scholarly journals Corporate Governance, Voluntary Disclosure, And Firm Information Environment

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabri Boubaker ◽  
Amal Hamrouni ◽  
Qi-Bin Liang

This paper examines the relative performance of several corporate governance factors, specifically the characteristics of boards of directors, managerial ownership, and voluntary disclosure, in improving firm information environments. The paper uses a new empirical approach based on a B-convex method on a sample of 70 non-financial French listed firms belonging to the SBF120 index. Our findings show that 68.57% of our sample firms are located on the efficiency frontier. Corporate governance practices appear to serve as effective monitoring for the top executives of these firms, which reduces information asymmetry between insiders and outsiders, thereby improving the information environment. The empirical analysis also generates evidence that 31.42%of our sample firmslie outside the efficiency frontier. Corporate governance practices in many firms appear insufficient to improve firm information environments. These findings suggest the need for many SBF120 firms to improve their corporate governance practices.

2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos P. Barros ◽  
Sabri Boubaker ◽  
Amal Hamrouni

This paper investigates the effect of corporate governance practices on the extent of voluntary disclosure in France. Using a panel of 206 non-financial French listed firms during the period 20062009, we find evidence that voluntary disclosure in annual reports increases with managerial ownership, board and audit committee independence, board meeting frequency, and external audit quality. We also find that frequency of audit committee meetings and diligence of board and auditing are associated with decreased disclosure. Additional findings show that larger, more profitable, and less indebted firms have greater voluntary disclosure.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Botti ◽  
Sabri Boubaker ◽  
Amal Hamrouni ◽  
Bernardin Solonandrasana

Purpose – This paper aims to shed some light on the role of boards of directors in improving internet financial reporting (IFR) quality. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical study uses a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach on a sample of 32 French firms belonging to the CAC40 index as of December 2007. Findings – The empirical results show that 28 percent of the sample firms are located on the efficiency frontier for all IFR components. These firms' boards of directors and their committees seem to act as effective monitors of top executives, which improves the quality of the firm's disclosure policy through, inter alia, an increase in the level of IFR. Under efficient board control, firms develop user-friendly and readily accessible web sites disclosing the information required by various stakeholders. Additional empirical results show that 46.9 percent of the sample firms lie outside the efficiency frontier for all IFR measures, suggesting inefficiencies in the composition, structure, and/or functioning of their boards of directors. The inefficient monitoring and oversight of top executives by the board allowed for lower levels of IFR quality for nearly half of the CAC40 firms in 2007. Research limitations/implications – The study uses only CAC40 companies, which are relatively large and financially healthier than the average French firms, exhibiting diffuse ownership structures, with heavy foreign shareholding, and investing more in communications. This may limit the generalizability of the results to other French listed firms. Originality/value – The paper extends the literature on corporate governance and voluntary corporate disclosure by investigating the association between board characteristics and IFR quality. It examines the relative performance of the board directors in improving IFR policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-75
Author(s):  
Omar Al Farooque ◽  
Ali Hamid ◽  
Lan Sun

This paper investigates whether corporate governance has an impact on dividend policy in Australian listed firms. The empirical studies of corporate governance and dividend policy in the Australian context tend to have a limited scope and the findings are mixed. Unlike the existing literature, this paper provides a more comprehensive examination of the relationship between dividend policy and corporate governance mechanisms. Using a sample of 1,438 firm-year observations for the period of 2005 to 2011 and the panel data approach, this study finds that dividend payout is significantly positively (negatively) correlated with board size, board independence, institutional ownership and use of a Big-4 audit firm (CEO duality and managerial ownership). Moreover, dividend yield is significantly positively (negatively) correlated with managerial ownership (foreign ownership). These findings suggest that dividend policy and corporate governance mechanisms are complementary i.e. firms paying higher dividends are more likely to engage in good governance practices as well as having strong monitoring and control systems in place and therefore both dividend policy and corporate governance are considered as effective tools in reducing agency costs.


2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 360-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongxia Li ◽  
Ainian Qi

This study examines the impact of corporate governance on voluntary disclosure in 100 non-financial Chinese listed firms for the period 2003-2005. There are two main findings. (1) Firms with high Managerial ownership have high level of voluntary disclosure. If a firm has a high managerial ownership, managers are much more concerned about the benefit of shareholders and stock options will have incentives to contribute the firm. Thus, a capital structure with high managerial ownership decreases agency costs and increases the voluntary disclosure. (2) The significant correlation is identified ownership concentration with the voluntary disclosure. This is because the largest shareholders have a strong interest in firm performance and therefore a high ability to increase voluntary disclosure. Our empirical results further illustrate that big firms have inclination of voluntary disclosure through stock market and the exogenous mechanism between them is exposed


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beyza Oba ◽  
Elvin Tigrel ◽  
Pinar Sener

Purpose – This paper aims to understand the determinants of board structure of listed firms at institutional, industry and firm levels within an emerging economy. At the institutional level, the paper explores laws, managerial culture and the role of state in instituting and endorsing corporate governance practices. At the firm level, ownership patterns (family and non-family), experience in the capital markets, age and size of the firms are studied to find out the relation between these variables and the board structure. Design/methodology/approach – The research domain of the study is listed firms operating on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. The data for the study are collected at two phases; at the first phase, compliance reports, annual reports, articles of association and annual shareholders’ meeting reports of each firm in the sample are analyzed. At the second stage, secondary data are used for understanding the dynamics of Turkish institutional context. Findings – The results of this study reveal that boards of directors of listed Turkish firms comply with the governance practices instituted by state agencies, except on issues as independent members and committees that will influence the majority owners’ control domain and private benefits. Originality/value – This paper draws attention on institutional context and argues that “good governance” instruments developed for Anglo-Saxon stock market-controlled business systems provide limited explanation for an emerging economy that is characterized by close cooperation between the state, family-owned businesses and financial markets. The study offers insight to policy makers at a national level, interested in developing corporate governance principles regarding boards of directors of listed firms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanaa A. El-Habashy

