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This paper analyses the impact of sustainability through ESG factors on the default risk. The sample consists of 990 non-financial firms in the Eurozone over the period 2004–2020. The results show that ESG factors influence default risk, although this relationship could be influenced by the economic cycle. Also, the results highlight a significant interaction effect between firm size and ESG which affects default risk. Considering firm size by terciles, the evidence obtained shows that smaller and medium-sized firms have a positive net effect of a high ESG score on their default risk, while the opposite effect was found among larger firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impact of multiple directorships on board meeting attendance at the individual director level. By using the individual director attendance rate in Pakistani-listed firms, we find no direct effect of multiple board appointments (director busyness) on the tendency to remain absent from board meetings, even not when making the distinction between executive and non-executive directors. Furthermore, we introduce ownership percentage as an important moderator in the model. Our results show that higher directors' shareholdings will motivate busy non-executive directors to attend more board meetings. In contrast, higher executive director busyness will lead to declining board meeting attendance when director ownership is higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines (1) how corporate social responsibility (CSR) or the three pillars of sustainable investing, viz., the environmental (E), social (S), and governance (G) pillars, individually affect innovation performance (IP) and business performance (BP) and (2) how power distance (PD) moderates the impact of the ESG pillars on IP and BP. Our findings of studying 116 multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the technology industry from 2013 to 2018 suggest that not all indicators significantly affect the performance of the MNEs. That is, the G pillar has a positive influence on IP, whereas the E and S pillars are negatively related to BP. Moreover, we find that PD significantly moderates the relationship between two pillars of ESG (E and S) and BP. Specifically, the E and S pillars are negatively related to BP when PD is low, but the relationship is significantly and statistically positive when PD is high. The results can provide technology MNE managers with references for their CSR implementation strategy choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work from home or teleworking, continues to expand not least due to the COVID-19-crisis and poses challenges for employees and companies. In uncertain and dynamic times, organisations wonder what skills make employees successful when working from home and which measures support employees. By performing in-depth research that addresses employee agility as skills and capabilities, a research framework is proposed. Based on an international survey of employees working from home during the COVID-19-crisis (N = 1,016), the impact of agile work characteristics on work from home success and the mediating effect (accounting for 48% of the total effect) of tailored support measures by HRM were investigated. The results of the mediation analysis show that agile work characteristics have a direct, positive and significant effect on the success of working from home. Part of the effect is explained by HRM measures as a mediator. The findings contribute to the research stream of dynamic capabilities by applying the theory to working from home. The comparatively simple research model provides companies with information on how they can best support employees in the dynamics of a crisis and the expansion of work from home and, therefore, has high relevance for practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a large number of researchers have explored the dynamics of organizational change for environmental, social, and financial sustainability, a systematic literature review highlighting the state of the knowledge so far is lacking. The current paper attempts to address this gap. A total of 62 peer-reviewed journal articles were selected by using a range of databases. The review of the available literature reveals that, overall, the field has moved toward conducting more theory-building research, given that the majority of the studies either employ a case study approach (30) or remain conceptual in nature (19). It appears that relatively more studies have examined the influence of organizational antecedents on the scale and stages of organizational change for sustainability. In this context, the impact of learning, organizational culture, and leadership on the process of change has attracted more attention. The literature also focuses on exploring the influence of scale and stages of change on sustainability outcomes. Moreover, the influence of organizational antecedents on the process of change in terms of management accounting systems has largely been ignored in the literature. Further, less is known about the impact of contextual factors on the process of organizational change for sustainability. The identified areas of future research will potentially guide in addressing the research gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deal premiums. More precisely, we explore the value enhancing role of target's pre-acquisition CSR performance at an M&A transaction by focusing on the deal premiums. We also examine whether firms in the service industries experience a higher deal premium due to their CSR performance compared to firms in other industries. We use several data sources (i.e. MSCI ESG KLD STATS, FactSet, Compustat and CRSP) to compile the final sample of the study, 277 completed acquisitions over the period 1996–2018. We use ordinary least square regression to estimate empirical models and find that target's pre-acquisition CSR performance is positively related to deal premium. Moreover, the moderation analysis indicates that the positive effect of targets' CSR performance on deal premium is more profound for firms operating in the service industries than those in non-service industries. The findings of the study is robust to different operationalizations of deal premium. Additionally, examining the positive and negative CSR attributes separately, we reveal consistent evidence with the prediction that positive CSR involvement of target firms increases the deal premium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A poor ethical culture has been considered one of the reasons for the emergence of many corporate governance scandals. In this paper, I investigate the link between ethical culture and the composition of the board of directors for a sample of Brazilian companies. My measure of ethical culture is based on a text analysis of around 50,000 employee