scholarly journals Corporate Governance Mechanisms, Financial Risk, Industry Sector and Human Capital Investment as Determinants of Voluntary Disclosure of Intellectual Capital in UK Listed Firms

2015 ◽  
pp. 256-273
Author(s):  
Walter P. Mkumbuzi
2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Walter P. Mkumbuzi

<p>This research examines the cross-sectional effect of intellectual capital investment, financial measures of market and company specific risk, industry membership and corporate governance on the extent of voluntary disclosure of intellectual capital (VDIC) in a sample of 443 FTSE All Share Index company annual reports for the year 2003/2004. The extent of disclosure is measured by a disclosure index (DI) based on intellectual capital (IC) attributes included in the narratives and illustrations of the annual reports. The research predicts that agency costs are mitigated by VDIC and that the benefits of signalling IC may outweigh competitive and proprietary costs that may be more prevalent in innovative and technological companies; furthermore, that effective corporate governance measures enhance VDIC particularly in those companies found to have a higher level of intangible assets (IA) in their resource base. The results suggest that companies associated with less financial risk, reduced debt, higher levels of liquidity and accompanied by growth are characterised with higher levels of VDIC. Although less significant, the results on market risk indicate a positive influence on VDIC. Furthermore, the extent of VDIC in annual reports is enhanced when large companies operating in high-tech and innovative industries are characterised by investments in employees; in contrast, companies associated with research and development processes tend to be more secretive with respect to VDIC. The results suggest that companies that are able to maintain adequate governance systems through segregation of executive and non-executive duties and to a less extent through the presence of experienced non-executive directors exhibit higher levels of disclosure.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mishari M. Alfraih ◽  
Abdullah M. Almutawa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess and analyse the level of voluntary disclosure practices in the annual reports of Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) listed firms and explore the association between corporate governance mechanisms and voluntary disclosure practices. Design/methodology/approach Panel data analysis was undertaken over a period from 2005-2008 with an aim to examine the influence of corporate governance mechanisms on voluntary disclosures made by 52 listed firms in their four years of annual reports. An unweighted voluntary disclosure index has been used for hand-collecting data from annual reports. Findings The findings show that the mean voluntary disclosure level over the four years is 23 per cent. Four out of eight corporate governance mechanisms examined found to be significantly associated with the level of voluntary disclosure, three negatively, one positively. Cross directorship, board size and role duality are negatively related to voluntary disclosure, while government ownership is positively related to voluntary disclosure. In contrast, the proportion of non-executive directors, family members on the board, the presence of an audit committee and the presence of the ruling family on the board have an insignificant influencer on voluntary disclosure practices. Practical implications The study provides an assessment of KSE-listed firm voluntary disclosure practices and its determents and highlights that that corporate governance attributes affect the voluntary disclosure practices of KSE-listed firms. Originality/value The findings of this study contribute to the arguments concerning the role of corporate governance mechanisms in improving the level of disclosure and information transparency.


2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (10) ◽  
pp. 2740-2757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atreya Chakraborty ◽  
Lucia Gao ◽  
Shahbaz Sheikh

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate if there is a differential effect of corporate governance mechanisms on firm risk in Canadian companies cross-listed on US markets and Canadian companies not cross-listed (Canadian only companies). Design/methodology/approach Using a sample comprised of all Canadian companies included in the S&P/TSX Composite Index for the period 2009–2014, this study applies OLS and fixed effect regressions to investigate the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on firm risk. Interaction variables between governance mechanisms and the cross-listing status are used to examine if this effect is different for cross-listed firms. Findings Results indicate that the effect of board characteristics such as size, independence and proportion of female directors remains the same in both cross-listed and not cross-listed firms. CEO duality and insider equity ownership impact firm risk only in cross-listed companies, while institutional shareholdings, environmental, social and governance disclosure and family control affect firm risk in Canadian only firms. Overall, the empirical results indicate that some governance mechanisms impact firm risk only in firms that cross-list, while others are well-suited for Canadian only firms. Practical implications This study suggests that some of the differences between Canadian companies that cross-list and the Canadian companies that do not cross-list in US stock markets may change the impact of governance mechanisms on firm risk. Therefore, these findings have important implications for the design of governance mechanisms in Canadian firms. Since some of these differences are common to other economies, the conclusions can be extended to companies in other countries with similar governance structures. Originality/value Although previous studies have investigated the effect of governance mechanism on firm risk, this is the first paper that studies the differential effect for companies that cross-list in US markets. Specifically, differences in the ownership structure, firm control and in the regulatory and institutional environment, may explain this differential effect. Unlike most of the previous studies that focus on the effect of individual governance mechanisms, this study uses several mechanisms and their interactions at the same time.


