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Green finance has shown the importance of being socially responsible and supporting the flow of financial instruments to develop environmentally sustainable and ethical business models. The growing trends raised the need for a quantitative study to address scientific performance analysis and intellectual development. This paper aims to cater quantitative statistics, through a bibliometric review to understand the vital intellectual and influential constitution of green and socially responsible finance.

The authors apply trending and cutting-edge quali-quantitative approach of bibliometric citation analysis and review of 280 journal articles from the Web of Science database for the period of 1981–2021.

The results identify the leading academic authors, journals, institutions and countries with relation to green and socially responsible finance literature. We also discuss three research streams in this field: (1) overview of green finance, perception and investor behavior; (2) analysis of performance models and growth factors of green finance; (3) pricing mechanism of SRI. Finally, we identify the research gaps within existing green finance literature, proposing 30 research questions for the future agenda.

The study confines on the Web of Science database, English published articles in known journals and reviews only. It relies on a reputable source and top scientific productions with the most direct link to green finance.

To the best of the authors knowledge, this paper is the first to discuss research streams in the literature of Green finance from a bibliometric aspect along with vast coverage of articles from reputed journals and databases till date. The results of this research along with future research questions will guide the researchers and academicians to further explore and stand on solid quantitative basis regarding the scientific development of Green finance.

Defines corporate governance, describes the special characteristics of Belgian companies and presents a study of the disciplining of bad management in 165 companies listed on the Brussels stock exchange 1989‐1996. Finds that poor share price performance is generally linked to a higher turnover of directors except in holding companies and that several measures of poor accounting performance are linked to higher director and CEO turnover, although there is more resistance to this in large companies and less in those with a higher proportion of non‐executive directors or total/foreign ownership. Shows that negative after‐tax earnings lead owners with strong monitoring abilities (e.g. holding companies) to increase their stake while others (e.g. families and institutional shareholders) reduce it; and that CEO replacement is followed by increased dividends. Summarizes the findings, noting the differences between the finance sector and others.

This study aims to comprehensively examine sustainable mutual funds (SMFs) research by conducting a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of articles spanning 33 years from 1991 to 2023. This review seeks to uncover the principal contributors and the structural framework of knowledge within the realm of business, finance and management research concerning SMFs.

Following the “Scientific Procedures and Rationales for Systematic Literature Reviews (SPAR-4-SLR)” methodology, the author selected 597 documents for the analysis and collected the bibliographic information from the Scopus database. The author uses RStudio and VOSviewer software to address five research questions.

The findings indicate a notable expansion in research concerning SMFs within high-quality journals over the last 33 years. The review illuminates the principal contributors in SMFs research by using performance analysis based on journal, article, author, country and institution criteria. By using science mapping techniques, the author identifies five prevailing themes and outlines future research prospects in the domain of SMFs.

This review paper can serve as a roadmap for future researchers, aiding them in discerning the trending research topics within this domain.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that comprehensively provides an overview of different variants, diverse strands and research hotspots of SMFs literature. The study offers insight into the evolution of SMFs, showcasing their progression from a segmented market to a prominently specialized domain in the contemporary landscape.

This paper seeks to examine whether or not divident policy is influenced by the firm's corporate control structure, investigating the relationship between the dynamics of earnings payout and the voting power enjoyed by different types of shareholders. This allows one to test a set of hypotheses derived from agency and pecking order theories.

A large panel of UK firms for the 1990s and is analyzed that the payout policy is significantly related to control concentration. The problem of control measurement is addressed and the use of Banzhaf indices advocated as a relevant measure of voting power in the analysis of corporate policy choices. The traditional framework proposed by Linter is extended and an econometrically sound approach to modeling the dynamics of the total payout suggested. Where most – even recent – studies on payout policy show some methodological flaws, state‐of‐the‐art dynamic panel data estimation procedures are applied.

Expectedly, profitability is a crucial determinant of payout decisions, but the presence of strong block holders or block holder coalitions weakens the relationship between the corporate earnings and the payout dynamics. Block holders appear to realize that an overly generous payout may render the company liquidity constrained, and, consequently, result in suboptimal investment policy.

The results challenge some of the implications of the agency theories of payout, and favor a pecking‐order explanation for the observed patterns. The analysis of payout dynamics reveals also that companies adjust payout policies to changes in earnings only gradually, which is consistent with “dividend smoothing”. In fact, the results suggest a presence of a more general phenomenon of the “total payout smoothing”.

According to one's bet knowledge, this is the first study employing those game theory‐based concepts in the context of corporate payout policies.

We take a state-stewardship view on corporate governance and executive compensation in economies with strong political involvement, where state-appointed managers act as responsible “stewards” rather than “agents” of the state.

We test this view on China and find that Chinese managers are remunerated not for maximizing equity value but for increasing the value of state-owned assets.

Managerial compensation depends on political connections and prestige, and on the firms’ contribution to political goals. These effects were attenuated since the market-oriented governance reform.

Economic reform without reforming the human resources policies at the executive level enables the autocratic state to exert political power on corporate decision making, so as to ensure that firms’ business activities fulfill the state’s political objectives.

