Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effects of ownership concentration and corporate governance on the extent of risk-taking in an important emerging economy – Thailand. Design/methodology/approach: The results are corroborated by additional analysis, including an...

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on shareholder value using the stock market reactions to a terrorist attack. This paper exploits the September 11 terrorist attack as an unanticipated exogenous shock that reduced shareholder wealth suddenly...

We investigate the effect of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT)-supportive corporate policies on credit ratings. To the extent that LGBT-friendly policies are beneficial to the firm and therefore improve its expected cash flows, credit rating agencies should assign more favorable...

Exploiting a novel measure of firm-level political risk based on earnings conference calls, we explore the effect of political exposure on corporate social responsibility (CSR). We show that firms more exposed to political risk invest significantly more in CSR activities. This finding is...

We explore the role of female directors in mitigating CEO luck. CEOs are “lucky” when they receive stock option grants on days when the stock price is the lowest in the month of the grant, implying opportunistic timing. Our results show that board gender diversity significantly deters the...

The quiet life hypothesis argues that, when managers are insulated from the discipline of the takeover market, they tend to be less ambitious, avoiding risky and complex investments that require more managerial time and efforts. In other words, they prefer to live a “quiet life”. Exploiting...

Exploiting the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act as a quasi-natural experiment, we explore how independent directors view generalist vs. specialist CEOs. Generalist CEOs possess the general managerial skills that can be applied across firms and industries. Our difference-in-difference estimates...

Prior research shows that board size has a significant effect on firm performance. Therefore, board size is a crucial aspect of the board of directors. We investigate how firms adjust board size in response to economic policy uncertainty (EPU). We find that firms reduce board size in the...