Iman Shaat, Husam Aldamen, Kim Kercher and Keith Duncan
The paper examines the relationship between board effectiveness and audit fees for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Furthermore, given the unique nature of SOEs, the paper assesses…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper examines the relationship between board effectiveness and audit fees for state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Furthermore, given the unique nature of SOEs, the paper assesses country-level influences, such as economic freedom, political democracy and protection of minority shareholders, which can impact board effectiveness and audit fees.
Design/methodology/approach
A combination of two-stage and ordinary least squares regression is used to examine the board characteristics-audit fee relationship for SOEs in a multinational setting during the period from 2016 to 2018.
Findings
The results indicate that board characteristics that represent a high level of effectiveness are associated with higher audit fees in SOEs. Furthermore, the findings suggest SOE's operating in countries evidencing medium levels of democracy and economic freedom and medium to high levels of protection of minority shareholders may be motivated to reduce agency conflicts by promoting accountability and transparency, thereby demanding increasing levels of corporate governance, monitoring and audit quality, thereby increasing audit fees.
Practical implications
The results provide further support for the OECD (2015) guidelines promoting the use of high-quality external audits in SOEs.
Originality/value
As a result of the scarceness of research in this area, the current study extends the literature by examining the role of corporate governance and audit fees in SOEs, while examining the influence of economic freedom, political democracy and protection of minority shareholders.
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Yuxi Zhao, Elaine Arici, Kostas Galanakis and Piers Thompson
Studies have suggested that entrepreneurship is a key mechanism for rejuvenating and facilitating economic growth in deprived areas. To provide further understanding of the…
Abstract
Studies have suggested that entrepreneurship is a key mechanism for rejuvenating and facilitating economic growth in deprived areas. To provide further understanding of the persistently low entrepreneurial intentions found in deprived areas this chapter identifies key mechanisms and theoretical frameworks that link the formation of appropriate human capital to the prevailing environment, and that influences may flow in both directions. This contributes to the existing literature to provide a fuller understanding of interest to policy-makers of why past interventions have struggled to boost entrepreneurial intentions and where new interventions may be most effective in generating more positive entrepreneurial intentions in deprived areas.
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Mahfuja Malik and Eunsup Daniel Shim
The purpose of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the economic determinants of the compensation for chief executive officers (CEOs) between the pre- and…
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to conduct a comparative analysis of the economic determinants of the compensation for chief executive officers (CEOs) between the pre- and post-financial crisis periods. To conduct the comparative analysis, the authors consider five years before and five years after the financial crisis of 2008. The authors use the data from the US financial service institutions and run separate regressions for the pre- and post-crisis periods to check if there is any significant difference in the economic determinants of executive compensation before and after the financial crisis. The authors find that total compensation and its incentive components decreased significantly in the post-crisis period. In the pre-crisis period, total compensation was determined by stock performance, accounting profit, growth, and leverage, whereas in the post-crisis period stock returns and leverage are the major factors influencing total compensation. The authors also find that firms’ leverage negatively influences the sensitivity of the pay for performance, but the influence of leverage on pay for performance is weaker in the post-crisis period. Our research is significant in the context of the US economy, the regulatory reforms of financial institutions, and the perspectives of the executive compensations. This is the first study that compares the relationship between compensation and firm performance over the pre- and post-crisis periods. It is an explicit attempt to develop a theoretical understanding of the compensation/performance relationship for the financial industry, which is blamed for the financial crisis and is affected by the Dodd–Frank regulation after the crisis.
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Zheng Wang and Rong Deng
Fitness games, as a medium that combines playfulness and usefulness for exercise, face challenges in sustaining long-term user engagement. Currently, there is limited research…
Abstract
Purpose
Fitness games, as a medium that combines playfulness and usefulness for exercise, face challenges in sustaining long-term user engagement. Currently, there is limited research exploring factors influencing users' continued intention to use from the perspective of user experience. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the priority of various user experience attributes of fitness games in promoting users' sustained engagement and to construct a user behavior model, offering theoretical guidance for designers and businesses.
Design/methodology/approach
This study distributed 441 survey questionnaires and, based on the fundamental characteristics of external games, established a model for users' continued intention to use external games. It explores the impact of various gaming elements on users' continued intention to use fitness games and the relationships between these elements.