As a powerful social elite, the state-steward managers in China have the same interests as the state (the government), namely extracting rents that should adhere to the nation (which stands for the society at large or the collective private citizens).

As China has been a communist country with a single ruling party for decades, the ideas of socialism still have a strong impact on how companies are run. The legitimacy of the elite’s privileged rights over private sectors is central to our question.

Chinese executive compensation stimulates not only the maximization of shareholder value but also the preservation of the state’s interests.

In this paper, we analyse the short-term wealth effects of large (intra)European takeover bids. We find large announcement effects of 9% for target fir

This paper seeks to answer the question whether control and changes in control after a firm's initial public offering (IPO) have a significant influence on firm value in two very different systems of corporate governance, i.e. Germany and the UK.

The dynamics of post‐IPO firm performance are investigated for size‐ and industry‐matched German and UK samples.

It was found that, although the post‐IPO evolution of control in German and UK companies differs significantly, there is no significant change in their long‐run financial and operating performance. The paper concludes that the long‐run performance of IPOs is not correlated with control and ownership retention. Moreover, the results presented in the paper suggest that the poor long‐term performance of IPOs documented in empirical literature can neither be explained by potential agency conflicts arising from the reduction in control held by the original shareholders nor by a reduction in the incumbents’ control.

Contrary to what may be expected, the involvement of the pre‐IPO shareholders in the firm after the flotation is not crucial to the firm in terms of value generation. Although a reduction in control is expected to lead to less intensive monitoring as strong blockholders are no longer present, there is still no evidence that the firm will suffer in terms of its performance over the long run.

The paper uses an original methodology which consists of matched samples of German and UK firms with similar initial levels of control. The paper then tracks changes in control over the six years after the IPO and links these to the levels of and changes in performance.

As public-private partnerships (PPPs) have become more widespread, doubts and criticisms about this type of infrastructural projects have emerged. The authors describe the PPP framework, discuss the financial structure and risk-sharing processes, and dissect the structure and organisation. The authors address the following questions: what are the main organisational characteristics of PPPs? How does the private sector structure and finance PPPs? And why and how are PPP contracts renegotiated? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper draws on extensive theoretical and empirical research, which is presented in a literature overview on PPPs and their renegotiations. A comprehensive review is carried out and two case studies are developed to investigate the reasons behind success and failure of PPPs and the renegotiation of contracts.

Incomplete contracts and the long duration of concessions can bring uncertainty and change to PPPs. Joint decision making can be difficult due to different parties involved. Renegotiation outcomes tend to rely on the position of the government. In Fertagus, the private sector asked for financial help led to a very balanced agreement. Conversely, Lusoponte renegotiations were initiated by the government, which significantly changed the project. Instead of relying solely on commercial revenues, Lusoponte was substantial financed by public funds.

Incomplete contracts and the long duration of concessions bring about much uncertainty to PPPs. Ex post decision making in PPPs in the wake of changing risks is difficult as it necessarily involves negotiations between the public sector and the private firm. The paper shows that marked differences in renegotiation outcomes emerge. In one case study, the private sector asked for financial help and the negotiation outcome was a very balanced agreement. Conversely, renegotiations in a second case were initiated by the government mainly for political reasons, resulted in a significant change in the PPP’s structure, risk, financing, and returns, and yielded a large public losses.

Contrasting successful and unsuccessful PPPs enables the reader to examine the opportunities and pitfalls in case of PPP renegotiations, which frequently occur. He can gain insight in the determinants of negotiation outcomes and the importance of a governmental PPP entity as well as of an independent monitor such as a court of audits.

This paper should be useful for both academics and practitioners and should help increase the understanding of the several stages, structures, and renegotiation processes associated with PPPs.

Sustainable investments (SI) represent a promising class of investments, combining financial returns with mitigating environmental challenges, achieving SDG goals and creating a positive business impact. An enhanced global focus on climate change developments in the backdrop of COP26 and COP27, raised the need for comprehensive literature mapping, to understand the emerging themes and future research arenas in this field.

The authors apply a quali–quantitative approach of bibliometric methods coupled with content analysis, to review 1,022 articles obtained from the Web of Science (WoS) database for 1991–2023.

The results identify the leading authors and their collaborations, impactful journals and pioneering articles in sustainable investment literature. The authors also indicate seven major themes of SI to be financial performance; fiduciary duty; CSR; construction of ESG-based portfolios; sustainability assessment tools and mechanisms; investor behavior; and impact investing. Further, content analysis of literature from 2020 to 2023 highlights emerging research issues to be SDG financing via green bonds and social impact bonds; investor impact creation via shareholder engagement and field building strategies; and governance related determinants of firm-level sustainable investments. Finally, the authors discuss the research gaps across these themes and identify future research questions.

This paper crystallizes research themes in sustainable investment literature using a vast coverage of globally conducted studies published in reputed journals till date. The findings of this study coupled with future research questions provide a well-grounded foundation for new researchers to further explore the emerging dimensions of this field.