Impact of ownership structure and dividend on firm performance and firm risk

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (8) ◽  
pp. 1041-1061
Author(s):  
Abhinav Kumar Rajverma ◽  
Arun Kumar Misra ◽  
Sabyasachi Mohapatra ◽  
Abhijeet Chandra

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of ownership structure and dividend payouts over firm’s profitability, valuation and idiosyncratic risk. The authors further investigate if corporate performance is sector dependent. Design/methodology/approach The study employs signaling and bankruptcy theories to evaluate the influence of ownership structure and dividend payout over a firm’s corporate performance. The authors use a panel regression approach to measure the performance of family owned firms against that of widely held firms. Findings The study confines to firms operating out of emerging markets. The results show that family owned firms are dominant with concentrated ownership. The management pays lower dividend leading to lower valuation and higher idiosyncratic risk. The study further illustrates that family ownership concentration and family control both influence firm performance and level of risk. The findings indicate that information asymmetry and under diversification lead to increased idiosyncratic risk, resulting in the erosion of firm’s value. Results also confirm that firms paying regular dividends are less risky and, hence, command a valuation premium. Originality/value The evidence supports the proposition that information asymmetry plays a significant role in explaining dividend payouts pattern and related impacts on corporate performance. The originality of the paper lies in factoring idiosyncratic risk while explaining profitability and related valuation among emerging market firms.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ly Thi Hai Tran ◽  
Thoa Thi Kim Tu ◽  
Tran Thi Hong Nguyen ◽  
Hoa Thi Lien Nguyen ◽  
Xuan Vinh Vo

PurposeThis paper examines the role of the annual report’s linguistic tone in predicting future firm performance in an emerging market, Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachBoth manual coding approach and the naïve Bayesian algorithm are employed to determine the annual report tone, which is then used to investigate its impact on future firm performance.FindingsThe study finds that tone can predict firm performance one year ahead. The predictability of tone is strengthened for firms that have a high degree of information asymmetry. Besides, the government’s regulatory reforms on corporate disclosures enhance the predictive ability of tone.Research limitations/implicationsThe study suggests the naïve Bayesian algorithm as a cost-efficient alternative for human coding in textual analysis. Also, information asymmetry and regulation changes should be modeled in future research on narrative disclosures.Practical implicationsThe study sends messages to both investors and policymakers in emerging markets. Investors should pay more attention to the tone of annual reports for improving the accuracy of future firm performance prediction. Policymakers should regularly revise and update regulations on qualitative disclosure to reduce information asymmetry.Originality/valueThis study enhances understanding of the annual report’s role in a non-Western country that has been under-investigated. The research also provides original evidence of the link between annual report tone and future firm performance under different information asymmetry degrees. Furthermore, this study justifies the effectiveness of the governments’ regulatory reforms on corporate disclosure in developing countries. Finally, by applying both the human coding and machine learning approach, this research contributes to the literature on textual analysis methodology.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qaiser Rafique Yasser ◽  
Abdullah Al Mamun

Purpose – This paper aims to present an analysis of the association between five categories of concentrated ownership and firm performance in Pakistan. The connection between high ownership concentration and firm performance has attracted much attention, especially in emerging market, yet yielded many inconsistent empirical results. Design/methodology/approach – Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE)-100 Indexed companies listed in KSE from 2007 to 2011 were selected as the sample, and correlation coefficient and regression model were used to inspect the relationship between ownership concentration degree and corporate performance. Findings – It was found that there is no significant association with ownership concentration and accounting-based performance, market-based performance measures and economic profit, in general. Originality/value – The first demonstration that the shareholding proportion of the single largest shareholder is the only variable having positive association with market-based performance measures.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 1308-1331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenbin Sun ◽  
Rahul Govind

