Group affiliation and corporate debt maturity: Co-insurance or expropriation

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jagan Kumar Sur ◽  
Yogesh Chauhan

PurposeWe examine how business group affiliation affects corporate debt maturity.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs the financial data of all listed Indian companies obtained from the CMIE database for 2011–2018. The ordinary least square, firm-fixed effect and Fama–Macbeth regression methods are used for empirical analysis. We use propensity score matching and difference-in-difference method to address endogeneity issues. Further, two-stage least square (2SLS) regression is performed to mitigate the endogeneity that stems from simultaneity between debt maturity and leverage.FindingsUsing Indian firms, we report that group affiliation is positively associated with corporate debt maturity; group firms use more long-term debt compared to similar standalone firms. We also observe that the positive effect of group affiliation on debt maturity is more pronounced in business group firms associated with a group having more resources and having unrelated diversification. However, information asymmetry and moral hazard problems weaken the impact of group affiliation on debt maturity structure of a firm. Overall, our results are consistent with co-insurance benefits that are an argument for the presence of business groups in emerging markets.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing literature by testing the role of group affiliation on corporate debt maturity decisions in the Indian market context where market imperfections persuade firms to borrow from banks. This is also the first study on determinants of corporate debt maturity that distinguishes between public and private debt.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eswaran Velayutham ◽  
Vijayakumaran Ratnam

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and shareholder wealth arising from announcement returns of security issuance from a frontier market. It also explores the role of business group affiliation (BGA) on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach The study uses short-term scenarios to examine the link between CSR and shareholder wealth using the event study methodology which helps us mitigate the reverse causality problems related to studies of the relationship between CSR and firm value. Abnormal returns surrounding the security issue announcements were generated using the market model. Findings This paper finds that security issuers with high CSR scores are associated with higher shareholder value. However, this paper finds that CSR activities of security issuers with BGA are value-destroying which is consistent with the agency perspective of CSR. Research limitations/implications This study is limited to only one nascent market, namely the Colombo Stock Exchange. Originality/value This study documents that CSR and BGA are important determinants, among others, of stock price reactions to security offerings in emerging markets.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nemiraja Jadiyappa ◽  
L. Emily Hickman ◽  
Ram Kumar Kakani ◽  
Qambar Abidi

Purpose The Indian Companies Act 2013 mandated auditor rotations in the financial year 2018–2019. Similar regulations are being considered in many countries, based on the assumption that longer tenure is detrimental to audit quality; yet, the evidence from investigations of this assumption is inconclusive. This paper aims to examine the effect of moderating factors on the relation between audit quality and audit tenure, given the regulatory trend and the lack of consensus in extant literature. Design/methodology/approach This paper examines the relationship between audit quality and audit tenure among Indian firms from 2001 to 2015 and tests for moderating factors including auditor compensation, business group affiliation and chief executive officer (CEO) duality. Findings Contrary to the objective of mandatory rotations, this study finds that longer auditor tenure generally enhanced audit quality among Indian firms prior to mandatory rotations. However, for companies paying abnormally high compensation to auditors, this paper finds that longer tenure decreases audit quality, particularly if the firm is affiliated with a business group or firms where the CEO also serves as the board chair. Thus, the potential benefits of mandated shorter tenure appear to be confined to high-fee paying companies with a business group affiliation and/or a dual-role CEO. Originality/value This study is one of the first to examine conditioning factors that affect the relationship between audit quality and auditor tenure. Results suggest that regulations limiting auditor tenure would be beneficial only to the shareholders of a narrow group of firms; while for the majority of firms, limiting auditor tenure may actually be counter-productive.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (4/5) ◽  
pp. 427-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Badrul Muttakin ◽  
Arifur Khan ◽  
Dessalegn Getie Mihret

Purpose This study aims to investigate the moderating role of audit quality on the association between business group affiliation of firms and earnings management in the South Asian emerging economy of Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach A usable sample of 917 firm-year observations was drawn from companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange from 2005 to 2013. Data were collected from the annual reports of sample companies. Earnings management was measured using the absolute value of discretionary accruals, and two proxies were used to measure audit quality: auditor size and industry specialisation. Findings Results showed that the level of discretionary accruals is positively associated with business group affiliation status, and higher audit quality reduces this association. This suggests that in environments without strong investor protection, complex ownership structures create opportunities for controlling shareholders to expropriate minority shareholders. The controlling shareholders could then mask this practice through earnings management. The findings also show that in environments lacking strong investor protection, audit quality can help improve earnings quality for group-affiliated firms. Practical implications The results suggest that financial statement users need to consider audit quality for a reasonable evaluation of the earnings quality of business groups. The study also informs regulators by illuminating audit quality as a key area of focus in any effort directed at enhancing stock market efficiency through improved earnings quality in environments where business group affiliation is prevalent. Originality/value This study documents empirical evidence on the moderating effect of audit quality on the positive association between business group affiliation and earnings management.