reviews posted at Glassdoor for over 1,400 terms related to five ethical dimensions: organizational trust, ethical leadership, benevolent orientation, empathy, and speaking out & efficacy. I find partial support for the hypotheses that a higher ratio of independent directors and of women on boards are associated with better ethical culture. My strong results, in turn, refer to a corporate governance feature little discussed in the literature: the percentage of board members appointed by minority shareholders. In this case, all models exhibit a strong negative relationship between the ratio of such directors and ethical culture. To my knowledge, this is the first paper to document a link between ethical culture and corporate governance mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our article contributes to the recurring debate on whether and how firms in competitive markets should pursue objectives other than purely financial ones. Two competing approaches dominate this debate: one favors profit maximization as a single objective; the other favors multiple, partly social objectives. This debate has been going on for decades without approaching consensus. Our article offers an explanation for this intellectual stalemate and proposes a constitutional perspective that reconciles and improves the two seemingly antagonistic approaches. At the core of our proposed solution lies the distinction between the sub-constitutional level of action (choices within constraints) and the constitutional level of rules (choices among constraints). Using this distinction, we argue that both single-objective and multi-objective theories of the firm play equally important, but categorically different roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of women on boards of directors has become a social and economic demand. The relation between their presence on the board of directors and improved firm performance has already been studied. This paper aims to shed light on this topic by providing the first test as to how the level of innovation in the company may moderate this relationship. Our results, for a panel data of 231 European listed firms and based on GMM analysis, show that a critical mass of women positively affects firm performance, and that this effect increases as the firm’s innovation activity increases. We situate the analysis in the outset of the gender revolution in the Western countries to understand the nature of the gender equality process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the tacit knowledge sharing (TKS) problem with particular reference to knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs), a topic that deserves consideration given the role of tacit knowledge as a driver of business model innovation. The paper investigates individual perceptions about knowledge sharing (KS) at the team level, analysing the points of view of both team members (TMs) and team leaders (TLs) of an Italian KIF. The awareness of these perceptions represents an important antecedent to gain better TKS and their investigation a perspective that has not been considered by previous studies. The research is based on interviews with company TMs and on surveys through questionnaires submitted to TMs and TLs to investigate their perceptions and attitudes regarding TKS. The results from both show a good KS intention despite low organisational investment in KS tools, lack of time to devote to training and low TM involvement in strategic objectives. It also emerged that the TMs' perceptions of the charisma of the leader was low. Moreover, the results suggest a low presence of transformational, charismatic and ethical leadership at the base of the so-called knowledge-oriented leader. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between corporate non-financial disclosure ratings, the Italian Legislative Decrees 231/2001 and 254/2016, and three outcomes of Italian listed firms: performance, risk and agency cost. Based on stakeholder–agency theory, this study conceptualizes the role of firms' non-financial disclosures in reducing asymmetric information and agency costs between managers and broad stakeholders. Utilizing the Standard Ethics Rating (SER) as a measure of firms' non-financial disclosure rating, this study finds that SER ratings are positively related to firm value and are negatively related to firms' risk and agency costs. This study also provides evidence that the adoption of Italian Legislative Decrees 231/2001 and 254/2016, along with external verifications from the SER of firms' non-financial disclosure, has a positive impact on firm outcomes. Corporate managers and investors should recognize the value added from regulations that foster non-financial disclosures and ratings issued by an independent rating agency (e.g., Standard Ethics) as they both enhance firm performance and reduce risk and agency costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The firm develops its identity through actions that reflect its business strategy. Some of those actions are social and show the social commitment of the company. Hence, philanthropic actions could be incorporated into the core business, through the implementation of a specific corporate philanthropy strategy. The company would then need to measure its financial and non-financial effects to evaluate the effectiveness of this strategy. Philanthropic actions impact not only on the community but also on other stakeholders, for example employees, and it would be useful to identify and measure these effects. This paper describes an empirical study of 232 European companies. The findings show that a company's philanthropy strategies and the presence of women on the board impact on the attitude of its employees. Firms that have a corporate philanthropic strategy tend to have lower levels of labour controversies and incidents, with respect to those which apply discretional or sporadic philanthropic practices. The types of philanthropic practices adopted highlight and define the firm's corporate identity and foster trust among its employees. The results of this study have implications for the design and management of corporate philanthropy strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the sustainability reporting practices of companies based in the Nordic and the Mediterranean European countries for the period 2013-2015. Its purpose is to analyse to what extent, if any, are there differences in these practices. It seeks to capture the influence of national institutions and firm specific characteristics in sustainability reporting. Non-parametric statistics are used to analyse some factors which influence disclosure, namely country, industry affiliation, type of property, listing status and size. In accordance with the theoretical frame used, that of the varieties of capitalism approach, findings suggest that in general companies from Mediterranean European countries present higher levels of engagement with the Global Reporting Initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive literature provides evidence that conflict between employees’ family and work duties is associated with stress and poor well-being, which have negative consequences for firms and their employees. This paper analyzes the role of two internal and two external drivers that encourage (or discourage) organizations to adopt and implement work–life balance policies. The role of external financial assistance and specific laws (external drivers), together with budgetary provision for work–life balance policies and managers’ perceptions regarding problems due to work–life conflict (internal drivers), are analyzed. