Women's Participation in Firms' Management and Their Impact on Financial Performance: Pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 Period Evidence

At a time when gender equality is a key priority of all international organizations, this paper can be considered a remarkable contribution to the role of women executives in firms' performance. More specifically, this study focuses on the effect of women holding positions of responsibility on firms' performance worldwide. For the purposes of our research, we applied cross-sectional and panel data analysis for all sectors at an international level from 2019, the year preceding the breakout of the pandemic crisis, to 2021, while the indicators used to measure the participation of women in executive positions are classified as ESG indices. The empirical analysis findings end up showing that the participation of women in executive positions positively affects firms' performance over time, while there is no material change observed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic period. More specifically, when the percent of women processing job positions of responsibility increases by 10%, then the index of profitability will increase from 1.4% to 1.8%, regardless of the measurement of female participation in executive positions used. The results of this study constitute a remarkable contribution to the promotion of the creative economy, the progress of societies, and sustainable development. The research's outcome can be primarily used by policymakers drawing up policies for achieving gender equality in the labor market and workplaces and by shareholders and firms' managers in order to trust females in executive positions in favor of their firms' financial performance. The current study is unique in that it focuses on the period before and during the COVID-19 period, as a period of high volatility in economic activity worldwide, while the sample includes firms from large and mid-cap companies belonging to developed and emerging markets. The above approach will contribute to providing more credible information related to the role of women executives in firms' performance.

Is it good to hold more cash before the pandemic? A case of Taiwanese firms.

The Covid-19 pandemic poses a great damage to firm performance worldwide. It raises the empirical question that if any factor can help firm perform better during the pandemic. In this study, we hypothesize that firms holding more cash before the pandemic can perform better during the pandemic year in 2020. We collect all listed firms from Taiwan Stock Exchange and test this hypothesis. Adopting a panel-data regression models with fixed effects, we find supportive evidence that pre-saved cash is valuable and can help firms perform better during the pandemic. Cash-rich firms will have a higher return on equity and return on assets. The economic significance is also non-trivial. Our study thus contributes to our understanding of how the pandemic can affect firm business and which lesson we can learn from this pandemic.

Operating performance during the COVID-19 pandemic: Is there a business group advantage?

In this paper, we study whether firms belonging to business groups (BG) have superior operating performance relative to stand-alone firms during the ongoing COVID-19 (COVID) pandemic. Our research is motivated by mixed empirical evidence on the performance of BG-affiliated firms. Using return on equity as a measure of operating performance and a sample of Indian firms, we first show that BG firms have lower ROE than stand-alone firms, on average. We disaggregate ROE into operating profitability (return on net operating assets – RNOA) and financial policy decisions (net borrowing costs – NBC and financial leverage – FFLEV) and show that while BG firms do not experience a significant change in NBC and FLLEV during the pandemic compared to stand-alone firms, relative to pre-COVID times, they experience a significant drop in RNOA. This is driven by much lower sales during the pandemic. Further, the relative decline in BG performance during the pandemic is driven by firms affiliated with smaller BGs, younger BGs, and less diversified BGs. © 2023

The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Stock Return of Kompas 100 Index

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on all aspects of the company's life cycle. Some companies are even unable to maintain optimal performance like before during the pandemic. Corporate social responsibility activities that are considered to provide good faith to the good name of the company that contribute to increasing stock returns. However, corporate social responsibility activities are maximized because the costs are chosen for activities around the environment carried out by large-scale companies on the Compass Index 100. This study aims to determine the effect of corporate social responsibility and company size on stock returns through Return on Equity in companies listed on Kompas 100 Index after the COVID-19 Pandemic. The population in this study covers all companies that are members of the Kompas 100 Index and are registered with Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). The sample method used is purposive sampling. The data analysis technique used is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The results showed that corporate social responsibility and company size affect Return on Equity and stock returns, and Return on Equity affects stock returns. The demand for shares of companies listed on the Kompas 100 Index is classified as the most consistent because it takes into account the company's sustainability in the future by allocating corporate social responsibility costs to build the company's good name. Corporate social responsibility activities are the example of the company's concern for the surrounding environment which aims to be able to increase the company's Return on Equity. In line with the higher level of Return on Equity, the size of the company as measured by total assets has also increased. © 2023 WITPress. All rights reserved.

Is intellectual capital related to telecommunications industry financial performance during COVID-19?

