What Makes Companies to Survive over a Century? The Case of Dongwha Pharmaceutical in the Republic of Korea

Considering their significant impacts on national economy, local communities, employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders, firm survival is an important goal for most companies. However, firm longevity is not an easy result to achieve, and it becomes more difficult as business environments shift dramatically. The average life span of companies listed in Standard and Poor’s 500 was 61 years in 1958, but it fell to less than 18 years in 2016. Nevertheless, more than 3000 companies over 200 years old still operate in Japan, mostly family inherited small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and Germany has many centenarian companies, especially in the manufacturing industry. However, in the Republic of Korea, with over 4000 years of history, there are no companies older than 200 years and only seven companies with over 100 years of history. Centenarian companies in Korea are very limited, and even after surviving over 100 years, they continue to face severe challenges they need to overcome in order to survive. However, it is not clearly proven what factors affect the survival of companies for over a century. Since SMEs contribute to the economic development and survival of a country, it is important to investigate the secrets of their longevity, which has become even more difficult than ever. However, as there is very limited research on firm longevity, the findings from this case study of Dongwha Pharmaceutical, balancing the continuity of tradition and innovation, provide significant implications and practical guidelines for Korean SMEs for their survival and sustainable management, which is an economic and business aspect of sustainability.

Volatility transmission within financial markets during the COVID-19 pandemic: are faith-based investors well off in Tunisia?

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the risk-return and volatility spillover within the Tunisian stock market during the COVID-19 pandemic analyzing both the Islamic and conventional stocks’ performance. Design/methodology/approach Both symmetric (GARCH and GARCH-M) and asymmetric (Threshold GARCH and Exponential GARCH) models are used to analyze the market returns and volatility response. Standard and Poor’s (S&P) index has been used to test both the Islamic and conventional stocks within the Tunisian stock market. Findings The findings suggest that both Tunisia Islamic and conventional stock markets are highly persistent; however, the conventional stock index showed a negative return spillover on the Islamic stocks during the pandemic. The conventional stock index has also shown a higher exposure to risk for a lower amount of return, and evidence of potential diversification benefit between both indexes was found during the pandemic, whereas the Islamic market showed a positive leverage effect, indicating a positive correlation between past return and future return; the conventional index implied a negative leverage effect. Originality/value The value of this paper emerges in studying three main aspects that are specific to the Tunisian stock market. This includes COVID-19 effect of return spillovers, volatility transmission across both conventional and Islamic stock market within the local financial market.

Accuracy and Predictive Power of Sell-Side Target Prices for Global Clean Energy Companies

Target prices are often provided as a support for stock recommendations by sell-side analysts which represent an explicit estimate of the expected future value of a company’s stock. This research focuses on mean target prices for stocks contained in the Standard and Poor’s Global Clean Energy Index during the time period from 2009 to 2020. The accuracy of mean target prices for these global clean energy stocks at any point during a 12-month period (Year-Highest) is 68.1% and only 46.6% after exactly 12 months (Year-End). A random forest and an SVM classification model were trained for both a Year-End and a Year-Highest target and compared to a random model. The random forest demonstrates the best results with an average accuracy of 73.24% for the Year-End target and 81.15% for the Year-Highest target. The analysis of the variables shows that for all models the mean target price is the most relevant variable, whereas the number of target prices appears to be highly relevant as well. Moreover, the results indicate that following the rare positive predictions of the random forest for the highest target return groups (“30% to 70%” and “Above 70%”) may potentially represent attractive investment opportunities.

Green Bonds and Asset Classes: New Evidence from Time-varying Copula and Transfer Entropy Models

The green bond market has gradually developed worldwide since its debut in 2007 and is viewed as a new form of investment. This study explores the time-varying interdependence between green bond and conventional asset classes, namely Bitcoin price, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500, Clean Energy Index, Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI) Commodity Index and 10-year US bond spanning from May 2013 to December 2019, using both time-varying copula and transfer entropy models. We first focus on static and dynamic correlations between the green bond and other assets, and then identify the causal association among them. The findings suggest that green bonds and other assets have conditional time-varying dependence, and dependence is relatively low. Using transfer entropy, further evidence is gained for causal associations between two variables, which is depicted by two categories like mono-direction and bi-direction. Such nexus reveals the transmitter and receiver of return innovations on these markets. These findings make a considerable contribution to policymakers and environmentally friendly investors with green bond positions.

Does Board Diversity Matter in Credit Risk?

