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The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the anti-corruption campaign, “Hunting the Tigers,” incurs a significant short-term loss of shareholders’ returns.

A sophisticated event study approach is employed.

The results show that the “Hunting the Tigers” has incurred a significant short-term loss of investment returns for shareholders in China’s main stock market board. In addition, the beginning of a new assault on China’s official mogul corruption in another round of political anti-corruption cycle after the 18th National Congress of the CPC has reduced this price significantly.

This finding should be perceived as the price of the corruption of official-business collusion within capital markets in contemporary China.

India has mandated corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure under Section 135 of the Indian Companies Act, 2013 – the first national jurisdiction to do so. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of mandated CSR expenditure on firms’ stock returns by using actual CSR spending data, whereas the previous studies mostly focus on voluntary CSR proxied by CSR scores.

The authors estimate their baseline regression by using ordinary least squares(OLS) method. Although the baseline regression involving CSR expenditure and stock returns using ordinary least squares method are estimated, endogeneity and reverse causality biases are addressed by using two-stage least squares and generalized method of moments approaches. These approaches contribute mitigating endogeneity bias and biases associated with unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity.

The findings document that mandatory CSR expenditure has a negative impact on firms’ stock returns which supports the “shareholders” expense’ view. This result remain robust after controlling for endogeneity bias and the use of both standard and robust test statistics. The authors however observe that this result holds for the firms with actual CSR expenditure equal to the mandated amount but does not hold for the firms with actual CSR expenditure greater than the mandated amount. Therefore, the authors provide evidence that CSR expenditure’s impact on stock returns depends on whether firms simply comply the regulation or voluntarily chose an amount of CSR expenditure above the mandated amount.

The primary contribution is to present a valid and robust evidence of negative effect of mandated CSR spending on firms’ stock returns when the mandatory CSR spending rule is already in place. This study contributes by examining the impact of mandated CSR spending on stock during post-implementation period (2015-2017), whereas other studies by Dharampala and Khanna (2018); Kapoor and Dhamija (2017); and Mukherjee et al. (2018) mainly examined the impact of legislation on Indian CSR. The authors use mandated actual CSR expenditure, whereas previous studies mostly focus on voluntary CSR proxied by CSR scores.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether proxy statement performance graph disclosures are influenced by the firm's governance structure and management concerns about relative performance.

Logistic regression is used to test whether the level of performance graph disclosure decreases with lower relative performance and higher insider director membership on the compensation committee of the board. Also, Z and t‐statistics test whether bias in the selected peer group benchmark is related to insider membership on the committee.

The empirical results suggest that reporting discretion was exercised for management's benefit. The amount of explicit disclosure on cumulative returns in the performance graph decreases as relative performance declines and decreases when insider directors serve on the compensation committee. Moreover, the presence of insider directors on the compensation committee is associated with a biased choice of peer group benchmark return.

The sample for the study consists of 141 large firms. Future research could examine a larger group of firms that vary in size or other disclosures.

These findings support recent actions taken to improve corporate governance. Further public policy steps could be taken. For example, the SEC could require firms to include an explanation for appointing insiders to the compensation committee.

The results are consistent with managers using discretion over information disclosures and suggest that compensation committees with insider members play a less active role in providing information that is helpful to shareholders.

Insurers are competing by adopting product innovations that provide the insured with integrated coverage for actuarial and financial risks. This article compares the contract structures of blended life policies between the insurance markets in Italy and the United Kingdom within the context of asset‐liability management and welfare analysis.

Momentum is gaining among major corporations to use the shareholder value approach to planning. This approach enables management to test alternative strategies and select that combination of strategies that creates the most value for shareholders. The authors describe how microcomputer software designed by a company called Alcar can be used by managers to incorporate the shareholder value approach in their strategic planning process.

This study seeks to analyze the differences between merger cancellations and three types of takeover failures: failures that are associated with targeted share repurchases (greenmail), failures in which the sole bidder simply withdraws the offer, and failures that are accompanied by a general share repurchase (buyback).

The paper uses event study methods and regression analysis.

The paper observes negative target stock price reactions around all types of takeover failures and merger cancellations. However, the cumulative effect of takeover attempts is positive, suggesting that even unsuccessful tender offers generate permanent gains to target firm shareholders, while the cumulative effect of canceled mergers is negative. Furthermore, the market reaction to greenmail‐induced takeover failure announcements is no worse than that of voluntary withdrawals, suggesting that greenmail may play an efficient role in mitigating the effects of takeover bid withdrawals. Finally, while bidder wealth is destroyed in takeover failures, the effect of merger cancellations on bidders is considerably more devastating.

The paper provides evidence of negative stock price reactions to all forms of merger failure. The paper also shows that the cumulative effect of all types of takeover failures is still positive: suggesting that being put into play is still beneficial overall but that canceled mergers destroy value for both targets and bidders. The paper shows that the market reaction to greenmail‐induced failure announcements is no worse than other forms of failure. Finally, while there is an immediate downturn in target prices around a failure, the negative outcome is more severe for the bidders. Thus, the market sees that there was something useful about the anticipated change in corporate control, which was lost when it failed to be completed.

