Dr Samuel Fulgence

Theoretical arguments suggest that corporate board reform will influence firms’ capital structure choices. Consistent with this argument, we examine the impact of corporate board reform on the capital structure dynamics of UK firms. Using 12,384 firm-year observations between 2006 and 2020, we provide evidence of a higher speed of adjustment after board reform. Using an additional analysis, we find that firms with higher agency costs (in the pre-reform phase) are more likely to implement the monitoring effect of debt. Also, our decomposition analysis shows that firms increased both short-term and long-term debt after the board reform, suggesting that improved board monitoring positively impacts firm leverage.Query Our results are robust to alternative leverage proxies and batteries of robustness tests.

Abstract This study examines the impact of firm-level climate risk on stock price informativeness (SPI) through the integrated lens of stakeholder–shareholder theory. Using a global unbalanced panel of 73,770 firm-year observations across 38 countries (2000–2020), we find that higher carbon emissions significantly reduce SPI, reflecting increased information asymmetry. Governance mechanisms—specifically board size, independence, tenure, and nationality mix consistently moderate this effect by enhancing disclosure and mitigating opacity. The negative relationship between emissions and SPI is strongest in common law countries and those with high institutional quality, where stricter enforcement and disclosure regimes heighten investor sensitivity to environmental risks. Additionally, we document that transparency in emission disclosure, financial risks, and environmental liabilities is identified as a key channel through which firm-level climate risk affects market informativeness. Furthermore, higher SPI is associated with lower cost of capital, more efficient capital allocation, and reduced crash risk. This study contributes novel insights to the climate finance literature by integrating firm-level governance factors with cross-jurisdictional analysis. Robustness checks, including placebo tests, alternative SPI measures, and system GMM estimation, confirm the validity of our results and underscore the importance of institutional context in pricing environmental risk.

The Upper Echelons theory suggests that managerial characteristics will likely influence their financial decisions. Consistent with this theory, we examine CEO age's impact on Chinese firms' capital structure dynamics. We also investigate the moderating effects of overconfidence and tenure on the relationship between CEO age and capital structure. Using 18,235 firm-year observations from Chinese listed firms, we document a positive relationship between CEO age and leverage. The results show that the CEOs' age-overconfidence and age-tenure relationship have an inverse relationship with leverage. Particularly, we find that CEO overconfidence and tenure impact market leverage more than book leverage. Our sensitivity analysis indicates that young CEOs use less debt, consistent with the market-leaning hypothesis. We also find a positive relationship between CEO age and leverage in State-owned enterprises. Our results are robust for decomposition analysis, selection bias test and endogeneity.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) origins traced with early industrialists is now viewed as “one of, if not the most important issue of our time” [Hopkins (The planetary bargain: Corporate social responsibility comes of age. Macmillan, 2007)]. Its concept is dynamic, multifaceted and global; but it has proved to be a contentious matter across the world. It is a plethora of concepts that have emerged to express the role and responsibilities of business in society [Judy (Corporate Social Responsibility in Africa: Definitions, Issues and Processes, 2012)] which has developed a vast body of literature that supports and critiques its principle of the triple bottom line that has left a lot of un-attempted questions from practitioners and academia in most developing countries and, in particular, Tanzania. These questions, among others include what role do politicians, government regulation, legislation, and voluntary standards play in the adoption of CSR strategies? Which CSR theory is currently adopted? What are the benefits of CSR practices taking into consideration its cost to implement? What are the challenges and opportunities faced by both public sector and private companies seeking to engage in CSR programmes? The aim of this paper is to explore and critically review how CSR is embryonic and being practiced in Tanzania. The questions asked above are examined in a deep review of literature. The study employs inductive approach with a cross-sectional literature review which applies the analytical research method to underpin the subject matter. More than 40 current articles, including peer and non-peer reviewed research papers, surveys and several materials such as books and news paper have been gathered and reviewed accordingly. The analysis reveals that the CSR awareness and practice in Tanzania is increasing at a significant rate, despite the fact that there are a lot of challenges and barriers which hinder its promotion. A number of factors influencing and promoting CSR practices, including CSR opportunities in Tanzania, are also explored in detail. By accumulating knowledge of, and recommending continues improvements in CSR, this work is expected to be of high interest to create awareness to practitioners, researchers, academicians, politician’s, investors and the nation at large. This in turn will help to improve the country’s competitiveness in attracting CSR practices, as well as encouraging both foreign and local entrepreneurs to comply with CSR standards and codes of practice.

Interests in corporate governance have been stimulated by a number of factors, among which include the collapse of major corporations such as the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), the Maxwell Empire, Ferranti, Coloroll, British & Commonwealth Holdings in the UK; Enron, WorldCom and other major corporations in the US in 2002 as well as the Asian economic crisis. In Tanzania, corporate governance practices have been debated in the context of state ownership as well as corporate scandals such as EPA, MEREMETA, DOWANS and RICHMOND from 2000 to 2008. These have raised the profile of corporate governance both nationally and internationally. The chapter aims at exploring corporate governance in Tanzania. The study employs cross-sectional literature review to explore corporate governance current status both in the public and the private sector. The findings reveal that in Tanzania there is corruption (embezzlement, nepotism) managerial incompetence, political interference and government subsidisation of failing enterprises. Despite the fact that, the government has gone through several reforms to establish an effective system of corporate governance. The development of Tanzanian's own national code of corporate governance, CSMA, and bank corporate governance guidelines marked an important milestone in the commitment towards sorting out and rescuing the situation. By accumulating knowledge of, and recommending continuous improvements in corporate governance, this study hopefully will be of interest in the attempt to create awareness amongst Practitioners, Researchers, Academics, Politcians, Investors and the nation at large which in turn will help to improve the country's competitiveness in attracting foreign investments, as well as encouraging local entrepreneurs to invest.

