Deciphering CEO disclosure tone inconsistency: a behavioural exploration

The Effect of Corporate Governance Components on Return on Assets and Stock Return of Companies Listed in Tehran Stock Exchange

This study investigates the effects of three highly-visible CEO characteristics on firm valuation. Using a sample of 2702 observations for Australian firms over the period 2001–2011, we find that CEO age is uniformly associated with lower firm valuation. CEO tenure is also associated with lower valuation, but more significantly so in the higher quantiles of firm valuation, that is for firms with high-growth opportunities. In contrast, CEO duality is found to be beneficial only for firms with high-growth opportunities. Overall, the study highlights the contingent relationship between CEO characteristics and firm valuation.

This study examines the effects of three highly-visible CEO characteristics on a valuation of the organization. Using a sample for Chinese firms over the period of 2007-2016, we find that CEO age is consistently related with lower organizations’ valuation. CEO tenure is also related with lower valuation, but more significantly so in the higher quantiles of organizations’ valuation, that is for organizations with high growth opportunities. The CEO duality is found to be valuable only for organizations with high growth opportunities. Overall, this study highlights the contingent association between CEO characteristics and valuation of the organization.

The present study aims to assess the relationship between some corporate factors and managerial entrenchment in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during 2011-2017. Panel data regression models were used to test the hypotheses. The obtained results indicated that four corporate factors, namely real earnings management, predictable earnings management, institutional ownership, and board independence, have a significant relationship with the managerial entrenchment. In this study, the mixed index of managerial entrenchment is calculated using the principal component analysis based on four governance mechanisms of the percentage of shares available to the CEO, CEO duality, CEO compensation logarithm, and CEO tenure. This process has made the present study distinct from the previous ones, in which individual indexes were used for evaluating the entrenchment.

This study examines the performance implications of CEO duality from a configurational governance perspective, with particular attention given to its relevance within an ESG-oriented framework. While prior research on CEO duality has produced inconsistent findings, much of the literature relies on variable-centered approaches that overlook the systemic and context-dependent nature of governance mechanisms. Drawing on agency theory, stewardship theory, and resource dependence theory, we analyze 59 publicly listed South Korean firms between 2018 and 2022 using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Five governance-related conditions—CEO duality, ownership concentration, CEO tenure, institutional ownership, and environmental dynamism—are calibrated into fuzzy sets to identify causal configurations associated with high firm performance, defined as membership in the top 30% of return on assets (ROA). The results reveal six equifinal pathways to high performance, two of which exhibit particularly strong consistency and coverage. These dominant configurations show that CEO duality contributes positively to performance when embedded in either strong internal governance alignment or robust external monitoring under dynamic conditions. By demonstrating that the effectiveness of CEO duality is contingent upon its governance configuration, this study challenges one-size-fits-all prescriptions and contributes to the ESG literature by highlighting the conditional role of leadership structure in sustainable value creation.

An Investigation on the Relationship between Corporate Governance and Growth Strategy with Value Creation in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) Abdolreza Ghasempour Abstract The present paper evaluated the role of corporate governance and growth strategy on value creation. As for the variables of value creation, economic value added, market value added, Jensen's alpha, return on assets, and return on equity were examined, sales growth and income growth were considered for growth strategy, and variables of percentage of institutional investors, percentage of non-bound members, CEO duality, CEO replacement, and auditor tenure were used as indicators of corporate governance. For testing research hypotheses, the authors utilized multiple regression and financial data of 111 sample companies for the period of 2001 to 2010. The findings indicated that sales growth was positively associated with all indices of value creation. However, income growth was only positively associated with the return on assets. Moreover, economic value added was solely positively associated with CEO duality. There were no associations whatsoever between market value added and Jensen's alpha as well as all indices of corporate governance. A negative and significant relationship was observed between return on assets and auditor tenure, and finally, return on equity was negatively associated with auditor tenure and CEO replacement. According to the results, corporate governance had little to do with value creation in Iran. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/ijat.v4n2a6

Introduction Theoretically, due to the separation of ownership and management, audit and financial reports are regarded as a communication bridge between managers and outside stakeholders. Nevertheless, the increasing weakening of the readability levels of financial and audit reports in recent years has had an adverse effect on their communication performance. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on audit report readability in the Tehran Stock Exchange. 2- Hypothesis The present study uses six different corporate governance mechanisms including board independence, board financial expertise, board gender, CEO duality, audit committee independence and institutional ownership as potential mechanisms likely to affect audit report readability. Accordingly, we present our main and sub-hypotheses as follows: Main hypothesis: corporate governance mechanism affects audit report readability. Sub-H1: board’s independence affects audit report readability. Sub-H2: board’s financial expertise affects audit report readability. Sub-H3: board’s gender affects audit report readability. Sub-H4: CEO duality affects audit report readability. Sub-H5: audit committee independence affects audit report readability. Sub-H6: institutional ownership affects audit report readability. 3- Methodology We use Flesch and Fog readability indices as our readability measures. The statistical population of this research includes all listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange whose stocks are actively traded. A sample of 103 companies (721 firm-year observations) during the period 2011 to 2017 are chosen from this statistical population after lifting intended restrictions. 4- Results Our findings suggest that corporate governance mechanisms significantly affect audit report readability. More specifically, our findings indicate that corporate board’s independence, board’s financial expertise and CEO duality are significantly associated with audit report readability. 5- Conclusion The present research is among the applied researches. The audit report serves as a bridge between the auditor and the users of the financial statements, and therefore its transparency and legibility will give credibility and legitimacy to the auditors. In other words, the difficulty or illegibility of the audit report will reduce the desirability of the audit opinion. Therefore, it is expected that the findings of the present study could inform the Tehran Stock Exchange, auditing firms and auditing standard setters, including the Certified Public Accountants, to create and strengthen strategies to increase the readability of audit reports and more appropriate governance mechanisms and prevent managerial opportunistic behaviors such as earnings management in the future.

