Purpose This paper aims to investigate the moderating effects of corporate governance mechanisms on the financial leverage–profitability relation in emerging market firms. Design/methodology/approach The paper examines the impacts by estimating the empirical model in which a firm’s accounting profitability is a dependent variable, while financial leverage, board size, board independence, CEO duality, CEO ownership, state ownership and the interaction variables are predictors. The paper uses the panel data set of 295 listed firms in Vietnam in the period 2011-2015 and two key econometric methods for panel data, namely, the two-stage least square instrumental variable and general moments method. Findings The paper finds the evidence for the significant and positive effect of board size, board independence and state ownership on the financial leverage–profitability relation. The effect of CEO duality on the financial leverage–profitability relation tends to be negative, and the impact CEO ownership inclines to be positive, although both of them are statistically insignificant. The results are consistent across different estimation methods. Originality/value This paper is the first investigating the moderating effect of various corporate governance mechanisms on the financial leverage–profitability relationship in emerging market firms.

This article investigates the moderating role of board independence in the relationship between debt financing and performance of emerging market firms. We have used an empirical model in which the firm’s accounting profitability is a dependent variable and the independent variables are debt financing, board independence, the interaction variable made of debt financing and board independence as well as various control variables. Our analysis is based on a panel data set of 300 listed firms in Vietnam between 2013 and 2017. Our study finds that debt financing has a significantly negative effect and that board independence reduces the adverse impact of debt financing on accounting profitability. Our results are consistent across different estimation models and methods.

The paper presents a model that estimates leaf area index (LAI) from above- and below-canopy global radiation measurements. The approach is based on a detailed description of radiation regime above and below the canopy. One EuroFlux site, a beech forest ( Fagus sylvatica L.) at Hesse, France was selected for model testing. The time-courses of daily LAI from 1996 to 2001 were simulated by the model. Since the simulated LAI curves include some random daily variations due to the quality of global radiation measurements, these were further smoothed by Fast Fourier transform and convolution using a 5-day window. The direct model output and the smoothed data by Fast Fourier transform and convolution using a 5-day window all agreed well with the in situ measurements. The r(2) of daily modeled LAI, Fourier transformed and convolution smoothed LAI with respect to measured LAI were 0.85, 0.89 and 0.84, and the corresponding RMSE were 0.56, 0.62 and 0.42 respectively. Relative evident noise was noted during the "leaf constant'' period in each year. The analysis of normalized deviation during this period in response to environmental parameters revealed that no statistical relationship could be found for daily average temperature, VPD, wind velocity and fraction of diffuse radiation. However, in 65% of cases with positive normalized deviation during the "leaf constant'' period precipitation occurred, indicating an effect of precipitation on model output. The daily and seasonal variation of the estimated extinction coefficient k was examined, since treating k as a constant may lead to large changes in the estimates of LAI via direct application of the Lambert-Beer law. Finally, the paper has also compared MODIS LAI predictions for the tower site during the year 2001 with the convolve smoothed model output. While a similar pattern is found during midsummer, MODIS underestimated LAI during the "leaf constant'' period. Larger as yet unexplained deviations are found during winter and spring before the "leaf constant'' period. Since the model is not very sensitive to weather conditions, it can be used to provide daily LAI from the daily global radiation measurements and offers an opportunity to include phenological information into gas exchange models which require LAI as input

The paper aims to investigate the impact of ESG practice on firms’ financial performance in the context of U.S. market from 2018 to 2020. The paper examines a sample of 57 U.S. non-financial firms belonging to the S&P 500. The Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) estimation is employed with an instrumental variable - the political views of the states where the studied firms are located. The paper shows that having a better practice of ESG could enhance firms’ financial performance measured by ROA, ROE, and TobinQ. These findings are consistent with the stakeholder-focused theory instead of shareholder-focus perspective. In addition, the magnitude of the influence of the ESG practice on TobinQ is significantly higher than that of the ESG-ROA and ESG-ROE relations. It reveals that the ESG benefits could make the firms appear more attractive to investors, creating higher market values of the firms’ assets and then higher TobinQ ratio. Not as the TobinQ enhancement, the significant improvement in ROA and ROE would be realized in the long run rather than short term. The low managerial ownership in the U.S. market may increase the chance of ESG overinvestment by the firms’ managers, hence reducing firm value. However, under the pressure of the investors’ strong demand for socially responsible investing, the U.S. firms tend to become involved in ESG activities, obtaining a strong stakeholder commitment and thus creating additional firm value in the long run.

Given the increasing importance of green bond as the main funding source for the Sustainable Development Goals, the green bond is an emerging concept in the region of Southeast Asia. In addition, the concurrent Covid-19 pandemic has caused disruption to the development of green bond around the world. This research explores the current development status of the green bond in Southeast Asian countries. A total of thirty-two semi-structured interviews were held with capital market participants in Southeast Asian countries. The results highlight barriers, opportunities, and regulation difficulties, and expected growth for the development of the green bond market. This research is concluded by indicating several propositions that can be tested in the future to generalize the findings from this work. We thus extend the knowledge of green bond in the financial markets of Southeast Asian countries, which also delivers implications for practitioners and policy-makers regarding the development of green bond in Southeast Asian countries.