This study aims to examine the influence of intellectual capital on the financial performance of the telecommunications industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. The population includes the telecommunications companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2019-2020. Moreover, the intellectual capital performance was measured by the value-added intellectual capital coefficient (VAICTM) approach while the model was developed and hypotheses tested using linear regression analysis. The results showed that intellectual capital has a positive and significant effect on return on assets and return on equity but has no influence on earning per share. Recommendations are later made for researchers and practitioners. Copyright © 2023 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

ESG and performance in public health-care companies: the role of disclosure and director liability

Purpose: The seepage of companies' capital accommodated by weak country-level institutions is inconducive to building sustainable businesses. Companies' performance on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is still a challenging question. This study aims to test the predictability of ESG on the performance of the health-care industry from a global perspective, while accounting for the country disclosure and director liability indices and performing robustness tests. Design/methodology/approach: This study relies on panel data of 912 companies operating in 38 different countries for 2012–2020. This study controls for firm-level variables (leverage, size and loss), macroeconomic variables (COVID, gross domestic product and inflation) and institutional variables. Findings: Findings indicate that countries with different levels of disclosure exhibit different patterns. Distinctly, the environmental pillar has a concave impact on return on assets, and the role of the disclosure index greatly manifests with the environmental pillar. Practical implications: This study ponders the impact of country disclosure on sustainability practices from a global health-care perspective. Originality/value: This paper is original, as it addresses the relationship between ESG performance and financial performance while accounting for the impact of institutional factors such as the business disclosure and director liability indices. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Is intellectual capital related to telecommunications industry financial performance during COVID-19?

This study aims to examine the influence of intellectual capital on the financial performance of the telecommunications industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. The population includes the telecommunications companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2019-2020. Moreover, the intellectual capital performance was measured by the value-added intellectual capital coefficient (VAIC (TM)) approach while the model was developed and hypotheses tested using linear regression analysis. The results showed that intellectual capital has a positive and significant effect on return on assets and return on equity but has no influence on earning per share. Recommendations are later made for researchers and practitioners.

Evaluating the Financial Performance of Commercial Banks in Iraq under the Corona Pandemic using the CAMELS Criterion

Due to environmental factors such as the Corona pandemic and capital adequacy and liquidity requirements, the financial performance of commercial banks has been poor. Researchers and policymakers are required to focus on this phenomenon. Consequently, this article examines the effect of CAMELS criteria such as capital adequacy, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity, and sensitivity on the return on equity in Iraqi commercial banks. Using twenty commercial bank databases, the study compiled secondary data from 2011 to 2020. The Moments-Quantile-Regression (MMQR) methods were also used to investigate the relationship between variables. Capital sufficiency, asset quality, management, earnings, liquidity, and sensitivity correlate positively with return on equity in Iraqi commercial banks. Using the CAMELS criterion, the study guides regulators in developing bank profitability regulations during and after the Corona pandemic © 2022 AgBioForum

DETERMINANTS OF FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE IN THE BANKING SECTOR: A CASE STUDY OF LISTED KUWAITI BANKS

This study explores the determinants of the profitability of banks listed on the Kuwaiti stock exchange, Boursa Kuwait. This study also investigates the financial performance of the listed Kuwaiti banks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this study is to examine the correlation between profitability and the factors that determine profitability for 11 listed Kuwaiti banks from 2013 to 2020. Relevant data was statistically analyzed using the generalized method of moments (GMM) model. The empirical findings of this research indicate that deposit volume and oil prices positively impact the profitability of the Kuwaiti banking sector. Conversely, bank size, leverage, and capitalization had a significant negative impact on the earnings of the listed Kuwaiti banks. Based on the findings of this study, several policy recommendations are made that would grow the profits of the Kuwaiti banking sector and mitigate the effects of negative factors. © 2022 AESS Publications. All Rights Reserved.

The Impact of Economic Crises on the Performance of Non-Financial Corporations in the Czech Republic

Since the 1990s, the Czech economy has faced four crises. Each of them had different causes, duration and consequences for the non-financial corporate sector. The first crisis (1997-1998) had internal causes and severely affected non-financial firms. In contrast, the second crisis (2009) had external economic causes and non-financial corporations emerged with a positive economic outcome. As a result of extremely rigorous economic policies and net borrowing by non-financial firms, the Czech economy experienced a crisis in 2012 and 2013. The COVID-19 pandemic was the external, not economic cause of the fourth crisis (2020-2021) that brought about a successful outcome for non-financial corporations. The aim of this analysis is to answer the question of what causes these divergent economic results and why the external impulses of the crisis led to a reversal of the traditionally negative economic balance. The results showed that the levels of indebtedness and profitability conceal the main differences in conditions. The analysis is based on data from the Czech National Accounts and uses relative indicators to describe the economic behaviour of non-financial corporations constructed in such a way that their explanatory power is closer to the conditions for assessing economic performance in corporate practice. © 2022 by the authors;licensee Online Academic Press, USA.

