Search results

This study aimed to investigate how family involvement in management (FIM) affects market valuation and whether this effect is influenced by the presence of founder chief executive officers (CEOs) and the dual role of their CEO positions.

Tobin’s Q ratio measured market valuation, while FIM was measured by the ratio of family managers to the total number of board of directors (BOD) seats. Additionally, the appointment of founders to CEO positions and the dual role of their CEO positions were used as moderators. As a panel data technique, the dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator was employed for a sample of 85 Egyptian-listed firms from 2011 to 2018.

The findings revealed that FIM negatively affects market valuation; hence, the more family managers serving on the BOD, the lower the firm’s market value. Moreover, the findings showed that the impact of FIM on market valuation is mitigated by the presence of founder CEOs and the dual role of their CEO positions.

This study highlights the negative repercussions of FIM on firm value and the urgency of professionalizing the family business through an independent BOD and ensuring more effective monitoring systems.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian−Ukrainian war on the volatility of several cryptocurrencies.

To do this, the study uses the GJR-GARCH and dynamic conditional correlation (DCC)-GJR-GARCH models, which allow the author to estimate the conditional variance of the cryptocurrencies’ returns and assess their dependence structure over time.

The results show that the health crisis had a negative impact on all cryptocurrencies studied, except for Bitcoin, which experienced a positive impact. Additionally, the study finds that the Russian-Ukrainian war had a mixed impact on the cryptocurrencies studied, with some experiencing positive impacts (BNB, Dogecoin, Ethereum and Tether) and others experiencing negative impacts (Bitcoin, BUSD, Coin and XRP). Moreover, the author analyzes the spillover effects among the cryptocurrencies and observe significant interdependence during the periods under study.

Finally, the study discusses the implications of the findings for investors, policymakers and regulators, highlighting the importance of considering external factors when making investment decisions or designing regulatory frameworks for the cryptocurrency market.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of family ownership (FO) and family control (FC) on firm preference for debt financing and to test whether FC affects the association between FO and debt financing.

Debt financing was measured by the total debt to total assets ratio, whereas FO was proxied by family-individual, family-institutional, and family-total shares. Additionally, the appointment of family members, founders, and descendants to CEO positions and the dual role of their CEO positions were used to proxy FC. As a panel data technique, the dynamic estimator of the generalized method of moments (GMM) was employed for a sample of 80 Egyptian listed firms during the 2011–2018 period.

The findings showed that debt financing is positively affected by family-individual shares and family-total shares and negatively affected by family-institutional shares. FC, as proxied by family and founder CEOs, and the dual role of their CEO positions has led to more debt consumption as a mechanism to preserve family dominance over the business. Conversely, the presence and the dual role of descendant CEOs have led to less debt utilization due to their risk aversion behavior. Additionally, we showed that the association between FO and debt financing is affected by various FC patterns.

This study highlighted that firm preference for debt financing is affected by the noneconomic motivations of family CEOs, such as preserving family socioemotional wealth.

This study aims to present an innovative predictive methodology that transitions from traditional efficiency assessment techniques to a forward-looking strategy for evaluating working capital management(WCM) and its determinants by integrating data envelopment analysis (DEA) with artificial neural networks (ANN).

A slack-based measure (SBM) within DEA was used to evaluate the WCME of 1,388 firms in the Indian manufacturing sector across nine industries over the period from April 2009 to March 2024. Subsequently, a fixed-effects model was used to determine the relationships between selected determinants and WCME. Moreover, the multi-layer perceptron method was applied to calculate the artificial neural network (ANN). Finally, sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the relative significance of key predictors on WCME.

Manufacturing firms consistently operate at around 50% WCME throughout the study period. Furthermore, among the selected variables, ability to create internal resources, leverage, growth, total fixed assets and productivity are relatively significant vital predictors influencing WCME.

The integration of SBM-DEA and ANN represents the primary contribution of this research, introducing a novel approach to efficiency assessment. Unlike traditional models, the SBM-DEA model offers unit invariance and monotonicity for slacks, allowing it to handle zero and negative data, which overcomes the limitations of previous DEA models. This innovation leads to more accurate efficiency scores, enabling robust analysis. Furthermore, applying neural networks provides predictive insights by identifying critical predictors for WCME, equipping firms to address WCM challenges proactively.

