Female executives and corporate governance

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (10) ◽  
pp. 1056-1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia Vähämaa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the gender of the top executives is associated with the strength of corporate governance mechanisms within a firm. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses panel and instrumental variable regressions on an eight-year sample of the S&P 1,500 firms. Findings The results indicate that firms with female Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Financial Officers have higher quality governance practices. Moreover, female CEOs are documented to have the most significant influence on the governance attributes related to the board of directors and takeover defenses mechanisms. Originality/value Overall, these findings indicate that the gender of the firm’s executives may have important implications for the strength of corporate governance. The paper promotes the importance of the recent national policies in numerous countries on gender quotas at the executive level.

Author(s):  
Dr. Mohammad Talha ◽  
Abdullah Sallehhuddin ◽  
Md Shukor Masuod

This paper briefly discusses the corporate governance and directors’ remuneration as being practiced by five different ASEAN countries i.e. Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand. Governance is about how an entity is being directed and controlled, while corporate governance is about a system, procedure or mechanism of balancing between directing and controlling business entities’ internal matters and the demand of their external shareholders and stakeholders. The paper summarizes the development of corporate governance and directors’ remuneration in these countries. An attempt has also been made to highlight issues regarding the need of disclosure of individual director’s remuneration, the need of shareholders’ approval on directors’ remuneration, the need of shareholders’ approval on stock based incentive plan, approval of directors’ remuneration by a committee at board level, the separation of role of the Chairmen of Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officers, and the recommended maximum length of period offered to directors. It later focuses on the progress made by these countries in further uplifting their corporate governance practices. The paper also examines some arising pertinent and puts forth some recommendations on how the future direction of the development of corporate governance in ASEAN countries with respect to directors’ remuneration shall take shape.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivo Nuno Pereira ◽  
José Paulo Esperança

Purpose – This paper aims to study the determinants of variable compensation for top Portuguese executives (chief executive officers, chief financial officers and commercial directors). Design/methodology/approach – Data from 101 firms were collected through an email questionnaire sent to the human resource directors of 500 largest and best Portuguese firms of Exame, a business newspaper. A Tobit regression analysis was used to estimate the basic equation of the study. Findings – The conclusions are generally consistent with findings obtained in more developed capital markets. It was found that public and older corporations are more intensive users of variable pay, consistent with the agency theory prediction. A location in the centre of economic activity and a higher executive education increase the propensity to receive higher levels of salary in the form of variable compensation. The relation between compensation and performance was more elusive. Research limitations/implications – There are limitations as to the extrapolation of the obtained results, as the level of potential idiosyncrasy cannot be measured. Ideally, the study should be replicated in different contexts to control for country-specific influences. Nevertheless, the main finding that performance-related pay mechanisms are less used in countries where public corporations and potential agency problems are less pervasive should hold. Originality/value – As the focus is on a small economy with a developing capital market, this paper contributes to executive compensation literature that has mostly analysed firms based in well-developed capital markets, with a higher separation of ownership and control (Anglo-Saxon countries).


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-132
Author(s):  
Matthew E. Kaplan ◽  
Alan H. Paley ◽  
Jonathan R. Tuttle