CONCAVE EFFECT OF FINANCIAL FLEXIBILITY ON SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY PERFORMANCE: QUANTILE REGRESSION APPROACH

To survive increasingly uncertain and competitive markets, technology and capitalintensive semiconductor companies need to be more agile, responsive and flexible than ever before. This study investigates the impact financial flexibility on firm performance within Taiwan???s semiconductor industry and whether the impact on FP differs depending on the semiconductor industry characteristics. Using quantile regression analysis, data from semiconductor companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange during the COVID-19 shock was investigated. The results evidence an inverted U-shaped relationship between FF and FP in the lower and median return on equity quantiles of the semiconductor industry. For the asset heavy business model companies, FF has a concave impact on FP for IC-design and IC-manufacturing companies but not the semiconductor companies. For the asset light business model companies, FF has a concave impact on FP in the lower and median quantiles for semiconductor companies, in the upper quantiles for IC-design companies and in all except the 90th quantile for IC-manufacturing companies. The results of this research significantly contribute to extant literature as with such specific knowledge regarding the impact of FF on FP, managers are able to make decisions based on a firm???s individual FF-FP relationship and identify the most lucrative business trajectory.

ESG and performance in public health-care companies: the role of disclosure and director liability

Purpose: The seepage of companies' capital accommodated by weak country-level institutions is inconducive to building sustainable businesses. Companies' performance on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues is still a challenging question. This study aims to test the predictability of ESG on the performance of the health-care industry from a global perspective, while accounting for the country disclosure and director liability indices and performing robustness tests. Design/methodology/approach: This study relies on panel data of 912 companies operating in 38 different countries for 2012–2020. This study controls for firm-level variables (leverage, size and loss), macroeconomic variables (COVID, gross domestic product and inflation) and institutional variables. Findings: Findings indicate that countries with different levels of disclosure exhibit different patterns. Distinctly, the environmental pillar has a concave impact on return on assets, and the role of the disclosure index greatly manifests with the environmental pillar. Practical implications: This study ponders the impact of country disclosure on sustainability practices from a global health-care perspective. Originality/value: This paper is original, as it addresses the relationship between ESG performance and financial performance while accounting for the impact of institutional factors such as the business disclosure and director liability indices. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

“Modelling the effects of capital adequacy, credit losses, and efficiency ratio on return on assets and return on equity of banks during COVID-19 pandemic”

The study aims to determine the impact of Capital Adequacy Ratio, Credit Losses Ratio and Efficiency Ratio on the two significant profitability ratios, namely Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE), during the pandemic. Panel Data Regression is used to model the effects of Capital Adequacy, Credit Losses and Efficiency Ratio on Return on Assets and Return on Equity of Indian banks. A suitable model has been developed by analyzing the results of the Hausman test and the p-values. It has been found that Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) with coefficient value of –0.664, CET1 with coefficient value of 1.83 and efficiency ratio with coefficient value of 1.825 have significantly affected the return on assets as their p-values are less than 0.05. However, the accepted relationship between CAR and ROA, efficiency ratio and ROA were inverse, but their coefficients were significant. The provision for credit losses (PCL) was not affecting the ROA significantly during the pandemic and hence was not considered while framing the model. Again, the dependent variable is the return on equity, except CAR. Other ratios, i.e., CET1, efficiency ratio, and PCL ratio have unacceptable correlations and are even non-significant as their p-values are less than 0.05. © The author(s) 2022. This publication is an open access article.