The board of directors’ diversity plays a crucial role in the firm’s decision-making process, which includes risk management. This study proposes a multidimensional index to measure board diversity. We use the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 1500 between 1996 and 2013 to analyse the relationship between board diversity and credit risk. We find an inverse and significative relation between board diversity and credit risk, which means that diversity matters in credit risk, and more diversity leads to less credit risk.

A Proposed Corporate Social Responsibility Model to Develop a Coherent Sustainability Commitment

This study develops a proposed model based on the Analytical Hierarchical Process model (AHP) and Standard and Poor's/ Egypt Stock Exchange Environmental, Social and Governance Index (S&P/EGX ESG) to measure and maximize the company's corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. The results confirm that the company that successfully undertakes this model can develop a coherent sustainable disclosure commitment that contributes to a never-ending journey of continuous improvement in the company's CSR performance. Furthermore, based on the empirical results of the proposed model implemented at SC which is the targeted company used for the case study, we find that this model enables the company to identify, measure and track its CSR performance over three years from 2017 to 2019 and in comparison with the S&P/EGX ESG benchmark at the KPIs level. In addition, the researchers develop a sustainability outcomes report to reflect the strengths and weaknesses in the current situation of SC. Therefore, it enables the company to transparently communicate the results of its performance in a high-quality report, which finally contributes to the achievement of sustainable development as an end vision.

CEO–Employee Pay Gap, Productivity and Value Creation

This study examines the effect of the CEO–employee pay gap on productivity and performance. Using extensive data of 751 constituents of the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 1500 index between the years 1992–2016, we found a cubic relationship between salary differential and corporate productivity, with a rising gap adversely affecting productivity principally when it is both too low, as well as too high; intermediate pay inequality levels are less influential. A contrast in the productivity effects of the CEO–worker pay gap for firms with high average salaries and more employees was noticeable, whereas positive productivity gains were present even with a high salary gap. Thus, big companies with a highly skilled workforce are able to achieve tangible benefits through higher salary differentiation. On the other hand, companies with lower average salaries and lower capital intensity were characterized by the negative effects of wage dispersion on productivity. As a result, increasing inequality aversion is an important issue affecting performance among smaller, lower skilled labor dependent firms. Additionally, female CEOs had a significant and positive lagged effect on productivity. Finally, firm market valuation was positively stimulated by the increasing pay gap.

Dynamic Responses of Standard and Poor’s Regional Bank Index to the U.S. Fear Index, VIX

This study examines the reaction of the Standard and Poor’s Regional Bank Index (SPRB) to the U.S. equity market fear index (i.e., the Chicago Board of Trade Volatility Index [VIX]). The VIX is designed to perform as a leading indicator of the volatility in equity markets. However, practitioners observe many periods of divergence between the VIX and S&P 500. Our paper examines the daily data for the period of 2009 through 2019. We show that once the effects of consumer confidence and capacity utilization are accounted for, there is a negative association between the VIX and regional bank performance.

Do investors herd in emerging economies? Evidence from the Indian equity market

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to empirically examine the presence of herding behavior of Indian investors using daily sample data drawn from the Standard and Poor's (S&P) Bombay Stock Exchange-500 Index over the period 2007–2018.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs the model proposed by Chang et al. (2000), taking stock return dispersion as a measure to capture herding. The empirical results demonstrate the absence of herding behavior in all market states, that is, normal, up and down market conditions for the overall period.FindingsContrastingly, the study found negative herding behavior, which underlines that individuals are taking the decision away from the market consensus. The subperiod analysis corroborates the negative herding behavior. The results remain invariant across large, mid and small-capitalization firms except in one year, that is, 2009 for small firms. While using liquidity and sentiment as variables to examine herding, the study finds some evidence of herding behavior for high market liquidity state and sentiment. The findings of negative herding shed new light on herding behavior in the Indian stock market.Originality/valueThis pattern of behavior may indicate irrationality of investor behavior and the presence of noise traders who mistrust market-wide information. Behavioral factors such as overconfidence may explain this pattern of behavior.

The Impact of the Covid-19 Crisis on Common Stock Dividend Payout Policy

For many investors, dividends play a key role in evaluating the return of a common stock and the main reason for making the investment. For those investors, dividends are a necessary aspect since they are a vital source of income. But with the Covid-19 pandemic, many corporations have been adversely affected by a global economic slowdown. For publicly traded corporations, depending on its industry, dividends have been sharply affected to the point of either being reduced or suspended indefinitely. Using the Standard and Poor’s 500 stock index as a guide, stock analysts can possibly acquire a better understanding as to how reduced or suspended dividend income will affect different investors. The aim and purpose of this paper is to examine the affect the reduction and suspension of dividends will have as a source of needed income for private investors, pension funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, and real estate investment trusts.