Purpose This paper aims to investigate the relationship between female executives, chief executive officer (CEO) tenure and corporate cash holdings in the context of the developing Southeast Asian capital market (Indonesia). Design/methodology/approach The sample was screened from 231 publicly listed companies in the Indonesian Stock Exchange. The period of observation was 2011–2017. Two measures were applied for corporate cash holdings: the ratio of cash and cash equivalent to total assets and cash and cash equivalent to net assets. Three surrogate indicators were used for female executives: female CEO, the proportion of female members in the board of management and the number of female members in the board of management. CEO tenure is the length of time a CEO has been a member of the board of management. This study uses panel data regression analysis, including the fixed effect model with clustered standard errors. Findings The empirical evidence indicates that female executives and CEO tenure are positively and negatively associated with corporate cash holdings, respectively, and both are significantly related. Additional analysis using lagged independent variables remains consistent with the main analysis, suggesting that corporate cash holding becomes higher as a female presence in the board of management increases. Research limitations/implications Empirical tests set in Indonesia suggest that female executives are more conservative and risk-averse, thereby holding more cash with a precautionary motive. The findings also imply that CEOs with long tenure focus on long-term performance such as increasing research and development investments or capital expenditure, thus holding less cash. Accordingly, policymakers and regulators should promote diversity issues proportionally and advance to the board level. Originality/value This study contributes to the field of executive and CEO studies by enriching the empirical findings in related topics. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies applying two measures of cash holdings in the setting of a developing Southeast Asian capital market (Indonesia).

This study examines how female executives affect bank performance in Indonesia’s emerging market. It also investigates whether a critical mass of females on the board of management impacts bank performance. The sample was obtained from 29 banks, which covers 64.5% of publicly listed banks in Indonesia, for the observation period of 2010–2019. This study employs balanced panel data regression analysis, including the year fixed effect. Five surrogate indicators were used for female executives: female Chief Executive Officer (CEO), female Chief Financial Officer (CFO), the presence of females on the board of management, the proportion of female members on the board of management, and the number of female members on the board of management. Critical mass is reached if there are three or more female members on the board of management. The findings suggest that female executives do not significantly impact bank performance. The critical mass suggests a similar result. The findings are consistent and robust for the additional analysis using a lagged independent variable. Nevertheless, the results show that female CEOs positively impact return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). Empirical findings in Indonesia suggest that female executives do not affect bank performance. The absence of this effect is likely due to unique aspects of Indonesian culture and the structural ownership of firms. However, female CEOs were shown to improve ROE. The findings imply that females are more risk-averse decision makers than males and tend to choose lower-risk investments, which can improve ROA and ROE.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate how chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics, including age, education, nationality and particularly gender, influence firm performance in a developing Southeast Asian Country (Indonesia). Design/methodology/approach The study uses balanced firm-level panel data for 203 nonfinancial companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2020. Return on assets, return on equity and Tobin’s Q were used to measure firm performance. The data were analyzed using panel data regression analysis, including a fixed effects model with clustered standard errors. Findings The results indicate that female CEOs, education and nationality enhance firm performance, while CEO age can either improve or reduce firm performance. Numerous robustness checks were performed; the results were consistent with those in the main analysis. Research limitations/implications Individual characteristics should be considered when appointing CEOs. Some CEO characteristics enhance firm performance. Female CEOs bring new perspectives, while older CEOs’ longer experience adds a competitive advantage. More educated CEOs have a better ability to deal with challenging intellectual activities, and CEOs from foreign countries better understand international market regulations. However, some characteristics may reduce firm performance, for example, older CEOs are more conservative and unable to adapt to changing business environments. Originality/value This study contributes to corporate governance studies by synthesizing CEO characteristics and investigating their relationship with firm performance. Moreover, it emphasizes that developing countries such as Indonesia have different economic, legal, social and cultural environments than developed countries, especially Western countries.

The study of the characteristics of risk and return has received great attention. Several studies in finance literature have tested whether default risk influences firms’ stock returns, but the results are often conflicting. Previous research derives varying empirical results because they refer to default risk indicators and samples from different equity markets. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of default risk on stock return using data taken from non-financial companies on the Indonesia Composite Index (IDX Composite) in Indonesia for the 2008-2017 research period. This study uses Merton’s (1974) model as done by Vassalou & Xing (2004) to build a proxy for the risk of default. The advantage of this model is that it considers the volatility of firms’ assets in estimating default risk. Companies can have similar equity and debt levels but possibly have very different default probabilities. The results of the study show that default risk has a positive and significant effect on equity returns.