Purpose To alert public company management and directors to several recent SEC enforcement actions involving executives and other senior personnel arising out of securities law violations. Design/methodology/approach Reviews a series of enforcement actions against four chief executive officers, four chief financial officers, an audit committee chair, and one outside auditor (BDO USA LLC) and five of its partners arising out of securities law violations by four different corporations (MusclePharm Corporation, Bankrate, Inc., KIT Digital, Inc. and General Employment Enterprises, Inc.). Each of the actions involved financial reporting and disclosure violations. Also highlights the need for directors and senior management to maintain a sharp focus on their company’s controls and disclosure practices. Findings The SEC’S actions may portend renewed determination by the agency to hold executives and directors, as well as outside professionals, accountable for securities fraud and disclosure violations committed by corporations. Originality/value Practical guidance from experienced securities lawyers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaochang Yan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the influences of corporate governance on intellectual capital disclosures in chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) statements in annual reports. Design/methodology/approach Index score, word count and overall tone of CEOs’ intellectual capital disclosures are calculated to represent the extent, amount and tone of these disclosures, respectively. With a sample of 78 FTSE 100 companies, this paper uses content analysis and empirical analysis to examine the impacts of board size, board composition and shares concentration on the above three measures of CEOs’ intellectual capital disclosures, controlling for company size, profitability and leverage ratio. Findings Empirical results demonstrate a significant positive relationship between board composition and the extent, amount and tone of CEOs’ intellectual capital disclosures and a significant negative relationship between shares concentration and the amount of these disclosures. Originality/value This paper focuses on the impacts of corporate governance on CEOs’ intellectual capital disclosures. It also groundbreakingly measures the tone of CEOs’ disclosures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-78
Author(s):  
Sylvie Berthelot ◽  
Michel Coulmont ◽  
Yves Levant

The purpose of this study is to analyse linkages between the quality and cost of Canadian firms’ governance practices. With this in mind, the study relates the compensation of chief executive officers (CEOs) and non-executive directors to best governance practice index developed by The Globe and Mail. We collected data for the years 2013, 2014 and 2015, constituting 602 observations from all the Canadian companies included in The Globe and Mail corporate governance ratings for which financial information was available on the Research Insight database. We examined the relationship between the quality and cost of Canadian firms’ governance practices with a regression model. The analyses results tend to indicate some relationship between CEO and non-executive director compensation and the quality of governance practices. However, firm size appears to the determining explanatory factor. The study results also indicate that some activity sectors seem to have better governance practices than others


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Veronica Tibiletti ◽  
Stefano Azzali ◽  
Tatiana Mazza

The research uses regression models and panel data related to audit fees, audit hours and corporate governance. The sample of listed firms yields 751 firms-years observations for the period 2010-2018. We study how gender diversity among audit partners, Chief Executive Officers, and Boards of Directors impact on audit fees and audit hours. We focus on the interaction between auditors and management. We find that female audit partners is associated with lower audit fees and audit hours. Next, we find that female audit partner significantly affects the association with the audit efforts in interaction with management, but when the audit partner is male, audit efforts are also determined by the female representation on the Board of Directors.  We contribute to literature on the effects of gender diversity in auditing and corporate governance. We also enrich the concept of audit efforts by including audit hours as well as audit fees. Finally, the research answers the call for empirical study on the effects of gender diversity in management-auditor interaction.


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 670-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Voss ◽  
Mayoor Mohan

Purpose The purpose of the this paper is to correct a deficiency in the published literature by examining the share price performance of firms that own high-value brands in uptrending, downtrending and sideways markets. Design/methodology/approach The authors examined stock price performance for an index of firms that owned brands in the Interbrand list of the “Best Global Brands” from 2001 through 2009 using the Fama-French method. Findings The authors’ index outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 when the market was up or downtrending, but not when it moved sideways. Research limitations/implications The authors find that an index of firms that own the produced better returns than the Standard & Poor’s 500 market index. Owning highly valued brands may be a marketplace signal to the investing community regarding the firm’s management acumen. Practical implications Owning high-value brands seems to influence share price performance, a metric used to judge chief executive officers. Thus, brand investments align with the shareholders’ interest. The authors help alleviate the perception (Challagalla et al., 2014) that marketing managers make investments on an ad hoc basis. Originality/value For the first time, the authors evaluate the effect of owning one or more of the world’s most valuable brands on the market value of common stock using data from downtrending, uptrending and no-trend periods. This research is also among the first to introduce volatility into the Fama-French method and it is an important explanatory variable. This paper’s approach has interesting comparisons to other papers taking a similar analytical approach.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Mary Meldrum