2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Neeti Khetarpal Sanan ◽  
Dinesh Jaisinghani ◽  
Sangeeta Yadav

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether, in emerging economies, the relationship between a firm’s corporate governance (CG) and its performance is associated with firm’s affiliation to a business group. Design/methodology/approach A total of 209 publicly listed firms in India during a 10-year period from 2007 to 2016 were studied, and the random effects model was employed for analysis. Findings Empirical evidence showed that board size and institutional shareholding positively impacted firm performance, whereas the proportion of independent directors negatively impacted performance. In group-affiliated firms in emerging economies, chief executive officer duality negatively impacted, whereas institutional shareholding positively impacted performance. These results are consistent with the principal–principal agency theory. The study found no discernible impact of proportion of independent directors on firm performance in group-affiliated firms. Originality/value In analyzing the governance–performance relationship and its association with business groups, this study extends current understanding by connecting business group research in emerging economies with CG and firm performance research. In examining firms from several industries over a long period of time after controlling for firm size, capital structure and spends on research and development and marketing, the results of this study offer rich empirical evidence that contributes to the extant literature on the nature of the governance–performance relationship.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 645-659
Author(s):  
Mohammad Fuad ◽  
Mohammad Akbar

Purpose This study aims to explore the role of liberalization, business group affiliation and degree of internationalization (DOI) on the performance of Indian international new ventures (INVs). Design/methodology/approach The study identifies Indian INVs incorporated between 1991 and 2010 against the backdrop of liberalization. To test various hypotheses, a random effects panel regression analysis was conducted for publicly listed Indian INVs. Findings The results highlight that business group affiliation and DOI are positively related to INV performance. Further, liberalization negatively moderates the relationship between group affiliation and INV performance. The authors’ findings indicate that as institutions improve, the positive effect of business group affiliation on firm performance decreases in emerging markets. Research limitations/implications This paper highlights the benefits accruing to business group affiliated INVs and the moderating role of liberalization on firm performance. Future studies may augment the authors’ understanding of INV performance by testing heterogeneity within business groups and their impact on INV performance across other emerging economies. Practical implications As institutional reforms strengthen over time, the positive effect of group affiliation on INV performance declines. Hence, managers of group affiliates need to adapt to the changing institutions faster and develop their fit with the institutional environment earlier than standalone firms, to mitigate their profitability issues. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to discuss the role of business group affiliation and the moderating role of liberalization on INV performance with theoretical and managerial implications.


Author(s):  
Subhasree Mukherjee ◽  
Kavitha Pradeep

Previous research on international operations of the business groups (BG) have predominantly looked into the effects of internationalization on various frontiers of business. Pertaining to emerging economies, the implicit assumption is internationalization helps to avert the uncertainties of market imperfections. We raise doubt on the implicit assumption that just being affiliated to a parent firm will provide the resources for internationalization. Therefore, we have taken up this study, to understand the dynamics of emerging economy multinationals, which are characterized by their asset seeking nature to internationalize. We have tested our hypotheses on listed Indian firms. We have selected top 499 BSE listed companies, which had reported the highest amount of sales in 2010 as the base, and we generated a balanced panel dataset of 2994 firm years using the observations for the period 2010-2015. We used General Linear Square (GLS) fixed effects model to examine the impact of performance of BG affiliated firms on their degree of internationalization. We expected a positive relationship between firm performance and degree of internationalization, which was further anticipated to be positively moderated by business group affiliation of firms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1538-1558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anish Purkayastha

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the existing mechanism through which business group affiliated firms in emerging markets (EMs) continue to generate superior performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors build our argument on the basis of how business group affiliation in EM facilitates internationalization and investment into innovation in affiliated firms compared to un-affiliated firm, resulting in higher firm performance. The authors use advance statistical modeling – causal mediation analysis to separate direct effect and indirect effect of business group affiliation in EM on performance through internationalization and investment into innovation of business group affiliated firms as mediating variables. Findings Based on 122,479 observations (firm year) from 17,235 Indian business group affiliated and un-affiliated firms, the findings help to identify that internationalization and investment into innovation of business group affiliated firms do have a mediating role in affiliation–performance relationship for EM business groups. Originality/value This study unravels the existing causal chain between business group affiliation in EMs and subsequent performance of affiliated firms. The authors complement institutional argument for superior performance of business group affiliation and focus on the performance implication of mediating strategic decisions in affiliated firms.


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