Search Results (675)

Corporate management has recently shifted from a traditional shareholder-centric approach to sustainability-oriented strategic management, with ESG factors becoming central to corporate strategy. In this study, we identified strategic implications for enhancing corporate sustainability amid these changes. Specifically, we examined the structural context in which voluntary international standards, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), interact with the rising importance of environmental issues, diverse stakeholders, and intensified corporate competition, leading to a more in-depth discourse on corporate sustainability management. We analyzed corporate sustainability management reports of 102 companies across five industries in South Korea, applying risk management techniques and calculating relative importance indicators for key issues. The analysis revealed that “Response to the Threat of Climate Change” was the top priority across many industries and was closely linked to other issues such as sustainable resource use, customer safety, and supplier management, depending on industry characteristics. Several issues were identified as highly important despite being infrequently mentioned, suggesting they could become key future concerns. Based on our findings, we recommend that companies develop scenario-based, industry-specific strategies to address the threat of climate change, with a focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. For governments and regulators, these findings are expected to have significant implications for enhancing corporate capacity to respond to Net Zero goals and improve climate change resilience across industries. Full article

This study conducts a bibliometric and content analysis of ‘artificial intelligence-enabled auditing’ over three decades. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in auditing has evolved and is now an imperative practice in the auditing space. Using bibliometric methods via Bibliometrix R-package (Biblioshiny) and VOSviewer, this research mainly examines the scholarly discussion on AI-enabled auditing, using the Scopus database. The main themes identified are: Theme 1: AI in auditing: readiness, representation, and implementation; Theme 2: data-driven audit ecosystems and digital technologies; and Theme 3: audit quality, professional skepticism, and ethical governance. On the descriptive end, publication trends, prominent authors, articles, and sources are identified. The findings highlight a significant increase in AI-enabled auditing studies since 2018, coinciding with growing global awareness on the importance of AI across all spheres of business. The outcome of this research contributes to a wide array of stakeholders, including businesses, audit firms, shareholders, and policymakers; it should give insights to business organizations on the capabilities of AI-assisted auditing, while policymakers should have access to verifiable, auditable and regulatory-compliant systems for the implementation of their regulations. Investors may further enhance their knowledge in terms of how AI-assisted auditing increases the quality of their investment decisions and, at the same time, the risks involved. Finally, auditing firms should further invest in improving the application of technology in the auditing environment and ensure quality, evidence-based audit outcomes, and reporting. Full article

This study investigates the prospects for implementing hydrogen mobility in Bulgaria within the broader context of transport decarbonization. Using a three-dimensional framework—policy, technology, and geography—it combines analysis of European and national strategic documents, technological feasibility assessment, and a pilot case study in the city of Ruse. The pilot scenario includes a regional hydrogen ecosystem with a photovoltaic-powered electrolyzer, two refueling stations, deployment of 20 hydrogen buses, and retrofitting of a river vessel with fuel cell propulsion. Results indicate that hydrogen technologies can significantly reduce transport-related emissions, particularly where battery-electric solutions face operational constraints. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) analysis shows that hydrogen buses remain more expensive than diesel or battery-electric alternatives under current conditions, even with locally produced green hydrogen. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that cost competitiveness may be achieved after 2030 with large-scale investments, policy support, and reduced hydrogen prices. The study highlights the importance of coherent national strategies, public–private partnerships, and targeted financial instruments to enable sustainable integration of hydrogen in urban and river transport systems. Full article

Independent directors play a critical role in overseeing company management, safeguarding the interests of both the company and its shareholders, and ensuring that decisions made by the board are scientific, rational, and fair. Directors with industry expertise bring greater experience and knowledge to their roles, enabling them to prevent short-sighted decision-making while preserving their professional reputations. This research empirically examines whether the industry expertise trait of independent directors can inhibit the irregularities of the companies they serve, using a fixed-effects model that controls for industry, company, and year, with Chinese A-share-listed companies from 2003 to 2023 as the observational sample. Endogeneity issues are addressed by using the Heckman two-stage model and the propensity score matching (PSM) model. The findings reveal that (1) independent directors with industry expertise significantly mitigate corporate violations; and (2) their influence primarily stems from improvements in the quality of information disclosure, enhancements to internal control systems, and the resolution of principal–agent conflicts. Further analysis indicates that the restraining effect of independent directors with industry expertise is particularly pronounced in environments characterized by low institutional ownership and fewer analysts, highlighting their stronger supervisory role in such contexts. Full article