Purpose Extant literature indicates that increased product market diversification generates both positive and negative impact on firm performance. This inconclusive pattern hinders the decision-making of deploying a firm’s resources across different markets. This research aims to embed diversification into a moderation-based framework and demonstrates the conditions under which increased diversification produces either beneficial or harmful effects on firm outcomes. The authors introduce another market configuration dimension, viz., market emphasis, and reveal how changes in diversification and in emphasis yield interactive effects on an important firm performance indicator, idiosyncratic risk. An additional moderator, market turbulence, is also incorporated to further enrich the model in a three-way interaction. Results show that when market turbulence is high, and a firm highly skews its resources to some of its markets, diversifying into more market domains will increase firm idiosyncratic risk. A better choice during increased diversification is to evenly emphasize each of its markets. However, in a market displaying low turbulence, the high diversification-high emphasis pattern may be preferred because of lower firm risk. Design/methodology/approach To test the hypotheses, the authors collected a comprehensive archival data that contained a large group of public traded US-based manufacturing companies from three different resources. These were the Compustat Annual Database, the Center for Research in Security Prices database and Compustat Business Segment Database. These databases and the combinatorial approach are widely adopted in marketing and management research involving firm strategies and financial outcomes. Findings When market turbulence is high, simultaneously increasing market diversification and emphasis will more strongly raise firm idiosyncratic risk. However, polarizing into either diversification or emphasis reduces firm risk. When in a low turbulence market, expanding to more product markets and simultaneously emphasizing key markets will decrease idiosyncratic risk. One noticeable fact is that irrespective of whether a firm is in high or low turbulence conditions, choosing a diversification strategy always decreases firm risk when market emphasis is low. However, the impact of this effect however is higher when turbulence is greater. The authors also present the boundary conditions under which the three-way interaction holds. Research limitations/implications First, the extension to the utilization of idiosyncratic risk stretches the understanding of effective ways of reducing firm risks from an angle of marketing management. This view of firm risk also contributes to further analysis of shareholder value. Classic corporate asset valuation focuses more on the financial performance indicators as well as the firm’s strategic domains. This research thus provides a unique and meaningful guideline for the corporate valuation approach from the angle of analyzing the firm’s business segment scope and emphasis in the context of the environment. Practical implications The idea about how many product markets a firm should enter is always one of the primary decisions that contain significant trade-offs. This makes the managers choice difficult during the decision-making processes. The authors suggest that managers should not only consider the scope of product markets but also think carefully about the resources allocated toward each segment. A matrix with dimensions of diversification and emphasis can be explicitly studied during the strategy formulation. The individual blocks within this matrix may have significant outcome differences. Originality/value Previous research focuses on either a firm’s internal assets or external competitive situations when researchers seek the drivers of risk-reduction. This research extends this horizon by adding the interplay between a set of fundamental firm decision areas, diversification and emphasis and the external conditions facing a firm (turbulence).


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 165-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Everton Dockery ◽  
Ioraver Tsegba ◽  
Wilson Herbert

This paper examines empirically the question of whether ownership structure leads to improvements in firm performance in an emerging market like Nigeria. The institutional climate in Nigeria differs from that of many industrialized economies in several ways, including a weak corporate control market, a strong concentrated ownership and weak investor protection. We utilize data on 73 firms, allowing us to discriminate between alternative hypotheses and to answer causal research questions on the relationship between ownership structure and firm performance. The results for concentrated ownership structure suggest that concentrated ownership has negative and insignificant impact on firm performance, which lend some credence to the entrenchment effects. Overall, the evidence supports the view that foreign ownership can be an effective mechanism to impact and thus ameliorate performance and, moreover, highlights the importance of assessing firm performance across alternative governance structures.


