Men and Women of the Corporation

This study aims to examine the relationship between board diversity and quality of corporate social responsibility (QCSR) disclosure.,The study estimates seven dimensions of board diversity including age, gender, nation, ethnicity, educational level, educational background and tenure by applying Blau’s index. The relationship between board diversity and QCSR disclosure from the perspective of the resource-based view theory is estimated by using panel random effects regression across 57 firms producing exclusive sustainability reports listed in the Pakistan Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2017. The robustness of the results has also been checked through alternative measurements of the variables under study.,The regression results reveal that gender and national diversities are the firms’ valuable resources, having the potential to promote QCSR disclosure. However, age diversity was found to be negatively associated to QCSR disclosure. Furthermore, educational level, educational background, ethnicity and tenure were insignificant on QCSR disclosure. The sensitivity analysis supports the findings of the baseline model.,Pakistani firms need to improve the level of board diversity through encouragement of the inclusion of diverse forces of gender and nationality to enhance disclosure on CSR practices.,This is the first study on board diversity and QCSR in the case of Pakistan.

Board diversity and quality of CSR disclosure: evidence from Pakistan

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of external and internal corporate governance mechanisms on agency costs.,The author uses data from German firms that were listed in the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock exchange during 2006-2011. Agency costs were measured using stochastic frontier analysis, a relatively new approach to estimate agency costs. The regression analysis is applied to test the model.,The results indicate that an industry specialized audit firm, the presence of a large audit firm, abnormal audit fees, management ownership and variable management compensation are significantly negatively associated with the level of a firms’ agency costs. In contrast, this seems not to be true for the existence of an audit committee for which the results of the paper document a non-significant association.,The paper contributes to the existing literature in several ways. First, the research design is to the best of the authors’ knowledge the first that investigates the influence of different corporate governance mechanisms on the level of agency costs. Second, previous studies are mainly focused on the US audit market. This focus on the US audit market leaves uncertainties regarding the direction and magnitude of the empirical relationship in the European and German environmental context. Finally, the paper provides initial empirical evidence for a sample of German IFRS listed companies (IFRS – International Financial Reporting Standards).

The impact of external and internal corporate governance mechanisms on agency costs

This paper aims to provide a twofold empirical comparison: first, a comparison between the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on agency costs proxies and firm performance measures, and second, this comparison was used before and after the 2008 financial crisis, capturing two different economic states,Panel regression methods were applied to two data sets of non-financial firms incorporated in the FTSE ALL-Share index over the period 2005-2011,The results provide evidence that not all mechanisms lead to lower agency conflicts and/or higher firm performance Ownership identity has a significant impact and the role of the governance mechanisms changes with the changes in the economic conditions surrounding the firm,The results lend support to the notion that forcing a certain code of practice on firms to follow could compel them to move away from conflict reduction governance structures,To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to provide a comparison of empirical evidence for the impact of board characteristics and ownership identity on agency costs and firm performance by using a comprehensive set of corporate governance mechanisms This comparison challenges the prior studies that use performance as an indirect proxy for lower agency costs Additionally, it compares the impact of the governance mechanisms during two different economic conditions

The impact of board characteristics and ownership identity on agency costs and firm performance: UK evidence

Enhancing CSR disclosure through foreign ownership, foreign board members, and cross-listing: Does it work in Russian context?

Purpose




The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether specific corporate governance mechanisms, such as board size, board composition, leverage and firm size, tend to mitigate agency cost occurrence in the USA, Russia and Norway.




Design/methodology/approach




The authors analyze the sample of 243 US, 196 Russian and 175 Norwegian joint stock companies for the period 2004-2012. The regression analysis is applied to test the models.




Findings




It is revealed that larger boards increase agency costs (measured by asset utilization ratio and asset liquidity ratio) in all sample companies. The proportion of female members has a very slight positive effect in US companies, a negative influence on agency costs in the Norwegian sample and is not significant in the Russian market. The authors find that the big Russian and US companies in the samples of this paper have lower agency costs.




Practical implications




The results of this paper show which agency-mitigation mechanisms work more effectively in companies operating in the analyzed countries characterized by specific corporate governance models.




Originality/value




The main contribution of this paper to the empirical literature is that it extends the stream of agency research by introducing new, emerging markets: represented by Scandinavian (depicted by the Norwegian sample) and Russian companies. Considering that each market – US, Norwegian and Russian – represents significant distinguishing features in their institutional framework, the paper provides an important research setting in which corporate governance mechanisms can be analyzed from the perspective of a country’s peculiar characteristics. Unlike other agency cost studies, this paper accounts for the gender diversity component in the companies and contributes to gender diversity issues.

Elina Kaikova

Papers

Corporate governance mechanisms and agency costs: cross-country analysis