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On June 18, 2024, Nvidia's stock was momentarily crowned as the world's most valuable stock – surpassing other technology companies. Accordingly, this paper aims to analyze the differential effect of Nvidia's earnings announcement on the company's stock price following the earnings announcement. The research is anchored on the prior theory of efficient market hypothesis – which emphasizes the effect of information on stock prices. The paper applied a quantitative differential approach. The earnings announcement was used as the basis for differential stock price analysis because, based on previous literature, results show different (mixed) effects of earnings results on stock price. The data on Nvidia's stock price were collected from Fusion Media and Nasdaq. Data were analyzed using the paired t-test sample for mean difference. Results from the analysis indicate a significant positive difference between the previous 44 days before the profit announcement and 44 days following the profit announcement. The result shows that Nvidia's earnings announcement, which surpassed expectations, catalyzed a huge rise in Nvidia's stock price. It also highlights the best point when the investors should have taken their profit. The results of this study help academics and researchers in business schools better understand the relationship between earnings announcements and stock prices in AI chip manufacturing companies. The paper contributes unique novelty by using extended days before and within the earnings announcement, which provides ample space to understand the stock price performance and to make investment decisions. It thus contributes an insight into the best timing of profit-taking and reinvesting.

Almost all industrial players handle wastewater treatment in one way or another by themselves, no matter the industry or company’s size. Some companies have wastewater treatment plants, and others are considering investments for construction or modernisation. Occasionally, industrial wastewater is discharged to a municipal wastewater treatment plant; however, it must sometimes be pre-treated. Corporate wastewater quality is imperative for environmental responsibility, corporate legitimacy and financial performance. This paper examines the relationship between the reduction of hydrocarbon content of offshore and onshore wastewater and the stock price presented in TotalEnergies. The data on hydrocarbon content reduction in offshore and onshore wastewater discharge was collected from the TotalEnergies 2022 Sustainability and Climate Progress Report. In addition, the data on TotalEnergy’s stock price was collected from the FusionMedia online stock price index. Data was analysed quantitatively through the application of a graphical approach. Findings from the graphical analysis of data depict two important dimensions of the stock value effect. Firstly, the results show a corresponding relationship between the reduction in the hydrocarbon content of wastewater and an increase in the stock price value of TotalEnergies. Secondly, the results show that the increase in stock price value continues even beyond the times of hydrocarbon reduction, which shows that investors compensate the company for its previously good performance in hydrocarbon reduction. This legitimacy-ingrained performance shows that hydrocarbon reduction protects the company’s value even during uncertainties and/or hindrances in wastewater quality. Based on this finding, the paper develops an inductive hypothesis, opening a new research agenda. The findings are of practical significance for industrial hydrocarbon content reduction and the attraction of short- and long-term financial value to the industry.

The 21st-century social and political environment has continued to evolve and heightens the demand for organisations to provide accountability for the sustainability operations of their businesses. Accordingly, organisations are committing to diverse strategic efforts to provide disclosures on their social and environmental actions to the society and environment where they operate. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has received support and criticism since its emergence in the corporate realm. This paper aims to portray CSR as beyond mere symbolic legitimacy and propose a corporate-society symbiotic existential framework. The research approach is a critical literature analysis and conceptual framework development. The results show that the corporate and the society co-exist in a reciprocal relationship. Thus, the implication is that some CSR may be more than symbolic legitimacy with potential benefits derivable from committed transparent and pragmatic CSR, which can encourage companies to shift away from symbolic CSR tendencies. The paper recommends the need for organisations to operationalise CSR practices and policy as this has a propensity to enhance corporate legitimate standing, which will assist in reducing business risks and enhance the potential for profit in the long run. In addition, this discourse may be helpful for business schools in their academic studies about CSR and legitimacy theory and would also assist in CSR regulatory initiatives. The value of the paper hinges on the proposed novel framework for corporate-society symbiotic existence, which provides an agenda for future research study and expansion therein. This framework may lead to multiples of modelling in future CSR and corporate governance studies and may also assist in narrowing the gap between legal and normative CSR.

