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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of audit committee independence, board ethnicity and family ownership on earnings management in Malaysia.

The effect of audit committee independence, board ethnicity and family ownership on corporate governance is investigated via 1,206 firm-year observations between the fiscal years of 2004 and 2009 of Bursa Malaysia listed firms. Panel data regression analysis is used to analyze the relationship.

The findings of this study fail to associate the role of audit committee independence as proposed under RMCCG (2007) in curtailing earnings management activities, thus supporting the findings on power distance scores that power granted to the top management may result in less effective independent directors. Nonetheless, in support of the alignment effect theory, family ownership is found to reduce earnings management activities. The findings show that corporate governance is more effective in developing country family firms due to their long history of family reputation and the importance of institutional culture factors.

This study focuses on board ethnicity, family ownership and its influence on earnings management.

This study offers insights into the importance of family institutional structures on corporate governance reforms in Malaysia as Malaysian family firms are mostly traditional firms that have built their reputation and strength in the industry for many generations.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between audit committees’ characteristics and firms’ risk in Malaysian manufacturing firms.

The effect of audit committees on firms’ risk is investigated by 930 firm-year observations between the fiscal years of 2004 and 2009 of Bursa Malaysia listed firms during the global financial crisis. Panel data regression analysis is used to analyze the relationship.

The findings of this study indicate that audit committee’s independence reduces firms’ risk. Nonetheless, across various analysis, the authors fail to associate audit committee’s qualification and membership in professional bodies with firms’ risk. Consistently, the authors find that family ownership is negatively associated with IDIOSYNCRATIC risks, supporting previous studies claim that family firms are more risk averse than non-family firms.

The analysis is confined to Malaysian family manufacturing sectors during global financial crisis 2007–2008.

This study offers insights into the importance of audit committees’ qualification and knowledge in Malaysian family manufacturing firms in reducing firms’ risk and providing stability to investors investment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of women on board moderated by firms’ competitive advantage on firms’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures.

The sample consists of 332 firm-year observations from the year 2012 to 2017 of 65 firms listed in Bursa Malaysia. To improve the robustness of this analysis, the authors adopt clustering techniques in the regression analysis. Sensitivity analysis is also conducted using two-stage least square regression and robust standard errors for panel regression with a cross-sectional dependence approach.

The findings of this research indicate that women on board encourage ESG and environmental disclosures. Nonetheless, in competitively advantaged firms, the authors find that the interaction between WOMENPER and COMADVANTAGE is negatively influencing ESG scores. However, no evidence is found to indicate that women on board in a competitively advantaged firm have an effect on the environmental scores of a firm.

The findings urge regulators to ensure the appointment of qualified and competent women on board, particularly in competitively advantage firms.

Though firms with more women on board are associated with better ESG disclosures and environmental disclosures, the author’s additional analysis found that this is less pronounced in competitively advantage firms. Since a number of the competitive firms are owned by family firms as well as government-linked firms, the appointment of women should not be based on directors’ affiliation, network and family relationships.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few studies which seek to investigate women’s appointment in competitive advantage firms.

This purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of the Revised Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (2007) toward the effectiveness of the board and audit committees in Malaysian manufacturing companies. Since the manufacturing firms are dominantly held by Chinese firms, this paper is extended to incorporate the implication of ethnicity on board and audit committees’ effectiveness.

Using a sample of 201 firms from fiscal year 2004-2009, the data set consists of a total of 1,206 firm-year observations. Analysis is carried out using correlation analysis, multiple and logistic regression analyses.

The findings reveal that board and audit committees’ effectiveness is positively associated with earnings management pre- and post-Revised Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (2007). A higher number of ethnic members in the board are also positively associated with earnings management.

This study is limited to some industries in the manufacturing sector due to the special characteristics of this sector and covers mostly large firms. The results may not therefore be applicable to small firms. Finally, the study does not consider possible interaction between the board and audit characteristics which may be significant in influencing earnings management.

The findings show that the corporate governance mechanism in Malaysian firms is currently inadequate in preventing earnings management and extra effort is needed to improve board governance.

This paper contributes to the current literature on the issues of corporate governance effectiveness and board ethnicity in the current economic and political structure in Malaysia.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of resource use and environmental innovation on firms’ financial costs.

The sample consists of 2,588 firm-year observations from 647 companies collected from Thomson Reuters over a five-year period (year 2014 to year 2018). The authors analyze the data using panel-corrected standard errors, which corrects heteroskedasticity issues and contemporaneous error in the data. Further, the authors adopt cluster analysis based on the year and industry. The authors also adopt the generalized method of moments and two-stage least squares regression to check for endogeneity issues and validate the findings.

The findings generally indicate that resource use is negatively associated with firms’ cost of capital. Firms’ engagement with operational activities improves savings in the usage of resources, but environmental innovation is found to be positively associated with the cost of capital. This may be attributable to higher capital investment, stringent risk assessment and third-party assurance associated with firms’ environmental innovation.

The findings urge regulators, practitioners and stakeholders to engage in more dialogues to reduce the costs associated with environmental sustainability innovation. This may be in the form of new technologies, energy-saving products, waste recycling and green innovations. Government intervention via greater infrastructure, tax incentives and regulatory reform may support the growth of innovation in emerging market economies.

Efforts are needed to encourage a dynamic, innovative and entrepreneurial mindset among the people living in emerging countries. Also, government regulatory reform is imperative in encouraging innovations in the environmental, social and governance ecosystem.

The effect on society would be in the form of a new product innovation that creates better living standards and environments for the communities.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few studies that focuses on the impact of firms’ resource use and environmental innovativeness and its implications on business financial costs in both emerging and developed markets.