Governance And Sustainability of Networked MFIs: Case of the CamCCul Network in Cameroon

The objective of this study is to determine the effect of internal and external governance mechanisms on the sustainability of the microfinance institutions of the CamCCul network in Cameroon. The study is conducted on a sample of 34 MFIs of the network over the 7-year period from 2009 to 2015. The results show, on the one hand, that the MFI's adherence to the network’s Risk Management program significantly and positively affects the financial sustainability of MIFs measured by their operational self-sufficiency. On the other hand, we find that the ownership of UBC Bank shares by the MFI and the culture of the zone of activity positively and significantly affect the MIFs social sustainability measured by the number of active borrowers.

Cooperative Evolution of China’s Excellent Innovative Research Groups from the Perspective of Innovation Ecosystem: Taking an “Environmental Biogeochemistry” Research Innovation Group as a Case Study

Research, understanding, and prediction of complex systems is an important starting point for human beings to tackle major problems and emergencies such as global warming and COVID-19. Research on innovation ecosystem is an important part of research on complex systems. With the rapid development of sophisticated industries, the rise of innovative countries, and the newly developed innovation theory, innovation ecosystem has become a new explanation and new paradigm for adapting to today’s global innovation cooperation network and the scientific development of complex systems, which is also in line with China’s concept of building an innovative country and promoting comprehensive innovation and international cooperation with scientific and technological innovation as the core. The Innovative Research Group at Peking University is the most representative scientific and technological innovation team in the frontier field of basic research in China. The characteristics of its organization mechanism and dynamic evolution connotation are consistent with the characteristics and evolution of innovation ecosystem. An excellent innovative research group is regarded as a small innovation ecosystem. We selected the “Environmental Biogeochemistry” Innovation Research Group at Peking University as a typical case in order to understand and analyze the evolution of cooperation among scientific and technological innovation teams, improve the healthy development as well as internal and external governance of this special small innovation ecosystem, promote the expansion of an innovation team cooperation network and the improvement of cooperation quality, promote the linkage supports of funding and management departments, and improve their scientific and technological governance abilities. Through scientometrics, visual analysis of knowledge maps, and an exploratory case study, we study the evolution process and development law of team cooperation. It is found that the main node authors of the cooperation network maintain strong cooperation frequency and centrality, and gradually strengthen with the expansion of the cooperation network and the evolution of time. Driven by the internal cooperative governance of the team and the external governance of the funding and management departments, this group has gradually formed a healthy, orderly, open, and cooperative special innovation ecosystem, which is conducive to the stability and sustainable development of the national innovation ecosystem and the global innovation ecosystem.

Creating sustainability reports that matter: an investigation of factors behind the narratives

PurposeThis paper aims to provide a novel approach to examine sustainability report narratives by considering key features of these narratives including, forward-looking content, risk content, tone and sustainability-specific content.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of UK firms' sustainability reports from 2014 to 2018, the authors capture the report content by compiling a collection of words using a computational linguistic technique that attempts to identify specific attributes of sustainability reports.FindingsThe findings show the main factors that determine the content of sustainability reports are: (1) external governance-related factors, including the voluntary adoption of sustainability reporting assurance, the choice of assurance provider, stakeholder engagement and ownership concentration; (2) internal governance factors, including board quality and the existence of a sustainability committee; and (3) reporting behaviour including the publication of standardised Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reports and financial reporting quality.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors limit our sample to companies operated in the UK. Future research can explore the results in other institutional contexts such as North America or Asia–Pacific where the governance of sustainability reporting and other factors determining the content of sustainability reports could be different. Also, it would be interesting to interview managers and other stakeholders to obtain their opinions with regard to sustainability reporting and assurance practices and to understand their opinions regarding the GRI guidelines and its appropriateness. This study combines different research streams to advance our understanding of sustainability disclosures and factors that determine sustainability narratives.Practical implicationsCorporate managers need to strengthen their internal and external governance mechanisms to enhance the comprehensiveness and credibility of sustainability reports and are encouraged to engage stakeholders in the sustainability reporting process. Policymakers can mandate the assurance of sustainability reports and establish reporting formats and standard words to control the tone of sustainability reports. Finally, researchers, professionals as well as policymakers need to monitor sustainable development goals and targets to increase awareness, knowledge and practices that can be operationalised to ensure a global society that can afford sustainable living.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, no study has yet examined sustainability report narratives by considering key features of these reports, including forward-looking content, risk content, tone and sustainability-specific content.

CAN GOVERNMENT FUNDING REVIVE ZOMBIE ENTERPRISES? EVIDENCE FROM LISTED CHINESE MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISES

This study tests how different types of government funding affect the recovery of zombie enterprises in the manufacturing sector of China. The results show that funding for production and innovation can revive zombie enterprises in expanding industries, while funding for interest cannot. Furthermore, funding for production and innovation can share costs, increase investment in selling or innovation, and promote the scaling down of businesses through external governance effects, helping zombie enterprises to recover. Finally, none of the funding types can revive zombie enterprises in contracting industries; these can recover only through access to larger overseas markets.

Multiple directorships and earnings quality: Does investor protection matter?

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether higher earnings quality is related to the existence of multiple directorships among corporate boards and whether this relationship varies with the quality of investor protection. Design/methodology/approach This paper used a dynamic panel data modelling on the sample of 2,090 firm-year observations over the period from 2007 to 2016 in Malaysia. The generalized method of moments estimators were used to deal with endogeneity and other econometric problems. Findings This study finds that the accumulation of several outside directorships is negatively associated with the firm's earnings quality, as measured by the magnitude of discretionary accruals. More importantly, the findings provide evidence that multiple directors are more efficient in improving earnings quality in healthy investor protection environment. Practical implications The appointment of directors should be based on market-based and not on a relationship (i.e. financial and industry professionals). Originality/value The results highlight the importance of interaction between internal and external governance mechanisms to improve the firm's financial performance, investment and market efficiency. High-quality investor protection and law enforcement are significant for enhancing the monitoring role of multiple directorships in improving earnings quality.

CEO Overconfidence and Voluntary Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: With a Focus on the Role of Corporate Governance

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between overconfident CEOs, voluntary disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions and firm value, and whether corporate (internal and external) governance affects this association. Using logistic regression and a firm-fixed effect model, I analyzed a sample of voluntary disclosing firms with the fiscal year in December that are listed in the Korean stock market for the period from 2011 to 2019, measuring corporate governance based on female representation within boards and industry-level competition. As a result, this study finds that, on average, CEO overconfidence is positively related to voluntary disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, in firms with more female representation on boards, the positive relationship between CEO overconfidence, voluntary disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions, and firm value is more pronounced, implying that women directors effectively monitor overconfident CEOs. Similarly, this positive relationship is also strengthened according to the degree of industry-level competition, which indicates that the external governance role of competition can alleviate CEO overconfidence. This study is meaningful as the first study to examine the effect of voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions disclosure on investors’ valuation in the Korean capital market, taking the characteristics of managers and governance structure into account.