Excessive executive compensation is tantamount to a breach of agency contract. There are two main problems with excessive executive compensation: excessive compensation is stealing from a shareholder’s standpoint; excessive executive compensation is demoralizing to the other workers in the organization. Purpose. This paper aims to provide a conceptual framework of the antecedent and postcedent of excessive executive compensation. Approach. The paper inclines on agency theory and the attendant principal-agent contract. The paper follows a critical deconstruction approach, culminating in the development of an original conceptual framework. Finding. Through a critical deconstruction of agency theory postulation of optimal agent’s response to corporate compensation structure, it emerges that this postulation may not hold in all instances given that gargantuan compensation structure has a high propensity to nurture irresistible executive financial misdemeanours to inflate profit or share price, which are the performance index of reaping the excessive compensation. This incubates ancillary agency costs to the detriment of the principal and corporate survival. Theoretical and practical value. The paper offers insight into corporate governance strategy for accounting and business law theory and practice in university business schools and for further research. In addition, corporate boards may draw insights from the theory developed in this paper, which portrays the antecedents and postcedents of executive excessive compensation. This theory will catalyse debate and rethinking of corporate compensation policies within the boards of directors. The paper offers an original contribution to the contentious agency cost issues by developing a conceptual framework of the antecedent and postcedent of excessive executive compensation – depicting obscured additional agency costs.

State-chartered commercial bank – Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was the primary subsidiary of SVB Financial Group. In March 2023, after central bank–endorsed interest rate hikes during the 2021–2023 inflation surge, there was a bank run on its deposits, which led to its collapse. This marked the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history and took place alongside the March 2023 United States bank failures. This paper evaluated the differential effect of Silicon Valley Bank failure on the stock market. Two objectives were pivotal, namely the examination of differential stock price performance of SVB prior to failure. Secondly is the examination of the differential effect of SVB failure on the US S&P500 stock price performance. Applying a t-test statistics for difference in means, the results show a significant difference in mean stock price of SVB between a month and two weeks period before SVB failure at P

CEO compensation remains at the forefront of corporate financial discourse – primarily because of its interconnection with firm performance, growth and survivability. Diverse literature exists on CEO compensation and shareholder return, albeit with different findings and/or disagreements. This paper aims to apply a single independent variable enquiry – the CEO total payment to understand how it might influence shareholder return. Research employs a quantitative approach by using a simple OLS technique with data drawn from a random sample of fifty-six companies listed in the S&P 500 Index. The S&P 500 is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. The OLS result yields a P-value of 0.0001, with a negative regression coefficient, which thus indicates a significant negative relationship between the CEO total payment and shareholder return. The result corroborates some extant research regarding the inability of agency theory to provide an overriding explanation for the CEO pay and return relationship. Further research is therefore encouraged to apply more variables, particularly those that may capture CEO's opportunistic behaviour in future CEO and stock return analysis.

In a world of increasing energy and water scarcity, companies are devising new technical and operational strategies to reduce energy and water consumption – especially the ratio of water and energy usage to units of production. Savings derivable from such environmental resource conservation contribute to cost reduction, which invariably result in better financial performance. This paper analysed the relationship between water and energy reduction on dividend yield. Many studies on water and energy efficiency's effect on financial performance have paid little attention to dividend yield – hence this paper contributes to the academic science. The paper applied a positivist paradigm and hence a quantitative approach. Data on energy reduction, water reduction, and dividend yield were from the Coca-Cola financial and sustainability reports for different years. A simple regression analysis was applied to the data analysis. Research results indicate that at an alpha level of 0.05%, energy and water reduction are significantly related to dividend yield at a p-value of P

