This study examines the effects of board characteristics and sustainable compensation policy on carbon reduction initiatives and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of a firm. We use firm fixed effect model to analyse data from 256 non-financial UK firms covering a period of 13 years (2002–2014). Our estimation results suggest that board independence and board gender diversity have positive associations with carbon reduction initiatives. In addition, environment-social-governance based compensation policy is found to be positively associated with carbon reduction initiatives. However, we do not find any relationship between corporate governance variables and GHG emissions of a firm. Overall, our evidence suggests that corporate boards and executive management tend to focus on a firm's process-oriented carbon performance, without improving actual carbon performance in the form of reduced GHG emissions. The findings have important implications for practitioners and policymakers with respect to the effectiveness of internal corporate governance mechanisms in addressing climate change risks, and possible linkage between corporate governance reform and carbon related policies.

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The effects of board characteristics and sustainable compensation policy on carbon performance of UK firms

Organizational boards of directors are one of the most important subgroups within most modern organizations, performing critical advisory, monitoring and resource dependence roles. This paper investigates the crucial question of whether the stock market values ethnic and gender diversity within organizational boards. We find that board diversity is positively associated with market valuation. We distinctively demonstrate further that ethnic diversity is valued more highly by the stock market than gender diversity. By contrast, we do not find any evidence of a significant non-linear link between board diversity and market valuation. Our findings are robust across a number of econometric models that deal with different types of endogeneities and market valuation measures. Overall, our results are consistent with agency and resource dependence theoretical predictions.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2338073_code366655.pdf?abstractid=2338073&mirid=1

Board Diversity and Organizational Valuation: Unravelling the Effects of Ethnicity and Gender

Organizational boards of directors are one of the most important subgroups within most modern organizations, performing critical advisory, monitoring and resource dependence roles This paper investigates the crucial question of whether the stock market values ethnic and gender diversity within organizational boards We find that board diversity is positively associated with market valuation We distinctively demonstrate further that ethnic diversity is valued more highly by the stock market than gender diversity By contrast, we do not find any evidence of a significant non-linear link between board diversity and market valuation Our findings are robust across a number of econometric models that deal with different types of endogeneities and market valuation measures Overall, our results are consistent with agency and resource dependence theoretical predictions

/pdf/board-diversity-and-organizational-valuation-unravelling-the-42m6luit0m.pdf

Board diversity and organizational valuation: unravelling the effects of ethnicity and gender

This thesis contains the findings of an examination of the relationship between internal corporate governance structures and the financial performance of South African listed firms. Specifically, using a sample of 100 South African listed firms from 2002 to 2006 (a total of 500 firm-year observations) and corporate governance data collected directly from company annual reports, the thesis seeks to ascertain whether better-governed listed firms tend to be associated with higher financial returns than their poorly-governed counterparts. Unlike prior studies, the internal corporate governance-financial performance nexus is investigated by applying both the compliance-index and equilibrium-variable research methodologies. The results based on the compliance-index model suggest that there is a statistically significant and positive association between the quality of the sampled firms’ internal corporate governance structures and their financial performance. This finding is robust whether an accounting (return on assets) or a market (Tobin’s Q) based measure of financial performance is used. Distinct from prior studies, an analysis of the impact of complying with the South African context specific affirmative action and stakeholder corporate governance provisions on the financial performance of South African listed firms is also investigated. The results indicate that compliance with the affirmative action and stakeholder corporate governance provisions impacts positively on the performance of South African listed firms. By contrast, the results based on the equilibrium-variable model are generally mixed. First, regardless of the financial performance measure used, board diversity, the frequency of board meetings, and the establishment of board committees except the presence of a nomination committee seem to have no impact on firm financial performance. Second, board size is statistically significant and positively associated with Tobin’s Q (Q-ratio), but statistically insignificant and negatively related to return on assets (ROA). Third, role or CEO duality is statistically significant and positively related to ROA, but statistically insignificant and negatively associated with the Q-ratio. Director shareownership is statistically insignificant and positively related to ROA, but statistically significant and negatively associated with the Q-ratio. Finally, the findings based on both the director shareownership squared and cubed do not support the statistically significant non-linear director shareownership-financial performance association reported by Morck et al. (1988). The findings from a series of robustness or sensitivity analyses carried out suggest that the empirical results reported are generally robust to potential endogeneity problems.

/pdf/internal-corporate-governance-structures-and-firm-financial-277elzqpmw.pdf

Internal Corporate Governance Structures and Firm Financial Performance: Evidence from South African Listed Firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between intellectual capital (IC), categorized in terms of four sub-constructs – namely, human capital (HC), relational capital (RC), innovation capital (InnC) and process capital (PrC) – and business performance in the agribusiness industry. Design/methodology/approach – Based on a sample of international agribusiness companies observed over a five-year period, this paper uses correlation and multiple regression analysis to test for the existence of a positive relationship between each IC component and conventional business performance metrics. Findings – The empirical results support the hypotheses that RC and PrC have a positive impact on corporate performance. Counter to the expectations, InnC by itself is negatively associated with performance. Results also failed to confirm the hypothesis that HC directly and positively affects performance. However HC positively moderates the relation between InnC and performance, which suggests ...

Intellectual capital and firm performance in the global agribusiness industry

This article examines the relationship between board structure and the intellectual capital performance of South African publicly listed companies. Board composition was analysed in terms of gender and ethnic diversity, using cross‐sectional multiple regressions. The population of the study included all South African companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange during 2003. The final sample, after the transformation of the data, consisted of 117 companies. The empirical results indicated a positive significant relationship between the percentage of ethnic members on the companies’ boards of directors and intellectual capital performance. Based on the results of this study, it is argued that South African publicly listed companies may be able to enhance their intellectual capital performance by using an ethnically diverse board of directors.

Board structure and intellectual capital performance in South Africa

The debate on the determinants of firm value is ongoing; and the increasing gap in the book‐to‐market ratio (Lev & Sougiannis 1999) has yet to be explained in the financial literature. This article contributes to the debate by examining whether intellectual capital measured using the value added intellectual coefficient (VAICTM) (Pulic 1998) contributes to the explanation of the book‐to‐market ratio. This study used Ohlson’s 1995 valuation model and JSE Securities Exchange (SA) (JSE) data in an attempt to identify whether the book value of assets, accounting (accrual) earnings and VAICTM explain the behaviour of South African share prices. The panel data least squares model results indicate a significant relationship between share prices three months after year end, and abnormal earnings, abnormal cash dividends, book value of assets, the capital employed coefficient, and the human capital coefficient.

N‐P. Swartz

Papers

Board structure and intellectual capital performance in South Africa

An empirical examination of the value relevance of intellectual capital using the Ohlson (1995) valuation model