PurposeThe impact of founder CEOs on firm value continues to be debated in the finance literature. While earlier studies suggest that founding family ownership and founding CEO structure create less value than public ownership, later studies provide contradicting evidence. This study examines how founder CEOs affect firm value in the business group context while controlling for firm-specific variables and various CEO characteristics.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a sample of publicly listed Indian firms from 2010 to 2015 with 997 firm-year data observations. While 306 of these are in business groups, the remaining 691 are in a nonbusiness group. The authors also divide the sample into various sector subgroups, including materials (170), industrials (198), consumer (422) and others (198). They use two different models, including the fixed effect model (FEM) and pooled generalized method of moments (GMM) model to run regressions.FindingsThe authors find that firms with founder CEOs have lower firm value than those with nonfounder CEOs. These results show the importance of the role of founder CEOs in the Indian business groups. The authors further find a positive relationship between founder CEO and business group interaction variable, showing that an increase in founder CEO (or business group) increases the significance effect of business group (founder CEO) on firm performance. After separating the sample business and nonbusiness groups, the relationship between founder CEOs and firm value in both groups remains negative. Using various firm-specific control variables, the authors find that highly leveraged and smaller firms experience lower Tobin's Q. In contrast, firms with more investment in research and development perform better. Among CEO characteristics, the authors find that firms with highly educated CEOs do not perform well, while firms with older CEOs do better. Finally, they find that CEO tenure and duality are associated with lower firm performance.Originality/valueThis study adds value by providing evidence on the founder CEOs and firm performance in business groups from a fast-developing emerging market.

<p><em>Corporate governance is relevant in both developed and emerging economies. The study investigated the impact of corporate governance on organisational performance, using thirty (30) randomly selected listed companies in the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) in the year 2016. The study focused on three corporate governance variables (i.e., Board Size, Board Independence, CEO Duality/Tenure); and two performance variables - i.e., Returns on Asset (ROA) and Returns on Equity (ROE). The study does not cover the market measure performance variable of Tobin’s Q. The study is an empirical research, with analytical research design. Secondary data, extracted from published annual reports of selected quoted companies and NSE website, is used for the study. The findings revealed a positive correlation between board size, independence directors, and performance variables; but, showed a negative correlation between CEO tenure and performance variables. The result showed that number of directors was not positively related to performance in selected quoted companies in terms of ROA; but, it revealed a positive correlation between board size and performance in terms of ROE. It also showed that the correlation between CEO tenure and performance variables was negative on the two performance variables (ROA and ROE). Regarding relationship between CEO Duality and performance variables (ROA and ROE), the result showed that CEO Duality has a positive correlation with ROA; but had a negative relationship with ROE. Generally, the study revealed that adoption of sound corporate governance practices by listed companies can improve their performance. Companies can benefit from this improved corporate governance practices by way of increased investment from investors and reduced capital cost. Shareholders confidence would be enhanced with attendant improvement in shareholders wealth. The nation’s economy would also benefit from sound corporate governance practices by way of improved GDP. </em></p>

Corporate governance and working capital management (WCM) are treated as essential subjects in financial management. Many researchers have studied the influence of corporate governance, but only a few of them have connected it with WCM efficiency. Particularly in Malaysia, there has been little concentration given to the relationship between corporate governance attributes and the WCM of the companies. Therefore, the present study intends to analyse the impact of corporate governance represented by CEO tenure, CEO Duality, Board size and Audit Committee on WCM represented by the current ratio of 35 Selangor-based companies which are listed under the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Top 100 Index.The results from this study show that CEO tenure has a significant negative impact on the current ratio, while CEO duality has a positive impact on the current ratio. Moreover, board size has no significant impact on the current ratio, and the audit committee has a significant positive impact on the current ratio. These findings imply that effective corporate governance mechanisms can significantly affect WCM. The result is expected to enable the owners of the firms to improve their corporate governance practices to enhance WCM efficiency and, furthermore, contribute to the enhancement of the profitability of the firms and maximise shareholders' wealth indirectly. Additionally, the findings from this study can also be a guide for good corporate governance' criteria that significantly affect the efficiency of WCM to be practised by other companies, including SMEs and other organisations.

