• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.191-201
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• 2021

The objective of this research is to investigate how the board of directors' characteristics influence sustainability disclosures with the mediating effect of corporate governance. The independent variables are the characteristics of the board of directors, which consist of the presence of women on the boards, presence of directors aged over 50 years old, education level, education field, board tenure, and compensation. The dependent variable is sustainability disclosures, which is measured by the GRI standard disclosure, whereas the mediator variable is the CG score. Research samples are 460 companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). Path Analysis is used to examine the correlation between the board of directors' characteristics, CG score, and GRI standard disclosure. The research findings show that senior boards, the education field, and compensation motivation have an effect on sustainability disclosures, whereas corporate governance is a mediator of the effect of the education field of boards on sustainability disclosures. This finding should help shareholders to choose individuals with suitable characteristics to serve on the board of directors, and, as a result, shareholders should anticipate a profitable result to be generated, while the business of the company is conducted in a sustainable way.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.191-201
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• 2021

This article examines the role of financial development in economic growth in a number of transitional economies where the financial systems were newly established or reformed only in the early 1990s to facilitate their transition from centrally planned economies to market-based ones. Based on a dataset collected from 29 transitional economies and 5 Asian developing economies covering the period 1990-2020, an empirical endogenous growth model is specified and estimated using the generalized method of moments (GMM). Three measures of financial development are used to investigate the relative role of the banking system and stock exchange market in the process of transition and growth. The results show that the three measures of financial development are crucial determinants of economic growth in transitional economies but the link seems to be in an inverted U-shape. This suggests the existence of thresholds for different channels of the financial sector to expand to positively influence growth. When becoming too large relative to the size of the economy, the financial system would have become a factor not conducive to growth. The growth convergence hypothesis is also confirmed and the impacts of other growth determinants are overall consistent with the extant literature.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.261-269
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• 2021

This study examines the effect of block diversity on the risk of firms listed on the Korean Stock Exchange between 2010 and 2017. To examine the effect of block diversity on corporate risk, we measure block diversity in terms of a single component, portfolio size, by referring to prior literature. This diversity component accounts for the differences in portfolio size across corporate blocks. In line with existing research on corporate risk, we consider several variables to measure corporate risk: volatility, beta, and idiosyncratic risk. The results show a negative relationship between the size of a block shareholder's portfolio and corporate risk. We also show no difference in the effect of block diversity on the corporate risk between KOSPI and KOSDAQ. This implies that the difference in portfolio size among corporate blocks reduces corporate risk. This may be due to the effect of inter-block monitoring activities in the Korean securities market, which benefits from block diversity. This empirical result supports previous studies that predicted that block diversity would have beneficial influences on firm monitoring in general. This study is significant in that it analyzes the relationship between block diversity and firm risk and provides relevant information to business practitioners and investors.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.10
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• pp.47-56
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• 2021

It is unavoidable for businesses, especially commercial banks, to compete with other firms and financial institutions in a globalized and internationalized world. Basel I, II, and III were developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision with the primary purpose of supporting banks in dealing with potential risks and enhancing their ability to absorb losses. Basel II and III require the minimum capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 8% and 10.5%, respectively. This paper estimates the optimal CAR of 26 commercial banks in Vietnam from 2016 to 2020 using the two-stage DEA method. According to the empirical findings, banks with ideal CARs exceeding 8% (as defined by Basel II) and 10.5 percent (as defined by Basel III) account for approximately 98 percent and 88 percent of all banks, respectively. Furthermore, 75.83 percent of all banks need to boost their existing CAR to achieve the optimal level of CAR as well as obtain the best performance. On average, the optimal CAR of state-owned banks is higher than other joint-stock banks, respectively 26 percent and 19 percent. Consequently, it is recommended for Vietnam commercial banks to reach optimal CAR and comply with the new policy set by Basel III with the purpose of approaching the efficient frontier.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.11
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• pp.213-221
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• 2021

The paper attempts to investigate the optimal capital structure of Vietnamese listed firms based on a structural approach. Using the data from around 70 companies in the Consumer Staples sector listed on the Vietnamese Stock Exchange during the period 2018-2020, this study finds that the optimal capital structure of examined companies has a wide range of diversification. This can be explained by the various types of actual products for each typical firm within the chosen sector. The result also confirms that a large proportion of researched firms were actually overleveraged, which is consistent with the trade-off hypothesis that firms wish to take tax advantages while using more debt, which creates the benefits from tax-shield. Furthermore, the research highlights the reversed correlation, which suggests that the lower the company's risk (the lower the sigma of the assets), the greater the optimal capital structure is suggested. Another interesting finding is that almost all consumer staples companies have a better optimal capital structure under the Leland and Toft (1996) model than under the Leland (1994) model. Furthermore, there is a strong correlation of optimal financial leverage ratio between years. In other words, the optimal debt levels of the latter year are strongly dependent on the gearing levels of the previous years.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.135-141
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• 2021

