Abstract:The relationship between corporate environmental performance and corporate financial performance has been extensively studied in developed countries, and has received less attention in developing countries. For this reason, the main objective of this paper is to examine the effect of corporate environmental performance on corporate financial performance during a global financial crisis, depending on the economic development level of the country where a firm is located. To this end, we obtain data for a sample of 2982 large firms from 2008 to 2015. We apply Petersen's approach to these data, adjusting the standard errors for clustering by both firm and year. The results obtained show that the adoption of environmental practices significantly and positively affects the corporate financial performance in developed and developing countries. However, this effect is stronger for firms located in developing countries than those located in developed countries.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze investor reactions to ethical screening by pension plan managers. Design/methodology/approach – The author presents a sample consisting of data corresponding to 573 pension plans in relation to such aspects as financial performance, inception date, asset size, number of participants, custodial and management fees, and whether their managers adopt ethical screening or give part of their profits to social projects. On this data the author implements the fixed effects panel data model proposed by Vogelsang (2012). Findings – The results obtained indicate that investors/consumers prefer traditional or solidarity pension plans to ethical pension plans. Furthermore, the findings show that ethical investors/consumers are more (less) sensitive to positive (negative) lagged returns than caring and traditional consumers, causing traditional consumers to contribute to pension plans that they already own. Research limitations/implications – The author does not know what types of environmental, social and corporate governance criteria have been adopted by ethical pension plan managers and the weight given to each of these criteria for selecting the stock of the firms in their portfolios that could influence in the investors’ behaviour. Practical implications – The results obtained in the current paper show that investors invest less money in ethical pension plans than in traditional and solidarity pension plans; this could be due to the lack of information for their part. To solve this, management companies could increase the transparency about their corporate social responsibility (CSR) investments to encourage investors to invest in ethical products so these lead to raising CSR standards in companies, and therefore, sustainable development. Social implications – The Spanish socially responsible investment retail market is still at an early phase of development, and regulators should promote it in order to encourage firms to adopt business activities that take into account societal concerns. Originality/value – This paper provides new evidence in a field little analysed. This paper contributes to the existing literature by focusing on examining the behaviour of pension funds investors whose investment time horizon is in the long-term while previous literature focus on analysing behaviour of mutual fund investors whose investment time horizon is in the short/medium term what could cause different investors’ behaviour.

The main objective of this article is to analyze gender differences in terms of student academic performance. The study is based on a data sample of 3,219 students attending the Autonomous University of Barcelona. The data was analyzed using the Tobit estimation model and the Tobit-Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition Method. According to the results obtained, 67.27% of the differences in male and female academic performance are attributed to observable characteristics.  The results obtained also reveal that student intellectual ability, experience with the subject matter, effort made during the course and prior accounting courses taken during high school, all had a significant and positive effect on students of both sexes.  On the other hand, scholarships positively influenced the academic performance of only the female students, while the instructor´s professional status and the time of the day at which the class was held a negative impact on the academic performance of males. These results have underlying implications for policymakers and instructors. For example, organizations that offer student financial aid, may increase the number of scholarships available for female students, while instructors can better prepare students by having them perform more practical exercises that simulate real-life scenarios they may encounter when entering the job market.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the management systems (MSs) field by addressing whether the implementation of an integrated management system (IMS) and the integration level of its elements bring benefits and/or challenges to companies and whether these are related to corporate financial performance (CFP). Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a Spanish sample of 76 organizations with at least an environmental and a quality MS, the authors perform a partial least squares (PLS) analysis. Findings The results showed evidence of a positive relationship of the integration benefits with respect to the integration level of MS documentation and the integration level of MS procedures that overweights the negative significant effect of difficulties of integration in relation to the integration level of MS documentation and the integration level of MS procedures. The authors also found new evidence on this topic, related to a positive significant relationship between the integration level of MS procedures and CFP that overweights the negative significant effect of integration level of MS documentation on CFP. Research limitations/implications This study used cross-sectional data from interviewees who are Catalan managers. Furthermore, the mail survey was answered in 2010 at the beginning of the economic crisis from which results should be taken with caution given that the situation might have changed due to the continuation of the Spanish economic crisis. Practical implications The findings could allow companies’ managers to understand the extent to which the integration of quality management practices and environmental management practices influences some of the most relevant firms’ financial performance dimensions. Originality/value As far as the authors know, there are not empirical studies that address the relationship of IMS with a measure of performance such as CFP.