Using a panel dataset of 385 European bank-year observations covering the 2012 to 2022 period, this study aimed to investigate the impact of derivatives on bank value and performance. We used bank-level panel data and conducted several multivariate statistical analyses, i.e., ordinary least squares (OLS), random-effects, and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) regressions, to examine the ways in which using derivatives for different purposes influences bank value and performance. The regression results indicated a positive and significant association between hedging derivatives and bank performance, while trading derivatives had a negative effect on bank performance and value. Furthermore, the findings suggest that using such derivatives for hedging does not enhance value. Regarding the practical implications of this study and banking sector soundness, financial market regulators and policymakers should be cautious of the potential negative consequences of extensive trading derivative use. In particular, maintaining an acceptable level in this regard is essential to ensuring that the costs of engaging in derivative markets do not surpass their benefits. Hedging through derivatives may not translate into higher bank value, thus managers should justify to investors how such hedging derivatives enhance shareholder wealth. Additional research could focus on whether using derivatives in the banking industry offers any palpable advantage in the intermediate to long term; whether their use by non-financial organizations has different implications that than of financial firms; and the extent to which such financial instruments are useful for enhancing bank value. Full article

Value is the result of the combined, conscious, and creative actions of caring, which promote sustainable prosperity. Despite its centrality in marketing theory, value is treated in the literature as a self-evident, abstract term denoting concepts as diverse as the desire to acquire goods or enjoy services, the benefits derived from using a product, the price of an object, or a customer’s contribution to business profits. This approach leads to amoral marketing decision-making focused on extracting value from stakeholders and accumulating it in the form of shareholder wealth. In this framework, the negative consequences of marketing actions for society and the natural environment are simply dismissed as externalities. This is not sustainable as it degrades the environment and increases wealth and human welfare disparities between individuals, groups, and societies. Drawing on conceptualisations of value from the fields of philosophy, semiotics, and economics, value is here defined as the result of the combined, conscious, and creative actions of caring which promote sustainable prosperity. As such, value is understood to be co-created by the interactions of various stakeholders and positioned as the link between individuals, companies, markets, society, and the natural environment. Marketing theory has traditionally viewed value creation and exchange as the result of dyadic interactions. The socioeconomic and technological milieu of the 21st century, however, creates a business ecosystem characterised by digitalisation, interconnectivity, and decentralisation which means that, the number of participants in value co-creation networks is increasing and potentially tending towards infinity. Consequently, marketing is reconceptualised as the values-driven mechanism for value formation, valuation, symbolism, exchange facilitation, and integration of the resources required for value co-creation and distribution aiming at contributing to sustainable prosperity. Virtuous marketers and mindful marketing practice can ensure the optimal use of resources and the maximisation and equitable distribution of welfare in the present without compromising the ability of future generations to continue to generate and enjoy value. Thus, by placing value at the centre of the business ecosystem, marketing contributes to sustainable prosperity. Full article

This study investigates how ownership structure conditions the transmission of corporate governance mechanisms into dividend policy within the context of South Korea’s evolving regulatory environment. Using a balanced panel of 5022 firm-year observations from 558 non-financial KOSPI-listed firms over 2011–2019, we analyze governance quality using data from the Korea Corporate Governance Service. We employ both an aggregate score and four constituent dimensions: board effectiveness, shareholder rights protection, audit committee competency, and disclosure transparency. The empirical framework combines firm fixed effects estimation, binary logistic regressions, and a two-step dynamic System GMM approach to account for unobserved heterogeneity, payout persistence, and endogeneity. The results reveal systematic heterogeneity across ownership regimes. Among non-Chaebol firms, higher governance quality across all dimensions is associated with higher dividend payouts, consistent with the governance outcome hypothesis. In contrast, among Chaebol-affiliated firms, the effectiveness of governance mechanisms is selective rather than uniform. While the aggregate governance score and shareholder rights protection retain explanatory power for dividend outcomes, internal oversight mechanisms related to board structure, audit competency, and disclosure do not exert independent influences once ownership structure is taken into account. These findings show that concentrated ownership structures condition which governance mechanisms remain effective in shaping payout policy. Regulators seeking to mitigate valuation discounts in conglomerate-dominated economies should prioritize the substantive empowerment of minority shareholder rights, as these mechanisms retain influence over payout policy even under concentrated ownership structures. Full article

