Impact of Covid-19 on firms' performance: Empirical evidence from India

The current study aims to examine the impact of the pandemic (Covid-19) on the financial performance of some of the selected Indian sectors. The study targets all Indian firms listed on the Bombay stock exchange, which belong to the following sectors (Constructing, tourism and hospitality, food and consumer sectors). The study extracted data of 444 firms from the Prowess database for four sectors. Due to some missing values, the study dropped 73 firms. Therefore, the final sample of this study consists of 371 firms. Results revealed a significant difference in total income, net sales, net profit, earnings per share, and diluted earnings per share before and after the pandemic in tourism, hospitality, and consumer sectors. The result of the study states that there is a significant difference in total income net sales before and after the pandemic in construction. There is a difference in the decline in both sectors' net sales and total income during the pandemic. Conversely, there is no significant difference between net profit, earnings per share, diluted earnings per share before and after the pandemic in constructing and food sectors. Results of the study state that the food sector was not affected by the pandemic, whereas the construction sector reduced its expenses to their minimum. The study also found that the tourism, hospitality and customer sectors were the most effected by the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by the construction sector and food sector, which was a minor sector affected by the pandemic. Most of the prior research on Covid-19 is theoretical, and only a few have conducted an empirical investigation. The study is unique as it evaluates the financial performance of Indian firms before and after the Covid-19 pandemic, which has not been studied yet in the Indian context. Further, this study provides valuable insights to regulators and policymakers about the most affected sectors due to the pandemic by analysing Indian sectors.

Collusive behaviour, risk and performance of tourism firms

This paper aims to enrich social network and managerial powers theories by examining the effects of board-CEO friendship ties in tourism firms. Specifically, we focus on the association between the board-CEO social network ties (e.g. serving external boards together or sharing memberships at social organisations) and performance and risk-taking behaviour among tourism firms. The findings show that friendship ties between CEO and board members result in higher risk-taking, lower profitability and market values. In addition, professional ties (i.e. current and past employment) significantly impact tourism firms’ outcomes, whereas non-professional ties (i.e. education and other social organisations) do not. The findings prevail after controlling for the Covid-19 pandemic. However, friendship ties lead to better information sharing, resulting in more effective decision-making by board members. © The Author(s) 2022.

The Relationship betweeen Corporate Governance and Firms Performance in a Small Stock Market

This study analyzes the relationship between Corporate Governance and firm’s performance, considering a sample of Portuguese listed firms for the 2010-2020 period, exploring also the effect of COVID-19 on companies’ performance. The results show that higher level of managerial ownership and gender diversity impact positively on firms’ performance. However, no evidence was found that a representation of three or more female directors leads to an increase in performance. In addition, the results suggest that there is a negative relationship between leverage and performance when performance is analyzed with a market-based performance measure. Finally, the study found evidence that the COVID-19 had a negative impact on corporate performance. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.