This article examines the relationship between gender diversity, selected female attributes, and financial performance of FTSE 100 firms in the UK. Drawing on critical mass theory by measuring gender diversity as levels of female representation in the boardroom, this study finds a positive and significant relationship between gender diversity and firm performance. However, the results become highly significant and unequivocal when three or more females are appointed to the board compared to the appointment of two or less females. Further analysis reveals that post-appointment financial performance is positively related to female age, level of education and where female board members also hold executive director positions. The results remain unchanged after accounting for endogeneity concerns and employing alternative measures of firm performance, namely, return on assets and Tobin's Q.
This study explores whether the nature of ownership may condition the extent and impact of political connections on credit risk decisions. We find politically connected boards to exert significant influence on credit risk. Further evidence shows that ownership type of the bank moderates the link between politically connected boards and credit risk. Specifically, state owned banks appear to be more susceptible to credit risk while independent directors in private banks tend to be effective monitors. Our findings have important implications for bank stability and provide a means to measure the success of corporate governance reforms carried out in emerging countries over the past two decades.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of bank ownership structure and ownership concentration on credit risk.
Design/methodology/approach
Using panel data on a sample of 88 Chinese commercial banks, with 826 observations over a period of 2003–2018, this study has applied system generalised method of moments regression to examine the impact of bank ownership structure and ownership concentration on credit risk. This study has used two measures of credit risk, which are non-performing loan ratio (NPLR) and loan loss provision ratio (LLPR).
Findings
The results show that ownership type (both government and private ownership) exerts a positive and significant impact on credit risk. Measuring ownership concentration using Herfindahl–Hirchmann Index, the results indicate that concentration of ownership in the hands of government has a negative and significant effect on credit risk, whereas private ownership concentration positively impacts credit risk. Overall, the findings suggest that concentration of ownership in government hands reduces risk; however, private ownership concentration exacerbates credit risks. The results are invariant to both measures of credit risk, before and after the financial crisis.
Practical implications
The findings provide useful insight to guide policy decisions in Chinese banks’ lending policies and bank ownership.
Originality/value
Using two ex post measures of credit risk, NPLR and LLPR, and one ownership concentration measure, HHI, this study deepens our understanding on the effectiveness of Chinese banks’ corporate governance reforms on managing credit risks.
In this paper, we employ board monitoring mechanisms and within-firm governance variables to investigate the operating performance of 340 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in China over the 2004-2011 period. Our results document a significant deterioration in post-acquisition operating performance of acquiring firms over 12-36 months. We find independent directors, managerial shareholding, ownership concentration have a positive and significant impact on operating performance of acquiring firms. However, the related party transactions exert a negative and significant effect on matched control adjusted ROA. Further analysis of our sub-sample indicates that privately owned enterprises (POEs) are better monitors compared to the state owned enterprises (SOEs).
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