For a long time, low efficiency in the transfer of rural collective land use rights and the ambiguous attribution of collective land property rights have not only restricted the mobility of rural labor factors but have also hindered the release of vitality in the rural collective economy. This has resulted in lagging growth in the income that rural residents obtain from collective economic factors, contributing to the persistent widening of the urban/rural income gap. As an important institutional innovation to address these issues, the effects of the reform of the rural collective property rights system urgently need to be clarified. The reform of the rural collective property rights system constitutes a major initiative in the transformation of the rural land system. Centered on asset verification and valuation, as well as the demarcation of membership rights and the restructuring towards a shareholding cooperative system, it aims to establish a collective property rights regime characterized by clearly defined ownership and fully functional entitlements. This study takes the national pilot reform of rural collective property rights launched in 2016 as a quasi-natural policy experiment, systematically examining the impact of this pilot policy on the internal income gap within households and its spillover effects on the urban–rural income gap. Based on microdata from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) and the China Longitudinal Night Light Data Set (PANDA-China), this study constructs a five-period balanced panel dataset covering 2304 rural households across 25 provinces. A relative exploitation index based on the Kawani index is constructed, and empirical analysis is conducted using a combination of multi-period difference-in-differences (Multi-period DID), discrete binary models, and propensity score matching-difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) models. The results show that: First, the pilot reform significantly reduced the level of income inequality within rural areas in the pilot regions, and its policy benefits further generated positive spillovers via market-driven factor allocation mechanisms, effectively bridging the urban–rural income gap. Second, institutional reforms activated the potential of rural non-agricultural economic factors, establishing new channels for a two-way flow of urban and rural factors, becoming an important path to achieve the goal of common prosperity. Third, the policy effects exhibited significant heterogeneity, specifically manifested in the attributes of major grain-producing regions, initial household income levels, and the human capital characteristics of household heads having significant moderating effects on reform outcomes. This study not only provides theoretical support and empirical evidence for deepening rural property rights reforms under the new rural revitalization strategy, but it also reveals the driving role of institutional innovation in factor mobility, thereby influencing the transmission mechanism of income distribution patterns. This finding offers a China-based solution for developing countries to address the imbalance in urban–rural development and the widening income gap. Full article

This paper studies optimal dividend and capital injection strategies with active exit options under a jump-diffusion model. We introduce a piecewise terminal payoff function to capture stop-loss exits (for deficits) and profit-taking exits (for surpluses), enabling shareholders to dynamically balance risk and return. Using the dynamic programming principle, we derive the associated quasi-variational inequalities (QVIs) and characterize the value function as the unique viscosity solution. To address analytical challenges, we employ the Markov chain approximation method, constructing a controlled Markov chain that closely approximates the jump-diffusion dynamics. Numerical solutions of the approximated problem are obtained via value iteration. The numerical results demonstrate how the value function and optimal strategies respond to different claim distributions (comparing Exponential and Pareto cases), key model parameters, and exit payoff functions. The numerical study further validates the algorithm’s convergence and examines the stability of solutions with respect to domain truncation in the QVI formulation. Full article

Public–private partnership (PPP) has been increasingly imported to deliver infrastructure and public services around the world. As an emerging public procurement mode, PPP has drawn considerable attention both from academy and industry. We construct a PPP shareholder network of China and analyze its topological complexity, robustness, and geographic structure. We find that the PPP shareholder network exhibits small-world behavior and a heavy-tailed degree distribution. Using multiple centrality measures, we investigate the network robustness under various attack strategies. The results show that the targeted attack destroys the network more efficiently than the random attack, especially the degree-based and betweenness-based attacks. For geographic topology, it exhibits a hierarchical spatial structure in which Beijing is the central hub and provincial capitals are regional centers. Our research has significant implications for policy-making to improve supervision for enterprises involved in PPP projects. Full article

In the context of the global pursuit of the ‘carbon neutrality’ objective, Chinese enterprises are proactively advancing green development and low-carbon transformation. Among these efforts, climate transition risks have emerged as a crucial factor affecting strategic enterprise decisions and long-term competitiveness. This study utilizes a sample comprising Chinese A-share listed enterprises over the period from 2012 to 2024 to construct an enterprise climate transition risk index using text analysis methods. It empirically investigates this index’s impact on enterprise green innovation by adopting panel data analysis method to construct a fixed effects model and further examines the moderating roles of institutional investors’ shareholding and enterprise environmental uncertainties in response to climate transition risks. The research findings indicate the following: First, climate transition risks significantly enhance enterprise green innovation. The validity of this conclusion persists following a series of robustness and endogeneity tests, including replacing the explained variable, lagging the explanatory variable, controlling for city-level fixed effects, and applying instrumental variable methods. Second, both institutional investors’ shareholding and enterprise environmental uncertainties exert a significant positive regulatory effect on the relationship between climate transition risk and green innovation, indicating that external monitoring and heightened risk perception jointly enhance enterprises’ responsiveness in driving green innovation. Thirdly, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive impact of climate transition risks on green innovation is notably amplified within non-state-owned enterprises and manufacturing enterprises. By examining the dual regulatory mechanisms of ‘external monitoring’ and ‘risk perception’, this study broadens the study framework on the relationship between climate risks and enterprise green innovation, offering new empirical evidence supporting the applicability of the ‘Porter Hypothesis’ within the context of climate-related challenges. Furthermore, it provides valuable implications for policymakers in refining climate information disclosure policies and assists enterprises in developing forward-looking green innovation strategies. Full article