This study investigates the connection between the CEO characteristics and the quality of financial reporting in Nigerian consumer goods companies. Data used was from the annual report of 10 consumer goods firms listed in the Nigeria Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2022. Using Ordinary least square regression, the research revealed that CEO gender and tenure have a positive and substantial effect on financial reporting quality. CEO financial expertise was found to be insignificant. The study concluded that long-tenure CEOs and female CEOs contribute to better financial reporting quality in the consumer goods industry. The study recommends among others that the board of directors of consumer goods firms in Nigeria should encourage gender diversity at the executive level through policies and initiatives that promote equal opportunities for women.

This article uses stakeholder and legitimacy theories to examine CEO characteristics, family-controlled firms and employer-support volunteerism in India. A sample size of 800 firm-year observations between 2010 and 2019 utilizes multivariant regression for data interpretation. Our results suggest that CEO duality is statistically insignificant to influence employer-support volunteerism. Second, ageing CEOs have a statistically significant and positive effect on influencing employer-support volunteerism in India. Third, male CEOs have a statistically significant and positive effect on influencing employer-support volunteerism in India. Fourth, family firms are insignificant to influence employer-support volunteerism. However, in a moderating study, family-controlled firms reduce the efficiency in CEO duality towards employer-support volunteerism in India. Fifth, the interactive study shows that ageing and male CEOs in family firms positively influence employer-support volunteerism. Regarding the control variables, we found that firm size and type of industry are sensitive to employer-support volunteerism in India. The study implies that a CEO non-duality can better address support for volunteerism. Similarly, the characteristics of ageing CEOs are associated with experience and the general desire to undertake volunteerism. Likewise is the engagement of male CEOs who pursue community engagement better than female CEOs. The implication from the study to shareholders and any party interest (example: community) seeking a firm to pursue CSR activities through volunteerism must support CEO non-duality, ageing CEOs and male CEOs’ engagements. Also, family or non-family firms still benefit from undertaking volunteerism when the firms engage ageing CEOs and male CEOs. The results of the study are robust after controlling for firm-specific variables.

The purpose of the present paper is that of researching the relationship between corporate governance and financial performance, on a sample of 51 companies, mainly from the technology area, listed at NASDAQ and component of the Dow Jones index, during the period 2000-2013. The financial performance has been proxied through return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), return on the invested capital (ROIC), and Tobin’s Q ratio (Q). As variables for the corporate governance there have been considered: the characteristics of the board of directors (independence, size, Advisory Committees, and gender diversity); the shareholder structure (the shares of institutional investors and those of CEO); the characteristics of CEO (tenure, age, and duality); the remuneration of CEO (base salary, bonuses, packages with stocks). The estimation techniques used in the empirical analysis have been multivariate regression models based on the method of generalized least squares (GLS), the correction of standard errors for heteroskedasticity using the method of White, and the fixed-effects (FE). The results obtained have highlighted a mixed influence of the corporate governance variables on financial performance (board size, share of women on the boards, the independence of the board), the relationships being influenced also by the perception of the stakeholders. We concluded a positive relationship between ROE and the remuneration of CEO in bonuses, as well as a negative relationship between Tobin’s Q ratio and the remuneration of CEO through stocks at the company they manage. The paper highlights, as novelty, elements from behavioral finance in the economic interpretation of the results, following their explanation also from the human nature perspective.

Ethical issues are critical to researchers, and this has been a hot topic in decades. Many classic ethical issues, such as plagiarism and fabrication, are repetitively discussed, but some contemporary ethical issues are still problematic and overlooked for researchers, especially those young scholars. The purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss ethical issues around contemporary business and management academic studies. This paper found that first, scholars are internally and externally pushed to produce rigorous theory development papers, neglecting the relevance of practice. Second, researchers devoted themselves in improving their academy degree or meeting requirements from their employers instead of dealing with practical problems and their interests in research. Third, some 'self-plagiarism' behaviours, such as segmented publication, are arguable in the academy study, which leads to a waste of publication, but it is hard to discern and needs to be tackled.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of corporate governance on the relationship between the firm value for the listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange during period 2013-2018. The corporate governance mechanisms include board size, board composition, institutional ownership, financial knowledge of the board, CEO duality, state-ownership and managerial ownership. The population is composed of the firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Filtering technique is used to select the sample. Furthermore, multivariate regression method, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and tree regression methods are used to test the hypotheses. The findings reveal that firm's value prediction is influenced by the two variables of managerial ownership and the non-executive members of the board. The findings of this research show that investors conceive earnings management negatively and earnings management has a negative effect on firm value. But in corporations with high quality corporate governance this effect is reduced. In other words, corporate governance mechanisms has a positive effect on the relationship between firm value and earnings management and firms with a higher corporate governance score face a less negative effect from earnings management.