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A low cost two dimensional pyroelectric array technology has been developed, together with advanced signal processing algorithms. This enables the availability of intelligent passive infrared detector systems for surveillance, counting, and related applications. The technology has also made possible for the first time a truly affordable low‐resolution thermal imager for condition monitoring, plant maintenance, and process control.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between companies filing versus those not filing corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and corporate governance.

The websites of US publicly traded companies were examined for commitment to CSR or sustainability reporting based on the preparation of voluntary reports. This information provided the CSR measure, the key independent variable in this study. The data used to compute discretionary accruals (based on the modified Jones model) were obtained from Compustat. Data on auditor tenure were retrieved from Audit Analytics. The number of members and financial experts on an audit committee were gathered from proxy reports filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Companies filing CSR reports have higher audit quality, higher audit committee quality, increased auditor tenure and lower auditor dismissal compared to those not filing CSR reports. The findings support stakeholder theory.

This study’s utilization of multiple measures of corporate governance provides insight into the robustness of the relationship between CSR reporting and corporate governance. Further, this research uses a different measure of CSR reporting; that is, companies that voluntarily prepared separate CSR reports following or not following the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines compared to reports prepared following the GRI guidelines. This approach increases the size and diversity (i.e. industries) of the sample (Kolk, 2003; Waddock and Graves, 1997).

The findings suggest that companies engage in CSR reporting to indicate strong corporate governance.

This study uses multiple measures of corporate governance to demonstrate the positive relationship between CSR behavior (measured via filing of CSR reports) and corporate governance.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the effect of French family control on the cash flow sensitivity of cash (CFSC). It also investigates the moderating effect of board of directors’ features on this relation.

Based on a sample of French-listed companies from 2012 to 2014, the authors use GLS regression models on panel data estimated with robust standard errors, clustered at the firm level.

The results show that family control is positively associated with the CFSC. This finding suggests that families are likely to hold more cash out of their cash flows for entrenchment and expropriation purposes. A further analysis shows that board size, independence and the two-tier board structure negatively affect the CFSC in family firms. Board efficiency is then a guarantee of minority shareholders’ interests against family expropriation risks in France.

These findings suggest that French family firms are likely to expropriate minority interests by extracting rents through their cash holding behavior. However, in the presence of high-quality board features, the relation turns negative, suggesting that the quality of the board is an efficient corporate governance device that is likely to monitor family corporate decisions.

This paper extends previous research by investigating the moderating effect of board features on the relation between family control and the CFSC. The research provides a metric for agency problems that is the sensitivity of cash to cash flows and offers theoretical support for the agency argument of hoarding cash.