This study aims to examine the impact of Audit Committee (AC) characteristics on carbon disclosures and performance among companies listed in the STOXX Europe 600 index.

The sample consists of companies listed in the STOXX Europe 600 index over a 11-year period (2012–2022). The study uses panel data regression methods and uses the two-step system generalized method of moments to control for endogeneity.

The results indicate that AC size, independence and financial expertise positively influence carbon disclosure, highlighting the significance of these characteristics in promoting transparency and accountability in reporting carbon emissions. Additionally, these attributes are significantly associated with improved carbon performance, suggesting their potential role in advancing environmental sustainability.

The study provides practical insights for policymakers and regulatory bodies aiming to enhance carbon-related practices through improved corporate governance (CG) structures. By emphasizing the importance of specific AC characteristics, the findings suggest pathways for enhancing the quality of carbon disclosures and performance.

Despite extensive attention on CG in promoting sustainability, the specific influence of AC characteristics on carbon disclosures and performance remains underexplored. This study addresses this significant literature gap and, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is the first to link AC characteristics with both carbon disclosure and performance. It enriches the current body of knowledge in agency theory and provides critical insights for developing CG and regulatory policies that enhance the quality of carbon disclosures.

This study aims to enhance our understanding of employee emotional competence (EEC) in the context of service failure and recovery. Accordingly, the present study investigates the relationship between perceived EEC and customer emotional attachment (CEA) through the mediating role of service recovery satisfaction (RES). Furthermore, the study examines the moderating impact of service failure severity (SFS) on the relationship between perceived EEC and RES.

A self-administered online survey was carried out to collect data. Using a convenience sampling technique, 195 US consumers were recruited from Prolific Academic. To test the hypotheses, this study employed partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

According to the analysis, perceived EEC impacts CEA directly and indirectly via RES. Additionally, the study finds that consumers reported feeling more emotionally connected to the restaurant when they were satisfied with service recovery. Finally, the study identified that the connection between perceived EEC and RES increases with service failure severity.

This study emphasizes enhancing EEC through organization-wide training to increase customer satisfaction and emotional attachment to the service organization. Furthermore, it underscores the need for comprehensive employee training to categorize service failure severity and formulate appropriate recovery strategies.

The authors believe this is the first RES study to examine perceived EEC’s effect on CEA. By combining the affect infusion and cognitive appraisal theories to examine recovery satisfaction, this study contributes to the existing body of research on service recovery by shedding light on the relationship between perceived EEC and CEA. Furthermore, the study offers preliminary findings indicating an increase in the impact of perceived EEC on RES during high failure severity (SFS).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between board gender equality and environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance in the European banking sector. The study examines whether and how the presence of women on the board of directors (BoD) influences ESG dimensions.

The authors analyzed a sample of 72 European Union banks for the period 2015–2021 and developed an econometric model applying unbalanced panel data regression with firm fixed effects and controls per year. To test the research hypotheses, the authors considered gender equality in terms of female participation on the BoD and measured ESG dimensions by using the ESG score provided by Refinitiv.

The findings suggest a significant positive relationship between the number of women on BoD and the ESG performance of European banks only up to a certain threshold of female directors (at least three women). The study also explores how the proportion of women on BoD influences the individual ESG pillars. The results show that the percentage of female directors has a positive and statistically significant impact on the social dimension of the ESG framework.

The investigation is highly relevant to investors considering ESG issues in their decision-making process. The overall findings support policymakers and regulators on how to improve ESG performance through the design and the application of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms. From a managerial perspective, the study suggests that managers and CEOs should focus their efforts on establishing the right gender combination of directors on bank BoDs.

This paper offers an in-depth examination of the CG practices of banks, and it attempts to bridge the gap in prior literature on the determinants of ESG issues in the European banking industry. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first that investigates the relationship between the representation of women on BoDs and the ESG dimensions measured by the Refinitiv Eikon score. The use of critical mass theory adds a fresh perspective to the literature on ESG in Europe since the influence of board gender diversity on ESG performance of the European banks is still unaccounted for. This study addresses this pressing research issue drawing on resource dependence, agency and legitimacy theories.

