Search Results (6)

This study investigates the impact of board composition, specifically the presence of non-Saudi members and board busyness, on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure among Saudi-listed companies, an area of increasing importance in the context of global sustainability and corporate responsibility. As businesses face growing pressures to enhance transparency and accountability, understanding the factors that influence ESG reporting becomes crucial. This research specifically focuses on the presence of non-Saudi members and board busyness, examining how these characteristics affect ESG disclosures amidst recent corporate governance reforms in Saudi Arabia. Utilizing a balanced panel dataset of 40 non-financial firms covering the period from 2017 to 2022, we aim to understand how these board characteristics influence ESG reporting in the context of recent corporate governance reforms in Saudi Arabia. Our findings indicate that the presence of non-Saudi board members and board busyness significantly enhance ESG disclosure, while board independence shows no significant relationship. The 2017 corporate governance reforms strengthened the impact of non-Saudi members and busy directors on ESG practices, highlighting the importance of regulatory frameworks in promoting sustainability. This study provides empirical evidence from an emerging market and offers practical implications for policymakers, managers, and investors. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dreadful influence on both economic activities and human life, in view of which management has to play a strategic role to focus on effective board leadership in order to optimize firm performance. The present study analyses the role of corporate governance practices in determining firm performance during the pandemic. A total of 151 non-financial companies from 11 diversified industries representing the NIFTY200 index for two years, 2019–2020 (pre-COVID-19) and 2020–2021 (duringCOVID-19), were selected. Paired sample t-tests, panel data regression, and one-way ANOVA were used for the analysis. The findings confirm that there is a significant difference between some corporate governance practices (board size, board independence, board’s female proportion, board attendance, and audit committee size) as well as financial performance (Tobin’s Q) before and during the COVID-19 period. The regression results of the full sample show that only board busyness has a positive and significant impact on ROA and Tobin’s Q. However, after splitting the sample year-wise, board size and audit committee meetings positively affected ROA during COVID-19. On the other hand, board independence had a negative influence. Female directors and audit committee meetings positively affected ROA in the pre-COVID-19 period, while board busyness had a negative influence. The results of one-way ANOVA show a substantial difference in the financial performance among industries. Full article

This study aimed to analyze the relationship between busyness, tenure, and the frequency of CEO meetings and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure. This study used 624 observations from 78 companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) database for the 2010–2018 period. This study indicated that companies with busy CEOs or CEOs with long tenure produce fewer CSR disclosures. On the other hand, companies with CEOs who frequently attend board meetings generate more CSR disclosures because they can absorb a lot of useful information to address the changing social and environmental issues. Companies can limit the activities and tenure of the CEO and increase the awareness of the CEO to attend board meetings to encourage the firm’s sustainability. Companies with busy CEOs and long tenure result in less CSR disclosure. Furthermore, the frequency of CEO meetings can enhance CSR disclosure. Full article

The aim of the study was to estimate the diagnostic accuracy of textural features extracted by dual-energy contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) images, by carrying out univariate and multivariate statistical analyses including artificial intelligence approaches. In total, 80 patients with known breast lesion were enrolled in this prospective study according to regulations issued by the local Institutional Review Board. All patients underwent dual-energy CEM examination in both craniocaudally (CC) and double acquisition of mediolateral oblique (MLO) projections (early and late). The reference standard was pathology from a surgical specimen for malignant lesions and pathology from a surgical specimen or fine needle aspiration cytology, core or Tru-Cut needle biopsy, and vacuum assisted breast biopsy for benign lesions. In total, 104 samples of 80 patients were analyzed. Furthermore, 48 textural parameters were extracted by manually segmenting regions of interest. Univariate and multivariate approaches were performed: non-parametric Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney test; receiver operating characteristic (ROC), linear classifier (LDA), decision tree (DT), k-nearest neighbors (KNN), artificial neural network (NNET), and support vector machine (SVM) were utilized. A balancing approach and feature selection methods were used. The univariate analysis showed low accuracy and area under the curve (AUC) for all considered features. Instead, in the multivariate textural analysis, the best performance considering the CC view (accuracy (ACC) = 0.75; AUC = 0.82) was reached with a DT trained with leave-one-out cross-variation (LOOCV) and balanced data (with adaptive synthetic (ADASYN) function) and a subset of three robust textural features (MAD, VARIANCE, and LRLGE). The best performance (ACC = 0.77; AUC = 0.83) considering the early-MLO view was reached with a NNET trained with LOOCV and balanced data (with ADASYN function) and a subset of ten robust features (MEAN, MAD, RANGE, IQR, VARIANCE, CORRELATION, RLV, COARSNESS, BUSYNESS, and STRENGTH). The best performance (ACC = 0.73; AUC = 0.82) considering the late-MLO view was reached with a NNET trained with LOOCV and balanced data (with ADASYN function) and a subset of eleven robust features (MODE, MEDIAN, RANGE, RLN, LRLGE, RLV, LZLGE, GLV_GLSZM, ZSV, COARSNESS, and BUSYNESS). Multivariate analyses using pattern recognition approaches, considering 144 textural features extracted from all three mammographic projections (CC, early MLO, and late MLO), optimized by adaptive synthetic sampling and feature selection operations obtained the best results (ACC = 0.87; AUC = 0.90) and showed the best performance in the discrimination of benign and malignant lesions. Full article

This paper investigates the role of institutional investors in the improvement of corporate governance for the companies in which they invest (investee companies) using evidence about the attributes of boards of directors across 15 countries. Furthermore, this paper examines the extent to which the activism of institutional investors is determined by the institutional environment, to include various economic conditions (pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis), legal systems and ownership structures. Drawing from the agency theory and institutional theory, the results show that foreign institutional investors are the main promoters of board governance structures across the globe. This study also provides evidence that institutional investors promote the independence of a board and its audit and compensation sub-committees (but excluding its nomination committee). The study also demonstrates that institutional investors reduce board entrenchment, though it presents no evidence that institutional investors reduce board busyness. The results also suggest that institutional investors behave differently when operating within different economic conditions (pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis), legal systems and ownership structures. This paper contributes to the growing literature on shareholder activism and comparative corporate governance mechanisms. The findings suggest that the activism of institutional investors is contingent on the institutional settings, to include economic conditions, legal systems and ownership structures. Full article

This study analyses whether the board characteristics (diversity attributes, competitive capital, time commitment) of companies listed on the Financial Times Stock Exchange FTSE100 exhibit a different performance compared to those associated with conventional benchmark indices (FTSE250, FTSE SMALLCAP (small capitalisation), FTSE Fledgling, and FTSE All-Shar). Using multivariate analysis and unbalanced panel data over the period 2000−2014, we provide novel evidence on how the UK stock market indices react to diversity in board characteristics. Our findings reveal that different aspects of board characteristics are significantly correlated with the performance of FTSE indices. This study further confirms that boards with high levels of diversity maintain better and more effective levels of governance, in particular for companies listed on FTSE100 and FTSE250. Interestingly, we report that the competitive capital and busyness associated with boards of companies listed on FTSE100 have professional, well-educated, and socially connected boards, and show a clear pattern whereby boards become significantly less competitive as firm size decreases. Full article