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (10) ◽  
pp. 1117-1136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naima Lassoued ◽  
Mouna Ben Rejeb Attia ◽  
Houda Sassi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether ownership structure affects earnings management in the banking industry of emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach The empirical study is conducted using a sample of 134 banks from 12 Middle Eastern and North African countries. Econometrically speaking, the study used a panel data regression analysis. Findings The authors found convincing evidence that banks with more concentrated ownership use discretionary loan loss provisions to manage their earnings. The authors also found that state and institutional owners encourage earnings management, while family owners reduce this practice. Practical implications The findings would be valuable for investors since they should take into account ownership structure in order to reach a better investment decision. Moreover, regulatory reforms in emerging markets should push for more transparency about ownership structure, high levels of supervision, and external audit quality. Originality/value This study presents international evidence on the prominent role of owners in earnings management in emerging markets with weak shareholder rights protection.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-248
Author(s):  
Manogna R.L. ◽  
Aswini Kumar Mishra

Purpose The study aims to analyze the impact of Research & Development (R&D) intensity on the firm’s performance, measured by growth of sales in the emerging market like India. Innovation strategy and its outcomes for firms may be different in developing countries as compared to developed countries. Thus, a study that focuses on the emerging economy like India, with a majority of the population dependent on agriculture, is of prime importance to the firm performance in the food and agricultural manufacturing industry. For this study, the broader focus will be on one widely recognised factor which may influence the growth rate of firms, i.e. investment in innovations which is in terms of R&D expenditure. Design/methodology/approach The paper investigates the relationship between the R&D efforts and growth of firms in the Indian food and agricultural manufacturing industry during 2001–2019. To empirically test the relationship between firm’s growth (FG) and R&D investments, system generalised method of moments technique has been used, hence enabling to avoid problems related to endogeneity and simultaneity. Findings The findings reveal that investments in innovations have a positive effect on the growth of firms in the Indian food and agricultural manufacturing industry. Investment in R&D also enables the firms to reap benefits from externalities present in the industry. Further analysis reveals that younger firms grow faster when they invest in R&D. More specifically, this paper finds evidence in the case of the food and agricultural industry that import of raw materials negatively affects the FG and export intensity positively affects the growth in the case of R&D firms. Research limitations/implications This study suggests that the government should encourage the industries to invest optimally in R&D projects by providing favourable fiscal treatments and R&D subsidies which are observed to have positive effects in various developed countries. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, the current paper is the first to analyse the impact of innovation in food and agricultural industry on firm’s performance in an emerging economy context with the latest data. This paper agrees that a government initiative to increase private R&D expenditure would have favourable effects on FG as growing investments in R&D lead to further growth of the firms.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Mastella ◽  
Daniel Vancin ◽  
Marcelo Perlin ◽  
Guilherme Kirch

Purpose This study aims to intend to check if female board representation affects performance and risk and to analyse the evolution of the demographic aspects of the presence of women on boards in Brazil. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a sample of 150 Brazilian publicly traded companies from 2010–2018, with different measures of firm performance, firm risk and women’s presence on the board. The study approach is based on a set of ordinary least squares, quantile and panel data regressions. Findings The presence of women on the board has a positive effect on all of our accounting and market performance measures. However, the result of the impact on risk is not conclusive. The study also found that the number of females on the board has a more significant effect at the lower levels of firm performance measured by return on equity, but at the higher levels when measured by Tobin’s Q. Regarding return on assets, the more significant effect happened on the extremes of the performance distribution. The study findings point that market investors place more value in female presence on the board than in director positions. Originality/value By estimating the impact of women’s presence on the boards of directors in firm performance and risk, this study aimed to verify this impact in different aspects of the company. In addition, the authors did so in a sample with many years, making it possible to evaluate the historical evolution of the feminine presence in the boards of administration as well as in the groups of directors, assisting Brazilian legislators with new evidence about the possible impacts of Draft Law 7179/2017.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zukaa Mardnly ◽  
Zinab Badran ◽  
Sulaiman Mouselli