Findings
The study indicates that usefulness, functional quality, and ease of use directly influence players' intention to continue playing external games. Social interactions, technical quality, and playfulness do not have an impact on the continued intention to use.
Originality/value
This research breaks away from the bias of previous studies overly focusing on playfulness in games. It fills the research gap regarding the continued intention to use fitness games and provides insights into the design and operation of fitness games.
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Jörn Obermann and Patrick Velte
This systematic literature review analyses the determinants and consequences of executive compensation-related shareholder activism and say-on-pay (SOP) votes. The review covers…
Abstract
This systematic literature review analyses the determinants and consequences of executive compensation-related shareholder activism and say-on-pay (SOP) votes. The review covers 71 empirical articles published between January 1995 and September 2017. The studies are reviewed within an empirical research framework that separates the reasons for shareholder activism and SOP voting dissent as input factor on the one hand and the consequences of shareholder pressure as output factor on the other. This procedure identifies the five most important groups of factors in the literature: the level and structure of executive compensation, firm characteristics, corporate governance mechanisms, shareholder structure and stakeholders. Of these, executive compensation and firm characteristics are the most frequently examined. Further examination reveals that the key assumptions of neoclassical principal agent theory for both managers and shareholders are not always consistent with recent empirical evidence. First, behavioral aspects (such as the perception of fairness) influence compensation activism and SOP votes. Second, non-financial interests significantly moderate shareholder activism. Insofar, we recommend integrating behavioral and non-financial aspects into the existing research. The implications are analyzed, and new directions for further research are discussed by proposing 19 different research questions.
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Phillip M. Jolly, Susan E. Gordon and Timothy T. Self
The restaurant industry is characterized by long hours, intense job demands and a lack of work-life balance. While a growing body of research has investigated methods for…
Abstract
Purpose
The restaurant industry is characterized by long hours, intense job demands and a lack of work-life balance. While a growing body of research has investigated methods for decreasing role conflict-related stress and strain in foodservice and hospitality employees, there is still little understanding of what supervisors can do to decrease work-life-related employee strain. This study aims to investigate how family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) influence employee emotional exhaustion (EE) and subsequent turnover intentions, as well as the role of gender in moderating these effects.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey-based design using a national panel of 226 foodservice employees was used to investigate the hypotheses developed in this paper.
Findings
Results indicated that FSSB decreased employee EE and subsequent turnover intentions. The authors also found that this relationship was stronger for female employees.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides insight into the role that employee gender may play in response to the perception of and reactions to FSSB. Women still shoulder a majority of home and non-work caring duties, and therefore, they may be more positively affected when supervisors engage in behaviors that allow for balancing work and non-work demands.
Originality/value
There is little hospitality or foodservice-focused research into the effects of FSSB, and little overall research that investigates the role that gender may play in shaping the beneficial effects of FSSB. Given that women make up a majority of foodservice employees in the USA, yet there is a lack of female representation at higher levels of organizations, the study provides insights into ways in which organizations and supervisors can improve female employees’ working experiences and potentially increase their retention.
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Research on women who sexually abuse children is relatively scarce and tends to rely on small or unrepresentative convenience samples. The purpose of the current descriptive study…
Abstract
Purpose
Research on women who sexually abuse children is relatively scarce and tends to rely on small or unrepresentative convenience samples. The purpose of the current descriptive study is to examine characteristics female perpetrators of child sexual abuse using a large and contemporary dataset.
Design/methodology/approach
This study analyzes data collected by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, which is a census of all child protective services investigations or assessments conducted in all 50 states, as well as in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico from October 1, 2018, to September 30, 2019.
Findings
Only substantiated cases of sexual abuse were analyzed (n = 51,442 cases). Overall, 7.6% of the perpetrators were female, though the percentage of female perpetrators varied dramatically across states from less than 1% to over 36%. Female perpetrators tended to have younger victims than did male perpetrators. For children aged 2 or less, female perpetrators constituted approximately 20% of the abusers. Female perpetrators were more likely to victimize male and female children, whereas male perpetrators predominantly had female victims. More female perpetrators had a prior finding of maltreatment than did male perpetrators (32.3% vs 23.5%).
Research limitations/implications
These findings add to the limited research base on female perpetrators of child sexual abuse and highlight avenues for further research into the differences between male and female sexual abusers.
Originality/value
This study is a replication of previous research but also provides additional novel findings.