The study aims to examine the impact of liquidity and solvency management on the financial performance of Jordanian manufacturing companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, for a period of 10 years from 2010 to 2019. The size of the company was used as a control variable. The study employs Return on Assets (ROA) and Earnings Per Share (EPS) to measure financial performance. Current ratio (CR) and total debts to total assets were used as proxies for liquidity and solvency management, while logarithm of total assets was used to measure the size. Correlation and multi regression analyses have been applied to analyze the data. The results show a statistically significant impact of independent and control variables (liquidity and solvency management and the size of the company) on financial performance, while the detailed results of the hypotheses indicate that liquidity has an insignificant reverse impact on financial performance. With respect to other variables, there is a significant positive impact of size on performance and a significant negative impact of solvency on performance. The study suggests in light of results, increasing investments in companies' assets by focusing on internal financing, such that large-sized companies with low leverage will have a good performance.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.627-637
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• 2021

This research extends the literature on the effect of board characteristics and ownership structure on audit fees; these factors affect the firm's agency costs and how the auditor assesses various risks, hence the audit efforts and fees. The paper introduces political connections as a determinant of audit fees for the first time in Jordan, where the political connection is prevalent and affects decision making on the Jordanian boards. The sample consists of 109 manufacturing and service firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) over the years 2012-2019. Data is obtained from the ASE and the company's annual reports. Board characteristics are measured by board size, independence, leadership duality, meetings frequency, political connections, and audit committee. Ownership structure was measured by concentration, foreign ownership, and Institutional ownership. The study hypotheses were tested by using Generalized Least Squares regression. The Findings showed that larger boards, politically connected firms, and firms with leadership duality are more likely to pay higher fees. Besides, Firms with greater foreign ownership pay less fees, whereas the rest of the variables are insignificant. Results suggest that political connections play a major role in determining audit fees; this provides a recommendation to policymakers in Jordan to reconsider regulations regarding political connections.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.109-115
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• 2021

This study aims to examine the effect of Operating Costs and Income, Loan to Deposit Ratio on the Return on Asset (ROA) of Public-Private Foreign Exchange Banks listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) during the 2015-2018 period. This study is a quantitative study using financial reports of Public-Private Foreign Exchange Banks listed on the IDX as a data source. This study's population is 25 Public-Private Foreign Exchange Banks listed on the IDX. This study uses purposive sampling to determine the sample to produce 21 banking companies. Data was analyzed using multiple linear regression methods and descriptive statistics. The F Test calculation results state that all the variables of free operating expenses, operating income, and the loan to deposit ratio simultaneously and significantly affect the return on assets (ROA) variable in Public-Private Foreign Exchange Banks listed on the IDX. This study's results indicate that simultaneously Operational Costs, Operational Income, and Loan to Deposit Ratio have a significant effect on ROA. Operational Costs and Operational Income have a significant negative impact on Return on Assets. The third hypothesis shows that the Loan to Deposit Ratio has a positive and insignificant effect on Return on Assets.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.151-156
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• 2021

This paper empirically examines the relationship between one of the major corporate governance attributes; family ownership and the audit committee activity across a sample of 430 publicly traded firms on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the period 2012-2019. Using the Pooled OLS regression, this study finds that family ownership is negatively associated with audit committee activity. This study reported that family ownership is negatively associated with audit committee activity, giving support to the convergence-of-interest hypothesis. Therefore, the existence of family ownership as a monitoring corporate governance mechanism substitutes the audit committee activity as another monitoring mechanism. This study provides empirical evidence on the associations of two internal corporate governance mechanisms, namely; family ownership and audit committee activity in the Saudi context where there is a paucity of research in this area. The findings of this study provide a new understanding regarding the extent to which family ownership impacts the activity of audit committees in manufacturing companies. Similarly, the companies' management, external auditors, bankers, and companies would also benefit from understanding the influential factors of the audit committee activities.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.749-759
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• 2021

We investigate the relationship between ownership control disparity and future firm value in high-technology industries, and whether the effect of ownership control disparity on future firm value is differentiated when high-tech industry firms belong to chaebol groups. Using 11,848 firm-year observations of Korean firms listed on the stock market from 2006 to 2019, we employ univariate analysis and Heckman 2 stage analysis to test our hypotheses. We define high-technology industries as ICT industries based on the Korean Standard Industrial Classification. We measure future firm value using average Tobin's q for the next three years and ownership control disparity using the shareholding ratio of affiliated companies. Our univariate test results show that mean of Tobin's q is higher in ICT firms than non-ICT firms and firms largely owned by affiliates. In multivariate test, we find that the ICT firms with higher ownership control disparity are positively associated with future firm value. However, this association is lessened when firms belong to a chaebol group. Based on our findings, we suggest ownership control disparity has an additional positive effect on future firm in high-technology industries. The negative impact of chaebol groups on the association suggests the possibility of diversification discount in business group.