The purpose of this chapter is to analyse how in recent years the rediscovery that extreme inequality is returning to advanced economies and has become widespread. What is at issue are the causes of this inequality. It is becoming clear that the wider population, particularly in Anglo-American economies have not shared in the growing wealth of the countries concerned, and that the majority of this wealth is being transferred on a continuous and systemic basis to the very rich. Corporate governance and the pursuit of shareholder value it is argued has become a major driver of inequality.

The current statistical evidence produced by leading authorities including the US Federal Reserve, World Economic Forum, Credit Suisse and Oxfam are examined. The policy of shareholder value and the mechanisms by which the distributions from business take place are investigated from a critical perspective.

While the Anglo-American economies are seeing a return to the extremes of inequality last witnessed in the 19th century, the causes of this inequality are changing. In the 19th century great fortunes often were inherited, or derived by entrepreneurs from the ownership and control of productive assets. By the late 20th century as Atkinson, Piketty and Saez (2011) and others have highlighted, the sustained and rapid inflation in top income shares have made a significant contribution to the accelerating rate of income and wealth inequality.

The intensification of inequality in advanced industrial economies, despite the consistent work of Atkinson and others, was largely neglected until the recent research of Picketty which has attracted international attention. It is now acknowledged widely that inequality is a serious issue; however, the contemporary causes of inequality remain largely unexplored.

The significance of inequality, now that it is recognized, demands policy and practical interventions. However, the capacity or even willingness to intervene is lacking. Further analysis of the debilitating consequences of inequality in terms of the efficiency and stability of economies and societies may encourage a more robust approach, yet the resolve to end extreme inequality is not present.

The analysis of inequality has not been neglected and this chapter represents a pioneering effort to relate the shareholder value orientation now dominant in corporate governance to the intensification of inequality.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between CEO business education and firm financial performance.

An analysis of the relationship between three‐year and five‐year shareholder return as measured by dividend and change in share price and CEO educational qualification was performed.

No relationship was found between CEO MBA, business, or other qualification and firm financial performance.

More research, particularly in the form of multinational longitudinal studies, should be undertaken on the relationship between CEO business and other qualifications and objective outcomes. A limitation of this study is that it was undertaken in one country and measured only firm financial performance.

It is possible that business education has been over‐emphasized as a prerequisite to successful management practice. It is also possible that the kind of management education that students have received is no longer appropriate to leadership at CEO level.

Although many have blamed the GFC on business schools, there has been no examination of the relationship between CEO qualifications and firm financial performance in Australia, and little elsewhere. This study therefore fills a research gap.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of private placement announcements by Australian Real Estate Investment Trusts (A-REITs) on existing shareholders. The study examines 96 A-REIT private placements from January 2000 to December 2012.

Utilising event study methodology the authors examine the impact on existing shareholders wealth by measuring the abnormal returns (AR) around the placement announcement. The authors extend the analysis to model the A-REITs ARs against a number of explanatory variables to investigate the possible drivers for the observed event study results.

The results support the information signalling hypothesis, in that existing investors in A-REITs earn negative and significant cumulative ARs of −1.3 per cent over the three-day event window [−1, +1]. This result is in contrast to prior studies conducted on industrial firms, for example; Hertzel and Smith (1993), Krishnamurthy et al. (2005) and Wruck and Wu (2009).

Regression analysis shows A-REITs trading at a premium to net tangible assets and A-REITs that use placement funds for their core business have a positive impact on announcement ARs.

This paper adds to the existing literature surrounding private placements and is the first paper, to the authors’ knowledge, to examine the impact of Australian REITs.

The purpose of this paper is to measure and observe stock market and investor reactions (benchmark adjusted cumulative abnormal returns (CARs)) to the announcement of Marriott’s acquisition of Starwood and related merger and acquisition (M&A) news and related activities over a two-year period.

Empirical models and quantifications were developed and tested through event study analysis to test the Marriot-Starwood M&A news and related activities and to observe the abnormal stock return patterns. Several data sources were employed including Factiva by Dow Jones, Wall Street Newspaper, CRSP/COMPUSTAT merged files, and ValueLine Research.

This paper provides financial insights and outcomes of pre-, during, and post-Marriot-Starwood merger. While equity returns to Starwood were mostly flat, Marriott experienced negative returns around the acquisition announcement and anytime a news article appears following the announcement. However, performance proxies showed that Marriott’s shareholders gained superior buy and hold returns following the acquisition in the long run.

Short-term event study methodology might be less than perfect in examining the stock returns to acquisitions. Therefore, future research is encouraged to test and observe Marriot-Starwood merger using longer time periods with predictive analysis to check the further usability of the results.

The study’s findings practically signal that overreaction in the short term is followed by a correction with an improvement in returns and sales performance of Marriot. In the majority of the acquisitions, integration process is not planned until after the acquisition announcement or the deal completion.

This paper contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating the financial issues, challenges, and outcomes of the biggest merger in the history of the global lodging industry.