• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.259-268
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• 2020

The study investigates the association between CEO education and firm performance with a sample of 85 nonfinancial firms listed on the Saudi stock exchange during 2018 applying ordinary least squares method. CEO education is defined by three variables, the level of education, if the degree-granting institution is domestic or foreign, and if the highest degree is in management or other fields of study. Financial performance is measured by return on assets and return on equity. Firm size, age, liquidity and growth are introduced as control variables. The study shows that 58 CEOs of the firms studied are graduates, 38 have obtained their degree from a domestic institution and 44 have a management degree. Graduate CEOs are found to enhance performance. Graduating from a domestic institution influences performance positively. Management degree of CEO does not seem to impact performance. Firm size, liquidity and growth are positively associated with performance. Firm age does not explain performance differences of firms. Results are robust to performance measures. The findings of the study suggest that firms can benefit from a CEO hiring policy that emphasizes on the minimum qualification set as graduation or higher, education from a domestic institution and no undue weight on management qualification.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.25-31
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• 2020

The purpose of this paper is to examine a financial distress premium in the emerging market. A risk-return trade-off of negative book equity (NBE) and distress firms is empirically analyzed using data from the Stock Exchange of Thailand. This research employs Ohlson's (1980) bankruptcy model as a measurement of distress risk. The results indicate that distress firms outperform solvent firms in the Thai market and deny distress anomaly often found in the developed market. Fama-Frech (1993) three-factor model and Carhart (1997) four-factor model verify the existence of a distress premium in the Thai capital market. Risk-seeking investors demand greater compensation for bearing risks of distress firms' going concern. This paper provides fresh evidence that default risk is a significant explanatory factor in pricing stocks in the emerging market. Also, this study sheds light on the role of NBE firms in asset pricing. Most studies eliminate NBE firms from their sample. However, NBE firms yield superior average cross-sectional returns, albeit with higher volatility. Investors are rewarded with distress risks associated with NBE firms. The outperformance of NBE firms is statistically significant when compared to the overall market. The NBE premium disappears when factoring size, value, and momentum in time-series analysis.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.61-67
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• 2020

This paper examines whether the combination of risk management and audit committee functions are associated with audit report lag. Audit report lag is considered an important aspect of the financial reporting. The financial reports are the main source of information for shareholders through which they make their decisions and it assists in reducing the information asymmetry. As the internal control mechanisms substitute the external ones, the internal board committees formed by the board of directors can reduce the audit work and, consequently, reduces the audit report lag. A key committee is the risk management committee. This paper examines whether the combination of risk management and audit committee functions are associated with audit report lag. We posit that a combination of such functions in one committee refereed as audit committee affects the audit report delay. Data were obtained from 198 manufacturing companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the years 2016-2018. A pooled OLS regression analysis shows that a combination of risk management and audit committee functions in a stand-alone committee named "audit committee" is associated with longer audit report lag. The outcomes suggest companies should prioritize the establishment of standalone risk management committee with activities separated from those of audit committees.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.8
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• pp.95-102
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to test both the alignment theory and entertainment theory on family firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. To achieve these goals, we collected secondary data from 164 non-financial family firms in various sectors during 2014-18. These family firms are classified into two categories: family control firms and family owned firms. We take the audit fee and the audit quality as dependent variables while family control firms, family-owned firms, and family CEOs as independent variables. In addition, the study uses leverage, profit and export as control variables. To test the effect of the explanatory variables on the output variables, we use two econometric models, Ordinary Least Square and the Probit regression model. In addition, Huber Sandwich test is used to check the non-normality and heteroscedasticity of panel data. Contrary to the alignment effect, the study supports the entrenchment effect and advocates that family-controlled firms as well as family-owned firms are not conscientious regarding the selection of external auditors during their contracts with audit firms. They are less likely to pay high audit fees for good quality audit in Pakistan. Furthermore, the study shows a statistically significant and positive relationship between audit quality and audit fees.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.67-73
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• 2020

The paper examines the influence of internal factors and external factors on liquidity of Vietnamese listed enterprises. The study uses robust regression techniques in the fixed effects linear panel data using data collected from companies listing on the stock market in Vietnam during 2008-2019, with a total of 6,700 observations. Liquidity of Vietnamese listed enterprises is measured by current assets to current liabilities, whereas firm size, capital adequacy, profitability, leverage are used as internal determinants. Further, economic activity, inflation rate, exchange rate, and interest rate are the external factors which are considered. The research results indicate that capital adequacy, return on equity, leverage, economic activity have a positive effect on firm's liquidity, whereas return on assets and exchange rate have a negative effect on firm's liquidity and firm size, inflation rate and lending rate have no correlation with firm's liquidity. Based on the research results, the author suggests that the firms should have optimum current ratio by balancing the current assets and current liabilities in order to avoid a situation of high liquidity or low liquidity. This research seeks to bridge a gap which is present in the body of literature on listed enterprise's liquidity in Vietnam. The findings may be useful for financial managers, investors, and financial management consultants.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.169-176
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• 2020