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the individual and combined effect of managerial ownership and external audit quality, as two control mechanisms, on earnings management. Design/methodology/approach This study applies ordinary least squares estimates on fixed-time effects panel regression model to test the impact of the investigated variables on earnings management for the whole population of banks and insurance companies listed at Damascus Securities Exchange (DSE) during the period from 2011 to 2018. Findings The empirical evidence suggests a negative non-linear relationship between managerial ownership (as proxied by board of directors’ ownership) on earnings management. However, neither audit quality nor the simultaneous effect of the managerial ownership and audit quality (Big 4) affects earnings management. Research limitations/implications DSE is dominated by the financial sector and the number of observations is constrained by the recent establishment of DSE and the small number of firms listed at DSE. In addition, the non-availability of data on executive directors’ and foreign ownerships restrict our ability to uncover the impact of different dimensions of ownership structure on earnings management. Practical implications First, it stimulates investors to purchase stocks in financial firms that enjoy both high managerial ownership, as they seem enjoying higher earnings quality. Second, the findings encourage external auditors to consider the ownership structure when choosing their clients as the financial statements’ quality is affected by this structure. Third, researchers may need to consider the role of managerial ownership when analyzing the determinants of earnings management. Originality/value It fills the gap in the literature, as it investigates the impact of both managerial ownership and audit quality on earnings management in a special conflict context and in an unexplored emerging market of DSE. It suggests that managerial ownership exerts a significant role in controlling earnings management practices when loose regulatory environment combines conflict conditions. However, external audit quality fails to counter earnings management practices when conditions are fierce.


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (10) ◽  
pp. 1073-1092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Berezinets ◽  
Yulia Ilina ◽  
Anna Cherkasskaya

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between board structure and performance of public companies in Russia – an emerging market with unique institutional background and a variability of corporate governance (CG) practices across its companies. Design/methodology/approach Panel data analysis was applied on a sample of 207 Russian companies that frequently traded in the Russian Trading System during the period 2007-2011, in order to test hypotheses on the relationships between board size, board independence, gender diversity, presence of board committees and financial performance, as measured by Tobin’s Q. Findings The results show a positive relationship between Tobin’s Q and the board’s gender diversity. The analysis demonstrates that smaller and bigger boards are associated with a greater Tobin’s Q value. Originality/value The findings provide additional evidence of how board structure is related to its effectiveness and corporate performance in countries with concentrated ownership, highly variable CG practices and a lack of proper implementation of corporate law and governance codes. The paper contributes to the existing empirical evidence on the advantages of small and large-sized boards and on gender diversity, and is the first investigating the relationship between Russian companies’ board committees and market-based performance. The results regarding board independence and committees suggest that these mechanisms are still not widely recognized for their role in CG and company performance in Russia.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karren Lee-Hwei Khaw

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relation between long-term debt and internationalization in the presence of the agency costs of debt and business risk.Design/methodology/approachSample firms consist of 517 non-financial listed firms in Malaysia, with 4,197 firm-year observations from the year 2000 to 2014. This study uses panel data regressions and a series of robustness tests to examine the hypotheses.FindingsThe results show that multinational corporations (MNCs) are more likely to sustain less long-term debt than domestic corporations (DCs) to mitigate the costs related to agency problem and firm risk. Meanwhile, foreign-based MNCs maintain less long-term debt than local-based firms, and the finding is more significant at a higher degree of internationalization. Robustness tests confirm the negative relations.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings indicate that the ongoing debate on the debt financing puzzle can be explained by internationalization. Moreover, the findings suggest that in addition to the systematic differences between MNCs and DCs, studies on the debt financing and internationalization should also account for the systematic differences among MNCs such as the local-based MNCs, foreign-based MNCs and DCs that later expand their business operations abroad.Practical implicationsMNCs have to be responsive to the diverse institutional environments as they diversify their business operations geographically. When the adverse effects of internationalization outweigh the benefits, MNCs could use the long-term debt financing decision to mitigate the costs of doing business abroad. This is because debt financing is also a primary concern in the corporate financial decisions for the maximization of shareholders’ wealth.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the debt financing literature from the international perspective by providing evidence from an emerging market. In addition, this study highlights the importance of recognizing firms by their firm-specific characteristics, such as internationalization, given the systematic differences among firms.


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