We document that corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities increase the cost of equity in East Asia. Further, the effect is driven by economies with weak investor protection. Our findings are robust to alternative variable measurements, accounting for endogeneity of CSR, and various...

Previous studies have shown that product market competition has an important effect on corporate strategies and internal governance mechanisms. Using a sample of China’s listed firms from 2004 to 2009, we explore the relationship between product market competition and normal related party...

We show that 70% of Chinese listed companies are ultimately controlled by government agencies, thereby indicating that state ownership remains widespread in China's stock markets. Three questions are considered that are related to government control structures and their impact on firm value: (1)...

The literature concerned with relations between ownership concentration and corporate performance in emerging markets presents conflicting theoretical predications and inconclusive empirical results. We use meta-analytical techniques to integrate the diverse empirical findings and investigate...

This study examines the extent to which government versus private controlling shareholders explain differences in multiple performance criteria. Drawing on the economic, political and civil service governance environment in China, we identify performance evaluation criteria for Chinese...

We examine the effectiveness of institutional investors in constraining aggressive earnings management induced by strong contractual incentives. To this end we focus on the consequences of earnings-related promises (covenants) negotiated between corporate controlling shareholders and minority...

This paper investigates the impact of banks’ social activities on their future stock price crash risk in an international setting. We propose two competing perspectives for the relationship. Signaling theory suggests that a high level of social engagement may signal high ethical standards of...

We examine the influence of institutional ownership stability on corporate social performance (CSP). We find that stable institutional ownership is associated with higher CSP, after controlling for the percentage of institutional ownership. The result is robust to alternative measures of CSP and...

Using a large international sample of 24,293 observations from 3,991 unique firms in 56 countries, we examine the role of financial analysts in the relationship between voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting and firm value. We find that after controlling for firms’ CSR...