This study analyzed whether a systematic relationship exists between corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and corporate financial performance using 191 sample firms listed on the Korea Exchange. The Korea Economic Justice Institute (KEJI) index of 2015 was used to measure CSR performance; profitability and firm value were used to measure corporate financial performance. Return on assets was used as a proxy for profitability, and Tobin’s Q was used as a proxy for firm value. The correlation between these variables and CSR performance was examined through correlation and regression analysis. The results confirm that CSR performance has a partial positive correlation with profitability and firm value. These results are partly consistent with those of previous studies reporting a positive relationship between CSR and Korean firms’ financial performance using the KEJI index before 2011. In the relationship between CSR performance and profitability, only social contribution yields a statistically positive correlation. Analysis of the correlation between CSR performance and financial performance indicators revealed a positive relationship between the growth rate of total assets and corporate soundness and social contribution. Both soundness and social contribution showed a positive correlation with Tobin’s Q, the measure of corporate value.

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We examine institutional blockholders’ influence on income‐smoothing practices in the Korean market, which provides an interesting setting where family‐oriented chaebols dictate the corporate landscape and impede shareholder activism. The empirical results reveal that institutional shareholders with a short‐term (long‐term) investment horizon facilitate (constrain) managerial myopia. This positive (negative) association is most evident among firms with domestic institutional investors. Therefore, we argue that the presence of domestic institutional investors with transient investment goals incentivizes firms’ management to smooth out earnings.

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This study examines the relationship between corporate ownership structures and cash holdings in Vietnam using panel regression. We use a sample of 646 non-financial firms listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2018. Our main analysis employs firms’ state and foreign ownership status as the explanatory variables and firms’ cash holdings as the response variable. Both state ownership and foreign ownership exert a statistically significant positive influence on the investee firms’ internal cash reserves. Our baseline result implies that both state and foreign investors are likely to demand high cash ratio based on precautionary motives. To address endogeneity issues, we also include a firm’s cash policy in the past three years in the analysis. Both types of ownership and cash holdings are significantly positively related, hinting that our results are robust to autocorrelation. This positive link reveals that firms are likely to accumulate large cash savings in a weak business environment characterized by poor investor protection and high levels of political uncertainty and information asymmetry. These results indicate a possibility that different management preferences of domestic and foreign shareholders may be overridden by an adverse business environment. One important policy implication is that regulatory agencies should adopt a uniform accounting standard for financial reports, preferably under the international financial reporting standards (IFRS), to improve the information transfer between outside investors and shareholders. This will enhance minor shareholders’ rights and values and induce more effective monitoring mechanisms to enter the market, thereby creating a healthier business environment.