Efficiency of State Banks in the Economy of Poland and Ukrain

The purpose of the research is to analyze and compare the efficiency of public, private and foreign banks in Poland and Ukraine for the period 2014-2020. To achieve the goal of the study, a quantitative approach based on the calculation of financial ratios such as net interest margin (NIM), average return on equity (ROAE), average return on assets (ROAA) and cost-to-income ratio (CIR) is used. The best performance indicators and the best efficiency in terms of criteria such as NIM, ROAE, ROAA and CIR in the period 2014-2019 were demonstrated in Poland by state-owned banking groups;however, in 2020, according to ROAE and ROAA, the best results showed banks with foreign capital (in particular, the banking group BNP Paribas Polska). The private bank Getin Noble was the worst in all evaluation criteria. The largest share of net assets in the banking system of Ukraine, as in Poland, is occupied by state-owned banks, while the share of foreign banks continued to decline, and the share of private banks was the smallest in the banking system. However, the best indicators of NIM, ROAE, ROAA, and CIR in the last three years were demonstrated in Ukraine by foreign banks. The result of the analysis shows that in the crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, both in Ukraine and Poland, banks with foreign capital showed the highest efficiency in their activities, and the least-banks fully controlled by national capital. Modeling of the efficiency of state-owned banks in Ukraine showed that state-owned banks are mostly inefficient;this requires their privatization with the mandatory participation of foreign investors. © 2022, Transition Academia Press. All rights reserved.

Covid -19 and Performance of Housing Finance Companies in India

Coronavirus pandemic has hit over millions of people around the world and definitely not the first epidemic the world is witnessing. In fact, the world has seen at least five such epidemics, namely, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), Avian Influenza, Swine Flu, Ebola and Zika in last one decade or so. All of these had a cascading effect on the global as well as domestic share markets. It was observed that nifty 50 fell as much as 15 per cent during these difficult times, but also recovered over 90 per cent return in the following one year. The impact of the pandemic is felt by all sector of the economy. The housing finance sector is no exception to this. The article aims to examine the performance of housing sector by taking five sample companies, namely, HDFC, LIC Housing Finance Ltd, India bulls Housing Finance Ltd, Aawas Financers Ltd and CanFin Homes Ltd on the basis of key parameters like Net Revenue, Net profit margin, Return on equity, Earning per share, interest coverage ratio and Growth rate in quarter end stock prices of last five quarters starting from June, 2019 to June, 2020.

The effects of selected financial ratios on profitability: En empirical analysis of real estate firms in Vietnam

The paper examines the determinants of profitability of real estate companies by using panel data of Vietnamese listed companies on the Hanoi stock exchange (HNX) and Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange (HOSE) from 2007 to 2020. Profitability ratios are measured by return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). The results indicate that the cost on revenue ratio, debt-to-equity ratio and the crisis and COVID-19 pandemic are negatively correlated with firm profitability. Meanwhile, the sales to current assets ratio, money supply growth rate and economic growth rate (GDPG) provide a positive correlation with profitability. We find that firm size and equity to total assets have positive effects on ROA, while there is a negative relationship between equity to total assets and ROE, and not enough evidence to conclude how firm size affects ROE. The study thereby provides suggestions and recommendations for the administrators of the government, real estate companies and investors in Vietnam. © 2022 World Scientific Publishing Company.

Innovations and firm performance: a study of the global airline industry

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports that the impact of COVID-19 translates into a $630 billion reduction in tourism and travel related GDP and over 26 million job loss. This study examines how innovation influences company performance within the global airline industry covering the periods 2000 to 2020. Several fixed and random effect models and system-GMM approaches were employed. The findings indicate that higher investment in innovation helps increase profit margin and return on equity but reduces return on assets. Higher return from product development expenses (higher product development expenses) increases (decreases) profitability and efficiency of the company. Also, higher product development expense and profitability nexus indicates that companies may have to rely heavily on internal capital while financing for research and development (R&D). While national bailouts, mergers, climate change related sustainability agendas will be issues as airlines get back on slowly with the gradual opening of economies and vaccine miracle, the findings reported in this paper will bear significant policy implications for the sector overall.

COVID-19 implications for corporate social responsibility, corporate governance and profitability in banks: The case of Egypt

This paper aims to measure the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Corporate Governance (CG), and profitability in listed Egyptian banks. COVID-19 is expected to affect this relationship if the year 2020 is taken. Profitability is measured by earnings per share (EPS), return on equity (ROE), and return on assets (ROA). CSR is measured as a dummy variable and CG is measured by the chief executive officer (CEO) duality. There are three control variables, such as the Islamic variable, which classifies a bank into Islamic or conventional, bank age, and bank size. The paper uses multiple regression and logistic regression models. The final sample is 12 banks consisting of 9 conventional banks and 3 Islamic banks (IBS). The results show no impact of profitability on CSR. The results prove a significant positive impact of profitability on CG;there is a significant negative relationship between CEO duality and EPS at a 0.05 level. CSR has a significant impact on CG at a 0.001 level. The results show a clear impact of COVID-19 on the impact of CSR on profitability only when measured by ROA at 0.001 in the period 2014–2019. © Zakia Abdelmoneim, Mahmoud Elghazaly, 2021.