Search Results (5)

Urgency and severity of climate change impacts have become increasingly prominent, making the enhancement of corporate climate risk disclosure (CCRD) a shared demand among regulators, investors, and the general public. From the perspective of irrational behavioral traits, this paper utilizes a sample of A-share-listed companies in China from 2008 to 2022 to empirically examine the impact of executives’ overseas experiences on CCRD and its underlying mechanisms. To measure firm-level climate risk disclosure, we employ machine learning-based textual analysis techniques and match the constructed disclosure indicators with firms’ financial data. The results demonstrate that executives with overseas experience significantly enhance the level of CCRD, and this effect remains consistent after a series of robustness tests. This effect operates through the dual paths of “climate attention allocation enhancement” and “management myopia mitigation”. Moreover, the positive impact of overseas experience is more pronounced among firms in climate-sensitive industries and regions with lower climate awareness. A further analysis of executive overseas experience characteristics shows that executives with experience in developed economies and those with international educational backgrounds exhibit a stronger influence in promoting CCRD. Additionally, an investigation into the economic consequences demonstrates that executives with overseas experiences not only improve firms’ ESG performances but also help reduce ESG rating discrepancies, reinforcing the beneficial role of overseas exposure in corporate governance. The findings not only provided micro-level empirical evidence for the effectiveness of talent recruitment policies in emerging economies but also yielded critical policy implications for regulatory bodies to refine climate disclosure frameworks and enable enterprises to leverage opportunities in low-carbon transition. Full article

Private construction businesses have grown quickly, greatly boosting China’s economic growth; nonetheless, these businesses suffer tremendous developmental uncertainty, particularly when compared to larger state-owned businesses. The traits of the top management team (TMT) may have a direct impact on how risk-taking and decision-making behaviors are exhibited by businesses, according to earlier studies. The majority of private construction companies in China are family businesses with family members making up the majority of their top executives. As a result, these companies are vulnerable to family centralization, which will definitely boost their risk-taking level. This study used a sample of private listed companies in China’s construction industry from 2009 to 2019 to explore the impact of CEO traits on the risk-taking degree of enterprises. The findings show that a higher percentage of top female managers and a higher average rate of TMT member both lower the level of risk taking in private construction businesses. The level of risk taking, however, is positively impacted by the top management’s higher average education level. The average tenure and overseas experience of TMTs and the degree of risk taking in private construction enterprises are not significantly correlated. Additionally, the degree of risk taking in private construction firms can vary depending on the qualities of the senior management team. Full article

Enterprises have emerged as primary actors in environmental protection owing to the increasingly severe global energy crisis and environmental pollution. Companies can reduce operational costs, achieve environmental social responsibility, and enhance their green image by increasing their green investments. Simultaneously, companies can gain support from investors, governments, and other stakeholders for improving their sustainable development. This study uses fixed-effects regression models to analyze the impact of green investment on corporate sustainability in Chinese listed companies for the period from 2010 to 2020. It also investigates the moderating effects of government environmental subsidies, investor attention, and executives’ overseas experience on the relationship between green investment and corporate sustainability. The data used in this study were not only obtained from the China Stock Market & Accounting Research (CSMAR) database but also collected manually from the annual reports and social responsibility reports of listed companies using web crawler technology. And the robustness test was conducted by removing the epidemic year and replacing the range of independent variables and 2SLs. This study uses Stata 17.0 to filter and process the data. The results show that green investment can significantly improve the sustainability of enterprises; besides, government subsidies, investors’ attention, and executives’ overseas experience all play a positive role in moderating the positive effect of green investment on the sustainable development of enterprises. Further analysis of this study finds that the moderating effect is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises and highly polluting enterprises. This study contributes to broadening the theory related to the green development of enterprises and environmental governance and provides theoretical support for enterprises to make green investment decisions and green transformations. Full article

The advancement of globalization has encouraged an increasing number of enterprises to go abroad and take cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to expand their overseas market and improve core competitiveness, although many acquirers fail to gain value from post-acquisition integration. On the basis of organizational learning theory, this paper explores the effect of executives’ foreign experience on cross-border M&A sustainability, and examines how the externally acquired knowledge can be effectively applied to cross-border M&A practice. Taking a sample of Chinese listed companies that have completed cross-border M&As during 2008–2016, our research proposes an integrated framework of foreign experiential knowledge, and discusses the process of acquisition and application of this experiential knowledge into cross-border M&As. Empirical research findings show that, compared with the general foreign experience, the specific foreign experience based on target country significantly improves cross-border M&A sustainability, and executives with host-specific work experience plays a more important role than that of education experience. Further research found that long-tenured executives positively moderate the effect of foreign experiential knowledge on cross-border M&A sustainability, while the pay gap for executives, which hampers internal coherence, plays a negative moderating role. This research provides a new insight into the promotion of the sustainable development of enterprise cross-border M&A in the globalization age. Full article

To overcome profitability deterioration in executing steel price projects, companies are seeking overseas expansion, which increases market size while reducing profit certainty. Special purpose companies (SPCs) have been found to better manage these risks through tolling agreements which transfer the local pricing volatility risks (raw material, steel sales, licensing and income tax) to the project sponsor. The energy market has benefited from policy changes allowing the use of the tolling model, finding an increase in profitability for both project sponsors and SPCs through more effective risk sharing. While successes have been published in the energy, gas, and highway sectors, the tolling model’s efficacy has yet to be tested on the steel sector. As such, this research adds to the existing body of knowledge by testing the financial feasibility of using the tolling model on three million ton/year capacity steel projects. The data analyzed has been collected from “Company A”, a company with 50 years of domestic and 20 years international steel-iron plant project execution and operation experience. An economic analysis is performed on the best, most likely, and worst-case cost/revenue scenarios of a virtual project (which represents the average of all Company A projects) and two Company A projects under construction/operation. The findings support the use of the tolling model in volatile markets, showing a net present value (NPV) profitability increase of up to $940 versus the traditional project company model under worst case market conditions. However, the traditional project company model was found to be superior in best case market conditions. With these findings, international steel companies are able to consider alternative financing structures when executing projects in volatile markets, potentially resulting in greater project sponsor and SPC profit. Full article