PurposeThe overwhelming frequency of failure in trying to bring a safe and effective biotech, pharmaceutical or medical device product to market is truly astounding. This research synthesizes industry leaders' insights on lessons learned from reflecting on professional disappointments.Design/methodology/approachThis research used a qualitative approach to learning from the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Scientific Officers (CSOs) and Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) of the most successful life science firms in the USA. A total of 45 industry leaders were interviewed regarding their lingering regrets about their career misadventures.FindingsRegrets were unavoidable because there were opportunity costs for every choice each leader made. Commentary about wisdom gained comprised themes regarding valuable time lost, strategies that could have been enacted, products that failed and essential personnel who were not managed optimally. Contrary to expectations, there was little mention of money that was squandered.Originality/valueNot felt as a solely negative emotion, regrets were recognized by these leaders as a potentially positive influence on their future decisions. Not felt as a solely negative emotion, regret was recognized by these leaders as a potentially positive influence on their future decisions. This exploratory study suggests that learning from retrospective and anticipated regrets benefits life science leaders in gaining clarity of thought regarding their current business challenges. Because prior research on the value of psychological regrets has mostly relied on limited samples, this inquiry contributes a new vantage point by examining a unique population of senior business leaders, thus providing broader applicability to the organizational literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pyemo Afego ◽  
Imhotep Alagidede

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore how citizen protests against perceived acts of racial injustice impact on share prices of companies who weigh in on the protests. In particular, corporate statements that directly address the issues around the protests are identified and possible mechanisms underlying how these may impact shareholder value are discussed. Design/methodology/approach The authors first use a qualitative research approach of content and sentiment analysis to track how companies or their chief executive officers (CEOs) present their stance against racial injustice, as represented by their use of linguistic markers. Then, the authors use an event study methodology to assess the response from stock market participants. Findings The findings suggest that CEOs primarily convey their stance using language that is emotive and empathic. In addition, shareholders earn a significant abnormal return of 2.13%, on average, in the three days following the release of the statements. Research limitations/implications This study considered only US-listed companies. The sample size, also, is relatively small. Institutional and cultural differences across countries may also vary. Thus, future research could explore the extent to which the findings generalize to other contexts. Practical implications Results provide insights to top managers who communicate with various stakeholders on emotionally charged social issues. Findings also offer insights on the timing of trades for investors and arbitrageurs. Social implications Findings contribute to the understanding of corporate behaviour in times of social upheaval. Insights from the study may also be used to inform corporate communication decisions about important social issues. Originality/value This study brings into focus the role that affective appeal and moral emotion can play in evoking motivation for corporate activism, and the impact that this has on investor opinions’ formation process.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luqman Oyekunle Oyewobi ◽  
Abimbola Oluwakemi Windapo ◽  
Rotimi Olabode Bamidele James

Purpose – The essence of strategy formulation is to assist an organisation obtain a strategic fit with its environment and help enhance organisational continuous improvement in achieving performance excellence. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the type of competitive strategies used by construction organisations in attaining their strategic goals in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach – The study employs an inductive research approach using a well-structured questionnaire to elicit information from large construction organisations based in South Africa. Findings – The research identifies five strategic attributes that could assist organisations to grow their businesses and enhance their returns. It reveals that all Porters’ generic competitive strategies are significantly related to organisational financial performance measures except focus strategy. The research found that three generic competitive strategies are positively related to non-financial performance and that differentiation and cost-leadership strategies are capable of assisting organisations’ achieve their financial performance goals. Practical implications – The study results will be of immense benefit to chief executive officers as well as managers of construction organisations in growing their businesses and enhancing their corporate performance. Originality/value – The paper contributes both theoretically and empirically to the current discussion and findings on competitive strategy and its relationship with organisational performance. The results presented in the paper have important implications for the implementation of competitive strategies in construction companies and future studies in the area of strategic management.


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