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The purpose of this study was to extend our understanding of how corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures impact capital market participants, specifically sell-side analysts. The sample of this study was based on a dataset from a panel of 285 Malaysian firms for the period of 2008–2013 (738 firm-year observations). This study employed ordinary least square regression. This study found that firms with better CSR disclosures are more likely to receive optimistic investment recommendations. Subsample analyses revealed that the CSR-recommendation nexus is more pronounced under a transparent information environment (i) when there is less family control and (ii) when a firm is audited by a prominent Big Four auditor. The results implied that analysts tend to give favorable stock recommendations to high CSR companies operating in a more transparent information environment. To gain analysts’ confidence and make them more appreciative of the CSR disclosures, family firms with proactive CSR engagement are encouraged to switch to Big Four auditors or to seek assurance on their CSR reports. This study broadens our understanding of the factors influencing analysts’ recommendations and the preferences of analysts towards CSR engagement in an emerging market. This paper expands the literature on how corporate responsibility disclosures impact analysts’ final output, as reflected in the recommendation opinion, an area that has so far received little attention, particularly in emerging markets. Furthermore, this study also provides fresh evidence that analyst behavior towards CSR disclosures varies based on the strength of the firm’s information environment.

This study investigates the association between institutional investors' ownership and sell-side analysts' stock recommendations in the context of the heterogeneous nature of institutional investors. Based on a sample of 281 Malaysian public listed companies over the period 2008-2013 (732 company-year observations), we find a significant positive relationship between institutional ownership, in particular ownership held by privately managed institutional investors and sell-side analysts' stock recommendations, but no significant relationship between state owned institutional investors and sell-side analysts' stock recommendations. This suggests that the relationship between institutional investors and analysts' stock recommendations are different among different types of institutional investor. Our results are robust to tests for potential endogeneity between institutional ownership and analysts' stock recommendations.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of financial restatements on the sell-side analysts' stock recommendations.Design/methodology/approachThe sample of this study is based on a dataset from a panel of 246 Malaysian public listed companies for the period 2008 to 2013 (651 company-year observations). This study employs feasible generalized least squares regression.FindingsThis study finds a negative and significant relationship between restated companies and sell-side analysts' stock recommendations, which means that sell-side analysts issue less favorable stock recommendations for restated companies.Practical implicationsThe findings based on observations from an emerging economy complement the results of the US studies that analysts revise their earnings forecasts or recommendations downwards or drop coverage following financial restatements. The results of this study should be useful to capital market participants in understanding how analysts perceive and evaluate restated companies.Originality/valueThis paper expands the literature on financial restatements consequences in an emerging market which is largely unstudied. Prior research on analyst behavior towards restatements has focused on the consequences of restatements in terms of analyst following and forecast accuracy and dispersion. This study examines if and how the restatements affect the analysts' final output as reflected in the recommendation opinion, an area that has so far received little attention.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between cash conversion cycle and firm performance of small and medium-sized entities (SMEs) in Nigeria. SMEs are potentials for Nigerian economy growth; contributing to gross domestic product, employment generation, poverty reduction and industrialization. The study employed the panel data regression analysis using financial data from a sample of 311 Nigerian SMEs for the period 2007-2013. The findings of the study revealed a negative association between cash conversion cycle, inventory holding period and accounts payable period with SMEs profitability; and a statistically significant negative relationship between accounts receivable period and SMEs’ profitability. The findings also found a significant positive relationship between firm size, leverage, growth opportunities and firm age and SMEs’ profitability. Thus, the result of the study indicates that Nigerian SMEs with a shorter cash conversion cycle and low growth opportunities hold more cash. This study contributes to existing literature on the relationship between cash conversion cycle and SMEs’ profitability in developing economies. However, this study is limited to non-financial and non-service SMEs.