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis is used to pursue the study’s research goals. Analysis of data on 132 SMEs suggests that financial issues (external financial assistance and/or a specific budget within the company) are key factors for the implementation or lack of implementation of work–life balance policies. Moreover, to implement these policies, managers need not necessarily perceive problems due to work–life conflict. Finally, work–life balance legislation seems not to play an explicit role in the relationships discussed herein. Consequences of these findings are discussed in the final section of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research is developed under the hypothesis that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be promoted as a self-defence strategy against managerial discretion costs, leading to the capital market demanding higher debt levels to solve agency frictions and monitor the management. In accordance with this idea, this study aims to examine the complementary or substitutive role of some additional control factors: (i) the strength of corporate governance related to board independence and diversity as a firm-level factor and (ii) the level of investor protection as a country-level factor. We use an international sample from 21 countries for the period 2003-2010. Supporting the market demand for external debt as a control mechanism that avoids managerial discretion and entrenchment risks, our findings support the following: first, the complementary effect of corporate governance on the demand for external debt; second, the substitutive effect of the degree of investor protection on such a demand. Accordingly, debt as a control mechanism is less demanded in countries with a greater level of investor protection, while it remains necessary in firms with more diverse boards that cannot effectively constrain managerial discretion and entrenchment. In addition, the greater predictive power of the investor protection factor on the use of debt acts as a monitoring aspect; that is, country-level factors dominate firm-level factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sample of listed Spanish companies pertaining to the IBEX35 index for the period 2007-2011, this paper examines whether those firms with higher CSR disclosure ratings are more valued by market participants. This study also complements the literature addressing the value relevance of CSR disclosure by further analyzing not only the direct effects of CSR reporting on stock prices but also its indirect effects through its interaction with main accounting variables (i.e., earnings and book value of equity). CSR reports can also affect stock price indirectly because the sustainability report may be perceived by investors to be a source of further and complementary information regarding the nature, composition and trends of the traditional value-relevant accounting variables. Finally, this study also analyzes whether CSR disclosure by firms operating in environmentally-sensitive industries is assessed differently by market participants than CSR disclosure by companies operating in other industries. By using a modified Ohlson (Contemp Account Res 1:661-687, ) model, it is found that CSR disclosure do have both a direct and indirect effect on stock prices by modifying the value-relevance of earnings and book value of equity. Moreover, CSR disclosure by companies operating in environmentally-sensitive industries is associated with higher market valuations than CSR disclosure by companies operating in nonsensitive industries. This may be due to the fact that CSR disclosures provide information that allow investors to make better assessments of the increased risk related to potential litigation and future environmental liabilities, thereby reducing information asymmetries and the risk of adverse selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to contribute to the empirical evidence relating corporate social responsibility (CSR), board composition, and firm performance. Using a sample of Spanish listed firms included in the IBEX 35 over the period 2005-2010 the results show that the percentage of independent directors affect firm CSR activities, and that this effect is moderated by the resources available to the firm (measured by return on assets). Also, the CSR has a mediating role on the relation between the independence of the board of directors and firm value. These results hold for other board characteristics (board size and women as directors). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to characterize and evaluate corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) practices in Palestine and Jordan; and to determine the formal institutional factors that can influence in CSRD-the legal context and the existence of control mechanisms such as external audits and corporate governance. We analyse whether CSR in Palestine-a country under Israeli occupation and in a state of war that has lasted decades-possesses specific characteristics or follows the same model than Western countries. Besides, we have chosen Jordan in order to highlight possible differences between similar countries. Jordan and Palestine have a similar cultural context because many Palestinians have immigrated to Jordan, but the former is living in a state of stability and safety. The sample of the study consists of 101 companies; the data refers to 2011. Our results show that levels of CSRD in Jordan are higher than in Palestine in all aspects, though it is low in both countries when compared with Western countries. Both countries enhance the same issues but, in relative terms, Palestinian firms present a greatest concern on issues related to human resources and commitment towards community. Moreover, we have found a positive association between CSRD and the legal system, external auditor firm characteristics and corporate governance (e.g. board size and board audit committee). Other aspects related to corporate governance, such as the existence of a board governance committee or board independence, do not affect the level of CSRD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]