigorous analyses, we identify how bank concentration affects SME financing availability under the promotion of financial inclusion and also the mechanisms involved.FindingsWe find that bank concentration and financial inclusion respectively have positive impacts on the credit available to listed SMEs, indicating that the promotion of financial inclusion in China has reached a new high watermark. The positive impact of bank concentration is reduced when the level of financial inclusion is high. Conversely, a higher level of financial inclusion favours SME credit availability at only a low degree of bank concentration. Our findings suggest that financial inclusion has a substitution effect on bank concentration and has enabled us to add new interpretations to relevant theories; namely, the Market Power and Information Theories respectively.Originality/valueThis study provides new insights into the relationship between bank concentration and SME finance availability under the promotion of financial inclusion.

Corporate tax planning and corporate tax disclosure

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-364
Author(s):  
Mahfoudh Hussein Mgammal
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Tax Planning ◽  
Corporate Tax ◽  
Effective Tax Rate ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of corporate tax planning (TP) on tax disclosure (TD). Using tax expenses data set, with the detailed effective tax rate (ETR) by reconciling individual items of income and expenses. Design/methodology/approach A firm-level panel data set is used to analyse 286 non-financial listed companies on Bursa Malaysia that spans the period 2010-2012. Multivariate statistical analyses were run on the sample data. The empirical understanding of TD depends on public sources of data in the financial statement, characterized in the aggregated note of tax expenses. Fitting with Malaysian environment, the authors measured TD using modified ETR reconciling items. Findings Results show that TP, exhibit a robust positive influence on TD. This suggests that TP is related to lower corporate TD. In addition, companies with high TP attempt to mitigate the disclosure problem by increasing various TD. The authors further find significant positive impact between each of firm size and industry dummy, on TD. This means that company-specific characteristics are significant factors affecting corporate TD. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the literature on the effect of TP on TD. It depends on both the signalling theory and the Scholes–Wolfson framework, which are the main theories concerned with TP and TD. Therefore, from a theoretical side, the authors add to the current theories by verifying that users are the party influenced whether positively or negatively, by the extent of TD or the extent of TP activities through Malaysian organizations. Practical implications The evidence found in this paper has important policy and practical implications for the authorities, researchers, decision makers and company managers. The findings can provide them some relevant insights on the importance of TP actions from companies’ perspective and contribute to the discussion of who verifies and deduces from TD directed by companies. Originality/value This paper originality is regarded as the first attempt to examine the impact of TP on TD in a developing country such as Malaysia. Malaysian setting is an interesting one to examine because Malaysia could be similar to other countries in Southeast Asia. Results contribute significant insights to the discussion about TD regarding, which parties are responsible for the verification of TD by firms, and which parties benefit from this disclosure. Findings suggest that companies face a trade-off between tax benefits and TD when selecting the type of their TP.

The determinants of ESG in the banking sector of MENA region: a trend or necessity?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rim El Khoury ◽  
Nohade Nasrallah ◽  
Bahaaeddin Alareeni
Keyword(s):  
Banking Sector ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Driving Mechanisms ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Level Of Economic Development

Purpose As reporting environmental, social and governance (ESG) information is not yet mandatory in all countries, it is intriguing to understand ESG’s underlying driving mechanisms. This study aims to investigate ESG determinants in the banking sector of the Middle East and North Africa countries. Design/methodology/approach The authors gather data for 38 listed banks for the period 2011–2019. The data used is threefold as follows: data related to ESG; firm-level; and country-level data. While ESG and firm’s level data are taken from Refinitiv, country-level data are extracted from the World Bank. Using panel regression, the authors test the effect of firm- and country-specific variables on the overall ESG score and its pillars. Findings Results indicate that banks’ ESG scores are negatively affected by performance and positively affected by size. The level of economic development exerts a negative impact on the environmental pillar while the social development exerts a positive impact on ESG and governance pillar. Corruption is the only country-level that gathers a homogenous effect on ESG scores. Finally, the three pillars follow heterogeneous patterns. Originality/value This study extends the scope of previous studies by introducing new country-level independent variables to contribute to the understanding of ESG antecedents.