Accounting and finance are intricately intertwined with the global quest for environmental sustainability by applying accounting and finance tools for carbon reduction initiatives. Clean energy financial investment is one of the many alternative tools through which accounting contributes to carbon reduction. Accordingly, this paper analysed the impact of separate and integrated clean energy investment alternatives on carbon reduction. Data on clean energy financial investment and carbon emission per capita were collected from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Our World in Data archives, respectively. Data was analysed by using multiple pooled OLS to evaluate the impact of individual clean energy financial investments on carbon reduction and the impact of integrating the various clean energy financial investment alternatives on carbon reduction separately. Findings show that individual clean energy financial investments may not separately offer desired carbon reduction, hence, albeit some negative coefficients, individual clean investments showed no significant impact on carbon reduction. However, furthering the test by pooling all the clean energy financial investment alternatives shows a significant negative effect of clean energy financial investment on carbon reduction at a P-value of 0.05. This shows that an integration of different alternatives of clean energy financial investment may offer an enhanced reduction of carbon emission, which outweighs the effect of relying on a single clean energy investment alternative. The findings offer significant insight for policy makers’ future strategies towards a combination of multiple clean energy financial investments. Furthermore, the findings from this paper are a further testament that accounting and finance are connected with the global quest for environmental sustainability through the application of accounting and financial investment tools in conducting clean energy financial investment.

Green supply chain management has gained traction in contemporary times against many environmental catastrophes and scandals involving prominent companies. Despite the strides made by lawmakers to address such challenges, an increasing number of corporations overlook environmental issues such as global warming, ecological concerns, reverse logistics, and global energy. Notwithstanding the contributions in prior studies, to the best of researchers’ knowledge, no study has sought to link corporate environmental performance with suppliers’ credit lending practices. Yet policymakers seek to develop regulations that incorporate the understanding of the collaboration among the supply chain members. Thus, we seek to establish the short-run and long-run dynamics between corporate environmental performance and suppliers’ credit lending. Targeting companies listed in the FTSE/JSE RII, we draw a sample of 21 companies using a judgemental sampling technique. Furthermore, archival data were collected to compute a short panel data set. The panel data set for statistical analysis comprised 21 cross-sections over six years, totalling 126 observations. The study adopted the first differenced econometric models in data analyses, namely Panel Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) and, subsequently, Panel Least Squares (PLS), Wald Test, and Impulse Response Functions (IRF). Findings indicated a statistically significant positive relationship exists in the long run between corporate environmental performance and suppliers’ credit lending. Conversely, the same endogenous variables produced a statistically significant negative relationship in the short run. The study contributes new insights to supply chain management literature and renders novel policy implications for lawmakers.

The consumer price index (CPI) is a crucial economic indicator of consumer price inflation, which has an attendance effect on the extent of savings and, hence, on investment capacity. The literature contains different opinions on the relationship between exchange rate and consumer price index; however, given the uniqueness of each country’s economic environment, it became apposite to focus the bearing of this paper on the South African economic context. Thus, this paper evaluates the effect of currency exchange rates on the consumer price index in South Africa. Time series data on CPI and exchange rates were drawn from the Fusion Media investment database and were analysed using the OLS regression. For the independent variables exchange rate, which is the Rand price against the Dollar, the authors applied lagg-2 given the assumption that exchange rate differences might take up to two months to affect the consumer price index. The authors’ assumption draws from the findings of eminent scholars, which indicate that, given sufficient time, changes in domestic prices would fully compensate for exchange rate adjustments. The analysis showed that exchange rate changes significantly and positively affect CPI within the data’s boundaries. The findings offer academic and practical implications for understanding the theoretical short-term period effect of the exchange rate on the consumer price index within the South African setting and for practical economic policy application for advanced policies to cushion potential negative effects on savings and investment. The paper provides an agenda for further study of the application of expanded time series to evaluate the effect of currency exchange rates on CPI over a longer period to unravel a theoretical difference between the short-term and long-term implications of exchange rates on CPI.