Business going concern is an important issue to be addressed since it determines how companies will survive. One indicator of the going concern problem is going concern opinion. The going concern opinion is a result of evaluation of auditors on going concern assumption of financial reporting. This research aims to examine the effect of opinion shopping, prior opinion, audit quality, and financial condition on going concern opinion. Research sample consists of 80 listed manufacturing companies on the Indonesian Stock Exchange surveyed between 2013 and 2017. Analysis data uses logistic regression. Based on the result, prior opinion affects going concern opinion, while opinion shopping, audit quality, and financial condition have no effect on going concern opinion. The significant effect of prior opinion on going concern opinion indicates that auditors consider the evaluation of the previous condition of companies' concern problematic since going concern is hard to be solved in a short-term period. This research provides recommendations for companies to increase their business ability so going concern problem can be avoided. This research also suggests to auditors to consider prior opinion to issue current opinion since previous companies' condition can be used as a general picture to initiate the auditing process.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.33-43
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• 2020

This study aims to investigate the importance of earnings quality as a determinant of companies' performance. It provides some empirical evidences from an emerging market, specifically from the Jordanian market. This study developed an econometric model for the effect of earnings quality on the companies' performance using empirical evidence. The study employs a panel data analysis method by using a sample of all Jordanian industrial public shareholding companies listed on Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during 2010-2018. The results reveal that Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and Earnings Per Share (EPS) as proxies of company's performance are affected by the earnings quality. This provides the importance of positive earnings quality that eventually influences the companies' performance. The results of this study suggest that the higher control level on the managers' behavior and its outcome will have an effect on earnings quality, and thus the company's performance increases. As well as, high relevance of accounting information will improve earnings quality, and thus earnings quality with the interaction factors of the company's environment work on improving performance. As a conclusion, this study can work as a reference to assist standard setters, security analysts, regulators and other accounting-information users in appraising relation between the earnings quality and companies' performance.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.303-314
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• 2020

This paper investigates the relationships between bank credit and trade credit with profit of 130 agricultural firms listed on Vietnam's stock exchanges during the period 2008-2014. Using the GMM approach, the paper reveals inverted-U shaped (∩) relationships between bank credit and trade credit with profit. Specifically, the optimal threshold of bank credit and trade credit to total assets of the firms are 0.4173 and 0.2425, respectively. The findings mean that if the ratio of bank credit to total assets exceeds the benchmark of 0.4173, firms should consider restructuring debts to get them back to the benchmark. To do so, firms should withdraw from those business fields that are not of their profession, in addition to liquiditizing unused assets to repay debts and not using short-term credit to invest in long-term projects. Firms may use trade credit wisely when other sources of finance are lacking. In concrete terms, firms can increase trade credit use if the ratio of trade credit to total assets is below 0.2425. Yet, if this ratio goes beyond this benchmark, firms should get back to this benchmark, e.g., keeping a suitable amount of inventory. The implications of this study is to boost firm growth in the proposed way.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.827-834
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• 2020

The use of different proxies to measure good corporate governance (GCG) may be a probable cause of the mixed results. Therefore, the application of a new single measure to enhance comparable empirical studies is required. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between corporate governance and firm's performance. This study involved all manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) from 2014 to 2016 through purposive sampling with specific criteria. out of 144 qualified companies, 110 companies could be processed because of completed data in the form of financial information from their financial statements during the research period. The data were obtained from the official websites of IDX. This study applies a new measure of the corporate governance: the efficiency of the GCG. The corporate governance is calculated by relating inputs of components of the corporate governance and outputs of sales, assets and firm equity capital. By using financial data from firms listed on the Indonesian Capital Market, this study finds that the corporate governance significantly improved firm's performance. More importantly, the study confirms and supports the new single measure of the GCG. This result is very important to avoid dealing with different indicators of the corporate governance.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.769-778
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• 2020

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of profitability as a mediating variable in influencing firm value. This study uses a sample of manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2018. The data used is panel data, with data analysis using multiple regression. Based on the Sobel test, profitability plays a role in mediating the effect of firm size on firm value. The effect of firm size on firm value is indirect, however, through profitability. Therefore, the market price of the shares of large-scale companies will increase if the resulting profitability is high. The capital structure and managerial ownership directly influence firm value. The results showed that managerial ownership and firm size had a positive effect on profitability, while capital structure had no effect on profitability. Capital structure and managerial ownership have a negative effect on firm value, while firm size and profitability have a positive effect on firm value. The main finding of this study is that profitability acts as an intervening variable in mediating the relationship between firm size and firm value.