With the growing need for employees to be innovative, public-sector organizations are investing in employee training. This study aims to examine the effects of a combined Lean Six Sigma and innovation training, using action learning, on public-sector employees’ creative role identity and innovative work behavior.

The authors studied a public service agency in Singapore in which a five-day Lean Innovation Training was implemented, using a combination of Lean Six Sigma and Creative Problem-Solving tools, with a simulation on day one and subsequent team-based project coaching, spread over six months. The authors administered pre- and postintervention surveys among all the employees, and initiated group interviews and observations before, during and after the intervention.

Creative role identity and innovative work behavior had significantly improved six months after the intervention, enabled through senior management’s transformational leadership. The training induced managers to role-model innovative work behaviors while cocreating, with their employees, a renewal of their agency’s core processes. The three completed improvement projects contributed to an innovative work culture and reduced service turnaround time.

Starting with a role-playing simulation on the first day, during which leaders and followers swapped roles, the action-learning type training taught all the organizational members to use various Lean Six Sigma and Creative Problem-Solving tools. This nimble Lean Innovation Training, and subsequent team-based project coaching, exemplifies how advancing the staff’s creative role identity can have a positive impact.

Modern slavery is a significant issue addressed in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. In 2015, the UK Government introduced the Modern Slavery Act as part of a crucial broader set of initiatives that aimed to attack modern slavery. Regardless of the initiatives taken to mitigate this risk, little is known about how modern slavery disclosure affects corporate financial performance (CFP). Hence, our study aims to examine the impact of MSD on CFP empirically. It also examines the moderating role of governance quality on the MSD–CFP nexus.

We use computer-based content analysis to assess MSD levels for a sample of non-financial companies' annual reports. We use regression analysis to test our research hypotheses for a sample period of 2013–2019 for Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) All-Share non-financial UK firms. Our sample consisted of 786 observations.

We provide new empirical evidence that externally communicating modern slavery information in annual report narratives is associated with CFP. The finding is in line with stakeholder theory, which states that engaging in social responsibility practices and responding favourably to the stakeholders’ interests and desires would enhance corporations’ reputation and ultimately improve their performance. We further highlight the role of governance quality in this nexus and find that the interaction between governance quality and MSD is negative, suggesting a replacement effect.

Our findings can be of interest to government, policymakers and other stakeholders. Policymakers need to establish a new, broader set of enforcement arrangements for MSD that may lead to better CFP.

Our research idea is original as it links emerging global issues (e.g. MSD) with traditional corporate concerns (financial performance) in a way that is likely to provide new insights as well as managerial and policy implications.

The online healthcare platform (OHP) has become an essential element of the healthcare system, representing a technological shift in the job responsibilities of medical professionals. Drawing on a technology-based job demands–resources (JD-R) model, this study aims to examine how the technological characteristics of OHP affect doctors’ OHP use psychology and behavior.

This empirical study was based on a survey conducted among 423 doctors with OHP use experience. The proposed model underwent assessment through partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to reveal the effects of technology-based job demands (i.e. technology-based work overload and technology-based work monitoring) and resources (i.e. perceived usefulness, facilitating conditions and IT mindfulness) on doctors’ OHP fatigue and continuance use intention.

Results suggest that technology-based work monitoring, perceived usefulness and facilitation conditions have significant impacts on doctors’ psychological and behavioral responses to using OHP, whereas technology-based work overload and IT mindfulness have a single impact on continuance use intention and fatigue of OHP.

It assists doctors, healthcare administrators, policymakers and technology developers in understanding OHPs’ technological characteristics, enabling them to harness its benefits and mitigate potential challenges. Additionally, given the self-reported cross-sectional data from China, future studies can improve generalizability and adopt experimental methods or longitudinal designs with objective data.

It extends the research on OHP by employing a technology-based JD-R model to explore work attributes and dual effects associated with OHP’s technological characteristics. It also enriches existing research by examining the role of OHP’s technological characteristics in doctors’ psychological and behavioral responses.