This paper investigates the effect of an overconfident CEO on firm greenhouse gas emissions. Using panel data of 160,115 firm‐year observations from 41 countries for 2000–2021, we find a negative relationship between CEO overconfidence and greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, drawing on the theories of gender socialisation and diversity, we find that great representation of females on the board further compels overconfident CEOs to reduce firm carbon emissions. Our findings are robust to varying estimation techniques and identification strategies. These findings offer important insights to green investors, corporate boards, managers and policymakers on the role of overconfident CEOs and female leadership in the carbon abatement efforts of public companies.

The Research Problem: This study examines the effects of board size, board independence, and the interaction effect between board independence and CEO/CFO on corporate governance disclosure practices. Motivation: Despite corporate governance (CG) reforms around the world, research evidence indicates that the levels of corporate governance disclosures (CGDs) in developing countries remain poor due to weak institutions and corporate governance systems. In particular, the corporate boards as a key mechanism of CG and the board nomination processes in East Africa remain largely opaque and dominated by majority shareholders, Chief Executive Officers and Chief Finance Officers (CEOs/CFOs), giving rise to opportunistic behaviours which may be detrimental to firm value. The distinctive feature of the board nomination process/CG system in East Africa has implications for monitoring and corporate governance disclosure practices and compliance and calls for systematic research in this under-explored subject. Target Population: Stakeholders including firm managers, practitioners, regulatory authorities, policymakers and investors. Methodology: Ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed effect model and system GMM. Analyses: Using a large and hand-collected dataset comprising 1,000 firm-year observations from 2007 to 2017 in East Africa, this study develops a corporate governance disclosure index (CGDI) of East Africa consisting of 164 provisions. To test our hypotheses, this study adopts three analytical approaches, namely OLS and fixed effect (FE) regressions and the two-stage system GMM to address the endogeneity concerns. Findings: We find that large boards and independent directors are associated with greater disclosure of CG information. Different from environments with stronger institutions and corporate governance systems, our analysis suggests that the CEO/CFO power negatively moderates the link between board independence and corporate governance disclosure. Thus, firms whose CEO and CFO are involved in remuneration or nomination committees disclose less CG information. The combined effect of CEO and CFO on selection and remuneration committees and independent board in reducing corporate disclosure appears more pronounced for the post-financial crisis period compared to the crisis period.

This study examines the effect of ownership structure (classified as concentrated, institutional, and managerial ownership) on corporate governance (CG) disclosure. Using a sample of 96 East African firms, we document that, whereas concentrated ownership has a negative effect, institutional ownership has a positive and significant association with CG disclosure. However, we find the effect of managerial ownership on CG disclosure to be negative and insignificant. We also find CEO power to moderate the link between ownership structure and CG disclosure. Further analysis indicates that, whereas the effects of institutional and concentrated ownerships on CG disclosure remain unchanged irrespective of a firm’s debt levels, the effect of managerial ownership on CG disclosure is driven by external pressures associated with debt financing. Our findings provide evidence on how different ownership types have different preferences, thereby influencing corporate disclosure practices differently. Our results are robust to the two-stage system generalised method of moments (SGMM) and other alternative sensitivity tests.

This study investigates the influence of social media activities on stock price informativeness. Using a panel of 49 countries with 231,462 balance‐panel firm‐year observations from 2010 to 2020, we find that social media activities increase stock price informativeness. Furthermore, social media engagement for political and civil activities reduces information asymmetries that are linked to greater stock price informativeness. We further evidence that the intensity of the impact of social media activities varies between economic development and sectors, which implies that while some of the social media activities proxies are more pronounced in developed countries, others are more pronounced in emerging economies. The same applies to the services and non‐services sectors. The result is more pronounced when varying offline political actions are most commonly mobilised on social media. For identification, we employ principal component analysis, difference‐in‐difference, and propensity score matching.

We examine the effects of political uncertainty on the informativeness of stock prices. Using panel data from 49 countries and 441,882 firm-year observations from 2000 to 2020, our results evince several interesting aspects. First, we find that, whereas political uncertainty reduces stock price informativeness in the year prior to elections and during the elections, stock prices tend to be more informative in non-election years. Second, we find that the sensitivity of stock price informativeness to political uncertainty is reduced by the strength of institutional quality. Third, the effects of political uncertainty appear to be heterogeneous across less/unregulated and regulated industries. Lastly, our channel analysis indicates that during the year of elections, firms tend to disclosure less information thereby exerting a negative impact on stock price informativeness. Our results are robust to the system generalized method of moments (SGMM), difference-in-difference, and alternative specifications.