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Country‐specific information on risk management is increasingly important, not only for investors and decision makers in international markets but also, for those in national and regional markets. This study reports the results of a cross‐sectional survey of risk management practice and derivatives use by a sample of Australian firms. Overall, the results suggest that firm‐specific factors appear to have some influence on risk management practice with the industry of the respondent being the most important, while the degree of international exposure has the least. Larger and more internationally exposed firms are likely to have more frequent reporting of derivatives use, and are more likely to use swaps and options to manage risks than other types of firms. Issues and implications for international firms are discussed.

Identifies some gaps in corporate risk management research and presents a study of risk management practices in large, non‐financial German firms. Compares the perceived relevance of different types of risk with the intensity of their management and reports that no respondents admitted major difficulty in developing a risk management system. Finds that firm survival is rated as the top goal of risk management, that respondents are closer to risk‐neutral than risk‐averse for financial risks, that around half centralize treasury management and 88 per cent use derivatives. Ranks the types of derivatives used and the importance of associated problems; shows how foreign exchange risk, US $ exposure and interest rate risk are managed; and assesses attitudes towards foreign exchange and interest rate risk management. Considers consistency with other research and calls for more.

The development in the German-speaking countries of International Management (IM) as an academic discipline is analyzed both from a research-oriented and an institutional standpoint. This development is characterized by a relatively long run-up after early beginnings in the 1920s and a steep jump during the past 15–20 years. Business Administration and Strategic Management rather than Economics have influenced the IM field which is now an established subject in its own right. The resulting discipline is well on its way to overcoming an alleged “black hole-image” of international isolation on the part of German-speaking countries’ scholars.

Empirical evidence on the determinants of corporate FX speculation is ambiguous. We note that the conflicting findings of prior studies could be the result of different methodologies in determining speculation. Using a novel approach to defining speculative activities, we seek to help solve the puzzle of the determinants of speculation and examine which firms engage in such activities and why they do so.

This paper examines an unexplored regulatory environment that contains publicly reported FX risk data on the firms' exposures before and after hedging per year and currency. This unprecedented data granularity allows us to use actual reported volumes instead of proxy variables in defining speculation and to examine whether the convexity theories are empirically supported in FX risk management.

We find that frequent speculators are smaller, have more growth opportunities and possess lower internal resources, which indicates unprecedented empirical evidence for the convexity theories in FX risk management. Further, we provide evidence that corporate speculation might be linked to the application of hedge accounting.

We help solve the questions of which and why firms engage in speculative activities. This can provide valuable information to various stakeholders such as financial analysts, investors, or regulators, which can help prevent imperiling corporate losses and curb excessive speculative financial activities.

In order to question the unresolved issue of the determinants of speculation, this paper is the first to use openly available accounting data with actual reported FX exposure information before and after hedging in defining speculation, instead of relying on proxy variables for FX exposure and derivative usage with potential estimation errors.

We examine whether firms’ multinationality leads to better performance and what the role of R&D investment is in the multinationality performance linkage. Unlike the previous studies, we employ both accounting‐ and market‐based measures of firm performance for a large sample of U.S. manufacturing firms. Our results show that the empirical relation between multinationality and performance is not monotonic but varies with the phase of a firm’s multinationality, starting with a negative relation initially, followed by a positive one, and then again a negative one. This horizontal S‐shaped curvilinear relation of multinationality is more pronounced for the market‐based performance measure and is supportive of the three‐stage theory of internationalization. We also find that a firm’s multinationality is related to greater firm performance when the firm possesses R&D investment, and that the effect of R&D increases with the extent of a firm’s multinationality. These results lend strong support for the Internalization theory and the resource‐based view of firms’ international expansion. Our results are robust to different model specifications with an alternative measure of multinationality.

This chapter contributes to the ongoing debate about how digitalisation affects the internationalisation of small- and medium-sized firms (SMEs). By applying the Uppsala Internationalisation Process model, this chapter examines the impact of e-commerce on the internationalisation of SMEs. The study uses a unique dataset, which includes 14,513 SMEs across several sectors in 34 countries. The results show that firms using the Internet as a means to provide information about the firm exhibit a higher degree of internationalisation, while using the Internet to facilitate transactions was found to have a positive impact on the ratio of foreign sales to the total sales; however, these foreign sales are likely to be concentrated in less regions/markets. Furthermore, perceived export barriers were found to be a significant moderator of the effects of e-commerce usage on international intensity and international diversification. This suggests that e-commerce does not automatically facilitate the internationalisation of SMEs.

This study aims to analyze the relationship between corporate governance attributes and the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) compliance among Zambian listed companies.

Data was collected through content analysis of annual reports and audited financial statements of 20 Zambian listed companies for the period 2012 to 2018. This is a longitudinal study which involved panel data analysis. A Hausman test was conducted to select the model to use to run the panel regression analysis.

The results indicate a positive statistically insignificant relationship between board size, board independence and IFRS compliance. A statistically significant negative relationship between audit committee independence and IFRS compliance. However, there is a positive relationship between board members with accounting and auditing experience, the inclusion of women on the board and IFRS compliance.

Limitation includes the narrow focus on listed companies only which cannot be generalized to other public interest and private companies in Zambia.

The study findings imply that corporate governance attributes such as the inclusion of qualified and experienced Chartered Accountants and women on the board will increase IFRS compliance. The appointment criteria of non-executive directors should be strengthened.

This is the first empirical study to analyze the relationship between IFRS compliance and corporate governance in Zambia. The study also responds to the call by the World Bank (2017) to empirically study IFRS compliance in Zambia and contributes to the scant literature in developing countries on determinants of IFRS compliance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence of exchange rate exposure and its relationship with currency derivatives usage in the dynamic environment of the global financial crisis of 2008.

Using a sample of 624 Indian firms over the period of April 2001–March 2016, this paper investigates the linear and asymmetric exposure by dividing the full sample period into different sub-periods around the crisis.

The evidence presented in the paper suggests that the firms are more exposed to the exchange rate changes since the onset of the financial crisis. However, there is a lack of evidence that the usage of currency derivatives is more effective in reducing exposure during the crisis/post-crisis period as opposed to the pre-crisis period.

The findings are important to investors and managers for a better understanding of firm behaviours in relation to their risk management policies during the period of external shocks like crisis.

There is a paucity of research to explore whether the effect of currency derivatives usage on exchange rate exposure varies during external shocks such as crisis periods. The paper provides novel evidence that the effectiveness of derivatives usage in alleviating exposure becomes less during the dynamic environment of crisis.

The present chapter tries to assess the state of art of enterprise risk management (ERM) among Portuguese non-financial companies regarding two main aspects: the ERM background in Portugal and the level of disclosure of ERM practices by non-financial listed companies. Since the analysis of disclosures is useful to understand the level of evolution and adoption of ERM framework we tried to assess the ERM practices disclosed by 26 Portuguese non-financial listed companies at the Euronext Lisbon Stock Exchange regulated market, during the period of 2006–2016. Main findings indicate that regulation on ERM in Portugal emanates from three main Codes (The Portuguese Companies Code, The Stock Exchange Code, and The Corporate Governance Code). The ERM professionalization in Portugal is its infancy and has been promoted mainly by the Institute of Portuguese Internal Auditors. Moreover, research on topics such as risk reporting and risk management/ERM is very scarce. Overall, findings of prior literature are consistent with results from our exploratory study. We conclude that Portuguese non-financial listed companies still disclose very little information on ERM activities. However, over the period of analysis, the disclosure practices evolved positively. Findings show that ERM disclosure can still be extensively improved in the future.