Author(s):  
Eman Abdel-Wanis

This paper explores the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on the nature of the relationship between cash holdings and audit fees, which helps provide an opportunity to identify whether these mechanisms enable to mitigate agency problems, and thus lower audit fees through a sample of 78 Egyptian listed firms in EGX 100 during the period 2014-2016 using panel data analysis. Results indicated that cash holding increases auditing fees. The board characteristics affect negatively on the relationship between cash holdings and audit fees. Also, ownership structure affects negatively on the relationship between cash holdings and audit fees. As well audit committee affects negatively on the relationship between cash holdings and audit fees. There results support the view that corporate governance mitigate on the relationship between cash holdings and audit fees.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 444-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agyenim Boateng ◽  
Huifen Cai ◽  
Daniel Borgia ◽  
Xiao Gang Bi ◽  
Franklin Nnaemeka Ngwu

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of internal corporate governance mechanisms on the capital structure decisions of Chinese-listed firms. Design/methodology/approach Using a large and more recent data set consisting of 2,386 Chinese-listed firms over the period from 1998 to 2012, the authors use different statistical methods (OLS, fixed effects and system GMM) to analyse the effects of firm-specific and corporate governance influences on capital structure. Findings The authors find that the proportion of independent directors and ownership concentration exert significant influence on the level of Chinese long-term debt ratios after controlling for firm-specific determinants and split share reforms. Further analysis separating the sample of this paper into state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and privately owned enterprises (POEs) suggests that ownership concentration in the hands of the state leads to decrease in debt ratios. Research limitations/implications The finding implies that concentrated ownership in the hands of the state appears more efficient compared to their private counterparts in their monitoring role. Originality/value This paper extends prior literature, which has concentrated disproportionately on firm-specific influences on capital structure, to the effects of within-firm governance mechanisms on capital structure decisions. The paper contributes to the agency theory–capital structure discourse in an emerging country context where corporate governance system appears weak.


Author(s):  
Xu_Dong Ji ◽  
Kamran Ahmed ◽  
Wei Lu

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate governance and ownership structures on earnings quality in China both prior and subsequent to two important corporate reforms: the code of corporate governance (CCG) in 2002 and the split share structure reform (SSR) in 2005. Design/methodology/approach – This study utilises informativeness of earnings (earnings response coefficient), conditional accounting conservatism and managerial discretionary accruals to assess earnings quality using 12,267 firm-year observations over 11 years from 2000 to 2010. Further, two dummy variables for measuring the changes of CCG and SSR are employed to estimate the effects of CCG and SSR reforms on earnings quality via OLS regression. Findings – This study finds that the promulgation of the CCG in 2002 has had a positive impact, but the SSR reform in 2005 has had little effect on listed firms’ earnings quality in China. These results hold good after controlling for a number of ownership, governance and other variables and estimating models with multiple measures of earnings’ quality. Research limitations/implications – Future research could focus on how western style corporate governance mechanisms have been constrained by the old management systems and governmental dominated ownership structures in Chinese listed firms. The conclusion is that simply coping Western corporate governance model is not suitable for every country. Practical implications – The results will assist Chinese regulators in improving reporting quality, ownership structure and governance mechanisms in China. The results will help international investors better understand quality of financial information in China. Originality/value – This is the first to our knowledge that addresses the effects of major governance and ownership reforms together on accounting earnings quality and, thus, makes a significant contribution on understanding the effect of regulatory reforms on improving earnings quality. In doing so, it also indirectly assesses the effectiveness of western-style corporate governance mechanisms introduced in China.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 82
Author(s):  
Erwin Saraswati ◽  
Alfizah Azzahra ◽  
Ananda Sagitaputri

Corporate disclosure and corporate governance are two inseparable instruments of investor protection. This research sought to find evidence on how corporate governance mechanisms affect the extent of voluntary disclosures. Voluntary disclosures were measured using content analysis on published annual reports. The sample of this research consisted of 81 firm-year observations from 27 firms of consumer goods sector listed on Indonesian Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2018. Using multiple regression method, the result has shown that board size and board independence increase voluntary disclosures, indicating that the commissioners have effectively represented the interests of shareholders by monitoring and encouraging the management to increase disclosure. This research provided new evidence that family ownership increases voluntary disclosure, suggesting that family firms are more concerned by the costs of non-disclosure. Meanwhile, institutional ownership does not significantly affect voluntary disclosure. 


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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 192-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaouthar Lajili ◽  
Lauren Yu-Hsin Lin ◽  
Anoosheh Rostamkalaei

This study explores the associations between human capital resources, firm performance, and corporate governance mechanisms. Based on the survey results of the “50 most attractive employers” conducted by Universum Global 2010, human resource, performance, and governance data was collected for the period from 2007 to 2011. Drawing on the strategic human capital and resource management, international governance, and organizational literature, this study examines the extent to which corporate governance mechanisms moderate the relationships between firm performance and human capital resources and posits that human resource performance is positively associated with corporate governance mechanisms that support and enhance strategic human resource management policies. Panel regression analyses are conducted to test the study’s hypotheses. The results show that human capital resources are positively related to firm performance, and that some corporate governance mechanisms may negatively affect performance when interacted with human capital variables. Furthermore, human resource performance is significantly related to some governance mechanisms, with interaction effects between human capital and other organizational attributes showing differential impacts. Overall, the results support a contingency-based view of strategic human resource management in the context of large and attractive global employers and highlight the importance of governance design in supporting investments and deploying human resources and capabilities at the firm and industry levels and across national boundaries.


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