This study investigates the interplay between asset quality, financial ratios, and market valuation in Indian commercial banks over a twelve-year period (2014–2025). Using a hybrid approach combining Structural Equation Modeling, correlation analysis, and trend evaluation, the research examines whether Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) influence market capitalization directly or through Return on Equity (ROE) as an intermediary. The findings reveal that NPAs exert a significant negative impact on both ROE and market value, while Net Interest Margin (NIM) emerges as a strong positive determinant of valuation. Conversely, Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), though vital for regulatory compliance, shows no direct effect on market prices. Mediation analysis challenges conventional assumptions, indicating that profitability alone does not fully explain valuation dynamics. These insights underscore the need for integrated strategies addressing asset quality and operational efficiency, offering practical implications for policymakers, investors, and bank management in strengthening resilience and optimizing shareholder value. Full article

This study aims to examine whether family firms differ from nonfamily firms in their propensity to save cash, particularly in response to new investment opportunities, and to assess how investors value the cash holdings of family versus nonfamily firms in light of potential agency concerns. The study uses the context of Jordan—a small emerging market characterized by weak investor protection and the dominance of family-managed firms, a setting that exacerbates principal–principal conflicts. Employing treatment effects and propensity score matching estimation techniques to address the endogeneity between family control and firm cash holdings, this study finds that family enterprises maintain significantly higher cash reserves than their nonfamily counterparts. Moreover, the analysis finds that family firms do not exhibit a significantly greater propensity to save cash in response to new investment opportunities, implying that financial flexibility concerns are not significantly different between family and nonfamily firms. However, the results further demonstrate that investors assign a higher valuation to cash held by nonfamily firms, suggesting that investors associate family control with potential agency conflicts regarding the deployment of cash reserves. Full article

Investors use information about companies’ social and environmental performance to make investment decisions, a strategy known as Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investment analysis. ESG screening may offer a mechanism to incentivize corporations to improve their health impact. However, there has been limited investigation of the extent to which ESG investment frameworks capture corporate health impacts in major industries. In this study, we sought to characterize the extent to which ESG frameworks address the health-impacting activities of the food and beverage (F&B) industry. To do this, we conducted a deductive framework analysis during the period of September 2023 to March 2024. Specifically, we identified gaps in existing ESG frameworks by comparing the content of five ESG reporting standards and rating systems to the HEALTH-CORP-FB typology, an evidence-based typology that describes the health-impacting activities of the F&B industry across seven domains (Governance Practices, Political Practices, Preference and Perception Shaping Practices, Economic Practices, Employment Practices, Products and Services, and Environmental Practices). To further assess how ESG frameworks account for the health-impacting activities of the F&B industry, we classified health-focused ESG fields in the packaged foods subindustry by two attributes: relevance to the assigned HEALTH-CORP-FB activity (low, medium, high) and type of business operations addressed (e.g., process, performance). Results indicate that, on average, the ESG fields (n = 1348) covered 39% of the 89 HEALTH-CORP-FB activities (range across frameworks: 27–48%). Higher proportions of activities in the Governance, Environmental, Employment, and Economic Practices domains (range across domains: 43–87%) were represented than activities in the Products and Services, Preference and Perception-Shaping Practices, and Political Practices domains (17–36%). Fields assigned to the latter domains were also less likely to be deemed highly relevant and to measure corporate performance. We conclude that the ESG frameworks included in this study capture some of the activities of the F&B industry that affect population health and health equity; however, critical gaps remain. We discuss how integrating key health-focused ESG indicators (e.g., revenue generation from ultra-processed foods) into existing frameworks could enable investors, public health organizations, civil society, and shareholder advocates to strengthen the accountability of the F&B sector with respect to health. Full article

Corporate governance plays a critical role in strengthening transparency and sustainable performance in emerging European markets. Romania offers a distinct context marked by concentrated ownership, uneven governance adoption and ongoing alignment with EU and OECD standards. Despite recent reforms, limited evidence exists on how governance mechanisms shape firm performance. This study examines the impact of board size, board independence, CEO duality, institutional ownership and audit committee independence on five performance indicators (ROA, ROE, EPS, NPM, PER) for Romanian listed companies between 2016 and 2024. Drawing on Agency, Stewardship, Resource Dependence and Stakeholder theories, this research tests hypotheses linking governance design to operational efficiency, shareholder returns and market valuation. Using an unbalanced panel and estimated GLS with panel-corrected standard errors, the analysis addresses heterogeneity, autocorrelation and cross-sectional dependence. Results show that board and audit independence, as well as institutional investors, improve operational performance, CEO duality yields mixed effects, while board size follows a non-linear pattern. Market valuation responds positively to stronger governance structures. The study offers the most comprehensive evidence to date for Romania and provides practical implications for firms and policymakers. Full article