Outward FDI and productivity promotion of exporting firms: firm-level evidence from China

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Song Zhang ◽  
Haoze Li ◽  
Chunlai Chen
Keyword(s):  
Learning Effect ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Difference In Difference ◽  
Outward Fdi ◽  
Export Intensity ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Exporting Firms ◽  
Chinese Firm ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) conducted by exporting firms on their productivity.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses two Chinese firm-level datasets. To reduce the bias when merging the two datasets, this study uses a comprehensive link approach to obtain more observations. The propensity score matching method is employed together with the difference-in-difference and difference-in-difference-in-difference approaches to identify the casual effects.FindingsThe study finds that exporting firms become more productive through learning effect via OFDI, and the positive impact of OFDI on total factor productivity materializes very quickly but subject to diminishing return. The study also finds that state-owned enterprises gain less learning effect via OFDI than private-owned enterprises, and firms with higher export intensity or larger size tend to gain less improvement in productivity via OFDI.Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies to investigate empirically the impact of OFDI conducted by exporting firms on their productivity. In particular, the study analyzes three types of firm heterogeneous factors, namely, ownership, export intensity and size, in affecting exporting firms' learning effect via OFDI.

scholarly journals Temporary Employment, Demand Volatility, and Unions: Firm-Level Evidence

ILR Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Devicienti ◽  
Paolo Naticchioni ◽  
Andrea Ricci
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Temporary Employment ◽  
Temporary Workers ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Temporary Contracts ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Demand Volatility ◽  
Italian Firm ◽  
The Impact

This article investigates the effect of workplace unionization and product market volatility on firms’ propensity to use temporary employment. Using Italian firm-level data, the authors show that volatility has a positive impact on the share of temporary contracts. The baseline estimates for the impact of unions are inconclusive, but a clear pattern emerges when a specification including an interaction term with volatility is used. This approach allows a richer characterization of the impact of workplace unionization, which is positive for low levels of volatility and negative for high levels. The authors discuss various direct and indirect mechanisms to explain this novel finding. Furthermore, they find that these effects hold only for cases in which the employer does not provide training for temporary workers, whereas temporary contracts with training provisions are not affected by unions, volatility, and their interplay.

Are family firms more optimistic than non-family firms?

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuan Huang ◽  
Fei Kang
Keyword(s):  
Family Firms ◽  
Earnings Announcements ◽  
Family Ownership ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Alternative Measures ◽  
Disclosure Tone ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Earnings Press Releases

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how family ownership affects the disclosure tone of firm earnings press releases. Design/methodology/approach Following prior literature, this study defines family firms as those in which members of the founding families continue to hold positions in top management, to sit on the board or to be blockholders. The disclosure tone of earnings press releases is measured by the level of optimism in firms’ earnings announcements using Loughran and McDonald’s (2011) word classifications. Multivariate analysis is performed to examine the impact of family ownership on firms’ disclosure tone. Additional analysis includes controlling for different firm-level characteristics and using alternative measures of disclosure tone. Findings This study documents that the disclosure tone of earnings announcements is more optimistic for family firms than for non-family firms. The result implies that family owners’ large undiversified equity position in their business results in strong incentives for them to issue more positive earnings announcements to maintain high stock performance. Further analysis reveals that the results are mainly driven by family firms with founder CEOs. The results are robust to controls for corporate governance characteristics and to alternative measures of corporate disclosure tone. Originality/value The findings of this study contribute to the literature that examines factors associated with the determinants of the tone in firms’ earnings announcements. In addition, this study adds to the extant literature on family firms by providing useful insight into the influence of family control on corporate voluntary disclosure.

Trade credit and the speed of leverage adjustment

2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ala’a Adden Abuhommous
Keyword(s):  
Trade Credit ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Bank Loans ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Good Opportunity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Leverage Ratio ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of trade credit on the speed of adjustment (SOA) of short-term leverage. Bankruptcy cost is higher for over-levered firms, generating a good incentive to use trade credit as a lower cost substitute; hence, firms adjust capital more quickly. Design/methodology/approach Firm-level data are used from five countries, in two different economic orientations, during the period 2000–2017: bank-oriented economies include France, Germany and Japan, and market-oriented economies include the UK and the USA. First, using the two-step GMM the study estimates the target short-term leverage ratio. Then, it examines the impact of trade credit on the SOA of the actual leverage towards the target leverage ratio. Findings It finds a positive impact of a low amount of trade credit (high capacity) on the SOA for over-levered firms. This is in line with the substitution effect, where the bankruptcy cost is higher for over-levered firms, which leads them to substitute bank loans with trade credit. Research limitations/implications The study uses data from publicly traded firms; data from non-listed and small firms may be considered as a good opportunity for future research. Practical implications The policy implication that can be derived from the empirical results is that firms’ management should recognise the relationship between trade credit and deviation from target short-term leverage. During periods of high short-term leverage firms should use trade credit as a source of finance when adjusting the short-term leverage towards the target ratio. Originality/value This study is the first to examine the influence of trade credit on the SOA.

