Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of board composition on corporate social responsibility (CSR) for selected Malaysian companies in Bursa Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyses board composition and CSR of Malaysian (family and non-family) firms using linear regression analysis. Findings The empirical findings indicate that non-executive directors (NEDs) and independent non-executive directors (INEDs) designate a negative relationship, while women on board indicate a positive relationship. The only variable that positively affects the level of CSR initiatives is the presence of women directors. As for family and non-family business, the main findings are: a positive relationship between NEDs and CSR initiatives in non-family business and a negative relationship between INEDs and CSR for family-controlled business. Research limitations/implications This paper is limited only to selected companies on Bursa Malaysia over a period of two years. The paper suggests that board composition in an emerging market is relatively ineffective in improving CSR initiatives, with the exception of women on board. This is more prevalent in family business, as they do not seem to contribute toward humanizing or cultivating CSR in their companies. Practical implications This paper can be used as a reference by regulatory bodies to further investigate on the means as to how board composition can further contribute toward CSR initiatives, as these board members have inherent authorities and decision-making power. Composition and role of women directors in board needs to be further deliberated. Originality/value This paper contributes to the existing literature in terms of the roles of board composition on CSR initiatives. It further highlights the difference in the aforementioned relationship between family and non-family business.

This study examines the signalling roles of auditors’ and underwriters’ reputation and its interacted effects on the initial public offering (IPO) initial returns before, during and after the Global Financial Crisis in an emerging market. Cross-sectional data comprising of 228 IPOs from the Malaysian Stock Exchange (Bursa Malaysia) is used for the period 2005–2012. The ordinary least square method using multiple linear regressions is used to test the hypotheses. The findings indicate that both auditors’ and underwriters’ reputation plays a significant role in reducing asymmetric information and signals firm value to the potential investors. Auditors’ reputation documents a positive relationship, whilst the underwriters’ reputation indicates a negative relationship. The interacted signalling variables indicate that underwriters’ reputation plays a dominant role in assisting potential investors in their investment decision-making.

The objective of this paper is to develop an integrated conceptual model, termed as the "cradle to grave model" that forms the link between the roles of educational agents, socialisation agents and the media with financial literacy and its eventual impact on money management. The paper also proposes the moderating effects of money attitude between financial literacy and money management for future empirical research. The researchers deliberated on a rigorous literature to conceptualise the model. It is envisioned that the paper will assist individual citizens and the policy makers in understanding the use of educational institutions, society and media to intellectualize financial literacy in achieving money management. The proposed conceptual model by the researchers should not be generalized until further empirical testing. Auxiliary research is desired to empirically validate the concept through systematic investigations and devising of appropriate tools for quantification. The idea is original and makes the foundational contribution for an inaugural stream of financial literacy and money management research.

This study investigates the relationship between two governance issues, i.e., ownership and board structure of Malaysian listed firms (between 2010 and 2012) and their performance in terms of profitability, liquidity and gearing. Structural Equation Modeling is applied and the data analysis tool used is Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE). The dependent variables used as proxies for financial performance are; profitability, liquidity and gearing, whilst the independent variables are; ownership retention (OR), board size (BS), percentage of executive directors (ED), percentage of independent directors (ID) and percentage of non-independent non-executive directors (NINED). It is conjectured that there is consistency across all components of ownership and board structure in terms of its relationship with the gearing of companies. With the exception of non-independent non-executive directors, all other components of board structure in this study seem to have an impact on the gearing of companies. In that respect, it can be concluded that a company's ownership structure and board of directors who represent the shareholders have major concerns on the gearing of companies compared to other financial indicators, as the level of gearing of a company has important and long-lasting effects on the profitability and liquidity of companies. This study leads the path for further research on all aspects of a company's gearing.

This study explores the relationship between the roles played by institutional factors such as investors' protection, corruption and legal origin on the global equity market volatility using a panel data over a period of 5 years; 2008 -2012. Ninety-one countries were selected based on data availability from the World Bank. Generalized moving methods (GMM) is employed to identify the short and long-run effects of the abovementioned relationship. The results indicate that investors' protection and legal origin play a significant role in the equity market volatility for all countries. It is conjectured that proper investors' protection and legal execution are important for a country to have a stable equity market because this mitigates uncertainty and increases investor confidence. Further analysis on sub-groups (Emerging Markets and Developed Markets) indicate that all three variables analysed in this study, i.e., investors protection, transparency levels and legal origin have an impact on the volatility of a stock market. High transparency level coupled with low corruption level creates more confidence amongst investors in the developed countries as opposed to the emerging markets and this reduces the volatility. Taken together, the results clearly signal to the market that investors are cautious on the extent of protection given by a country, its transparency levels and the legal content and enforcement.