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This paper extends prior research to examine the managerial ownership influences on firm performance through the choices of capital structures by using a new sample of S&P 500 firm in 2005. The empirical results of OLS regressions replicate the nonlinear relationship between managerial ownership and firm value. However, we found that the turning points had moved up in our sample compared with previous papers, which implies that the managerial control for pursuing self-interest, and the alignment of interests between managers and other shareholders can only be achieved now by management holding more ownership in a firm than that found in the previous studies. Managerial ownership also drives the capital structure as a nonlinear shape, but with a direction opposite to the shape of firm value. The results of simultaneous regressions suggest that managerial ownership affects capital structure, which in turn affects firm value. Capital structure is endogenously determined by both firm value and managerial ownership; while managerial ownership is not endogenously determined by the other two variables. As a part of good tradition we have focused on a wide international representation of contributions. We have contributions made by authors from many countries of the world both developed and developing. These are papers by authors from Japan, the USA, Spain, Australia, Taiwan, Qatar, Brazil, Denmark.In this issue we were fortunate in composing a section devoted to corporate governance in a particular region with application to Japan. This is the first time for our journal to publish the special section on corporate governance in Japan. This is a result of efforts undertaken by us to get and develop very good and future-oriented relationships with corporate governance experts from Japan. I think you will enjoy reading the papers on corporate governance in Japan.In this issue of the journal we came back to the traditional issue of corporate governance -ownership structure as a special section. Major attention is paid to the link between ownership structure and performance. Our contributors were fortunate in generating new ideas and made new findings in this way.Our strategic purpose is to develop the new concepts and practices how to overcome the financial crisis with the corporate governance toolkit including mechanisms, instruments and participants. SECTION 1. ACADEMIC INVESTIGATIONS AND CONCEPTS CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND FINANCIAL CONTRACTING: BONDHOLDER TAKEOVER DEFENSES IN POISON PUTS 9Ai-Fen Cheng, Tao-Hsien Dolly KingBondholder governance through the use of bond covenants and the interactions between shareholder and bondholder governance mechanisms has been recently highlighted in the corporate governance literature. In this paper, we study bondholder governance mechanisms through takeover-related bond covenants (i.e., poison puts), confirm with agency theory on the characteristics of firms that are more likely to use these covenants, and emphasize the importance of bondholder governance in the overall struc...

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Previous studies have established that firms’ effectiveness can differ based on the differences among directors within a board, and between boards. However, studies have yet to establish the effectiveness of the diverse attributes of the board on firms’ quality of earnings in an emerging market setting such as Vietnam. This study investigates the effect of board diversity on earnings quality in a sample of Vietnamese listed firms. The two dimensions of board diversity measures in this study cover a wide range of structural and demographic attributes of board of directors, using a diversity‐of‐boards index (dissimilarities among firm boards, i.e., board structure) and a diversity‐in‐boards index (dissimilarities among directors within a board, i.e., demographic attributes of board members). Earnings quality is an aggregate measure compiled from four accounting‐based measures of earnings quality: accruals quality, earnings persistence, earnings predictability and earnings smoothness. We find a significant, positive linear relationship between diversity of boards and earnings quality, while the relationship between diversity in boards and earnings quality is non‐linear, with a U‐shaped curve.