This study aims to investigate the characteristics of corporate governance that impact the capital structure decisions in listed firms in Egypt, to test the efficiency of the research results conducted in the developed Western countries in an emerging economy. A sample of 240 observations from the most active non-financial companies collected in the period 2009-2014 was used for hypothesis testing. Multiple regression models (OLS) were used for data analysis. Seven variables are used in measuring the attributes of corporate governance; they are the managerial ownership, institutional shareholding, shares owned by a large block, board size, board composition, separation of CEO/Chair positions and audit type. Four ratios were calculated for measuring the capital structure, they are long-term and short-term debt to assets, total debt to assets and debt to equity. The results suggest that corporate governance attributes have a significant impact on the capital structure decisions of listed Egyptian companies. In addition, firm-specific factors such as profitability, tangibility, growth opportunities, corporate tax, firm size and non-debt tax shields influence the choice of capital structure in Egypt. The results showed the same relationship with what was obtained in developed Western countries. The paper offers some contribution in the literature and helps to understand the impact of corporate governance on Egypt's capital structure as an emerging economy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (18) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heriberto García

Abstract. After the adoption of the Corporate Governance Code (Code) in Mexico, many companies increased financial performance and the leveraged during the following five years; we investigated the effect of how those firms improved the corporate governance practices and how was translated into better risk return company. We analyzed how and where better corporate governance practices affects performance and what was the relationship with Transparency, New Regulation and Governance Practices. Also we explored the gaps between transparency and information disclosure of Mexican Firms listed in U.S stockexchange and non U.S listed firms our findings were related to the potential growth of the Mexico Financial Market, Law and Finance.Keywords: corporate governance, financial performance, regulationResumen. Después de la adopción del Código de Gobierno Corporativo en México, algunas compañías incrementaron el desempeño financiero y el uso de deuda durante los siguientes cinco anos, nuestra investigación se enfoca en como dichas compañías mejoraron sus prácticas de gobierno corporativo y como estas prácticas se han traducido en un mejor relación de riesgo y rendimiento. En esta investigación exploramos cómo y en dónde mejores prácticas de gobierno corporativo afectan el desempeño y qué relación tiene con laTransparencia, Nuevas Regulaciones y prácticas de Gobierno Corporativo. Con lo anterior también identificamos aquellas compañías que cotizan fuera de México para identificar potenciales diferencias en dichas prácticas.Palabras clave: desempeño financiero, gobierno corporativo, regulación


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Atkins ◽  
Mohamed Zakari ◽  
Ismail Elshahoubi

This paper aims to investigate the extent to which board of directors’ mechanism is implemented in Libyan listed companies. This includes a consideration of composition, duties and responsibilities of the board directors. This study employed a questionnaire survey to collect required data from four key stakeholder groups: Boards of Directors (BD), Executive Managers (EM), Regulators and External Auditors (RE) and Other Stakeholders (OS). The results of this study provided evidence that Libyan listed companies generally comply with the Libyan Corporate Governance Code (LCGC) requirements regarding the board composition: the findings assert that most boards have between three and eleven members, the majority of whom are non-executives and at least two or one-third of whom (whichever is greater) are independent. Moreover, the results indicate that general assemblies in Libyan listed companies are practically committed to the LCGC’s requirements regarding the appointment of board members and their length of tenure. The findings provide evidence that boards in Libyan listed companies are carrying out their duties and responsibilities in accordance with internal regulations and laws, as well as the stipulations of the LCGC (2007). Furthermore, the stakeholder groups were broadly satisfied that board members are devoting sufficient time and effort to discharge these duties and responsibilities properly. This study helps to enrich our understanding and knowledge of the current practice of corporate boards as a significant mechanism of corporate governance (CG) by being the first to address the board of directors’ mechanism in Libyan listed companies.


2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 26-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poh-Ling Ho ◽  
Gregory Tower ◽  
Dulacha G. Barako

Significant changes and reforms have been initiated around the world and in a Malaysian context with the aim of enhancing corporate governance and transparency. The nature of these regulatory reforms clearly impacted on firm management’s incentives to disclose information voluntarily. This study empirically examines the influence of corporate governance structure on voluntary disclosure practices of Malaysian listed firms from 1996 to 2001. This important timeframe encompasses the time period before the Asian Financial Crisis and the aftermath of regulatory reforms such as the revamped KLSE Listing Requirement released in 2001, widely recognized as a major milestone in Malaysian corporate governance reform through the enhanced corporate disclosure. Our findings show that the extent of voluntary communication is generally low, albeit showing an increase from 1996 to 2001. There is an increase in the number of corporate governance characteristics adopted by firms, suggesting firms exhibiting an improvement in the corporate governance structure. While corporate governance structure is not a significant explanatory variable in 1996, our results suggest that a firm’s corporate governance structure has a significantly positive impact on voluntary disclosure in 2001. Large companies voluntarily disclose more information in both years. The implications are that a greater focus on corporate governance is resulting in an increase in transparency in the Malaysian setting. Corporate change is generating better corporate communication


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