The impact of industry concentration on the market’s ability to anticipate future earnings

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
In-Mu Haw ◽  
Bingbing Hu ◽  
Jay Junghun Lee ◽  
Woody Wu
Keyword(s):  
Stock Returns ◽  
Market Power ◽  
Information Transfer ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Product Market ◽  
Industry Concentration ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Future Earnings ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The existing literature has established the importance of industry concentration in explaining firm performance and information environments. However, little is known about whether and how industry concentration affects investors’ ability to anticipate future earnings. This paper aims to investigate this query by identifying and testing two channels, product market power and intra-industry information transfer, through which industry concentration affects the informativeness of stock returns about future earnings. Design/methodology/approach The paper measures the informativeness of stock returns about future earnings by the future earnings response coefficient (FERC)). This study estimates the FERC using a firm-level sample from 38 economies. Findings The authors find that industry concentration significantly enhances investors’ ability to predict future earnings. Further tests show that both product market power and intra-industry information transfer contribute to explaining the positive association between industry concentration and the FERC, with the former playing a more salient role. Finally, the authors show that a country’s effective competition law attenuates the positive impact of industry concentration on the FERC by weakening the economic impact of the two underlying channels. Originality/value This study contributes to the growing literature on the price-leading-earnings relation, industry concentration and international corporate governance.

Does accounting details play an allocative role in predicting macroeconomic indicators? Evidence of Bayesian and classical econometrics in Iran

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahdi Salehi ◽  
Ali Daemi Gah ◽  
Farzana Akbari ◽  
Nader Naghshbandi
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Power ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Stock Exchange ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Bayesian Approaches ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Earnings Growth ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Macroeconomic Indicators

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze the predictability of firm level data for determining macroeconomic indicators such as unemployment. Design/methodology/approach This study uses quarterly GDP and unemployment data manually collected from the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI). Accounting numbers are also collected from the Tehran Stock Exchange library for the 2004-2015 period. Dispersion of earnings growth provides related data about labour reallocation, unemployment change and finally aggregate output. To summarize, this study attempts to examine the effect of these variables using classical and Bayesian approaches. Findings At a firm level, our results suggest that sectoral shift in previous years is likely to increase labour reallocation in subsequent years. At the macro level, the results reveal that dispersion of earnings growth and labour reallocation has a negative and positive impact on unemployment changes, respectively. However, the study suggests no significant relationship between stock return and unemployment changes. Consequently, we determine that the real estimates of macroeconomic indicators have predictive power because nominal estimates are not statistically associated with firm-level details. Finally, the results obtained from classical and Bayesian approaches suggest similar findings, thus confirming the robustness of our conclusions. Note that, based on Bayesian approach, the nominal reallocation has predictive power in unemployment rate. Originality/value The study is the first conducted in a developing country and the results provide important insight into current line of accounting literature.

The impact of training on firm outcomes: longitudinal evidence from Canada

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-131
Author(s):  
Stéphane Renaud ◽  
Lucie Morin
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Voluntary Turnover ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Reverse Causality ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Firm Outcomes ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of three training indicators, namely offer, participation and cost, on three firm outcomes, namely voluntary turnover, firm performance and profit. Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis is carried out using firm-level data sourced from a Canadian national data set. In total, data from 5,237 for-profits firms with ten employees or more were analyzed longitudinally over eight years. Results were generated by XTREG fixed effect longitudinal analyses between the three variables of training, voluntary turnover, firm performance and profit. Findings Training offer, operationalized as the number of different formal training programs offered annually by an employer, significantly decreases voluntary turnover while it significantly increases performance and profit. Training participation, operationalized as the percentage of employees receiving training per year, has a significant positive impact on voluntary turnover. Training cost, operationalized as the annual cost of training per employee, has no impact on the three firm outcomes. Practical implications Among the various human resource practices a firm can use to strengthen its human capital, training can have a significant impact of its own. Investing in a diversified training offer brings value to a firm by decreasing employee voluntary turnover while increasing firm performance and profit. Originality/value This research contributes to the strategic impact of organizational training, demonstrating the impact of training on key organizational outcomes over time. Further, this paper contributes to the empirical literature by making a distinction between voluntary and involuntary turnover. Last, even though this study does not entirely addresses the problem of possible reverse causality, using longitudinal objective data, this study addresses several limits of past research at the macro-level of analysis.

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