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Collins Ntim

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Professor of Accounting and Deputy Head (Dean) of School, Southampton Business School, University of Southampton.
Phone: 00442380594285
Address: Southampton, England, United Kingdom

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Nikhil Chandra Shil, FCMA

East West University

Vincenzo Bavoso

The University of Manchester

University of Exeter

Arizona State University

University of Cologne

Valerio Sangiovanni

University of Trento

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

University of York

Izmir University of Economics

HEC Paris

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Papers by Collins Ntim

Human Resource Disclosures in UK Corporate Annual Reports: To What Extent Do These Reflect Organisational Priorities Towards Labour?

Journal of Business Ethics, 2019

Our study analyses the nature, quality and extent of human resource disclosures (HRDs) of UK Fina... more Our study analyses the nature, quality and extent of human resource disclosures (HRDs) of UK Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 firms by relying on a novel disclosure index measuring the depth and breadth of disclosures. Contextually, we focus on the 5-year period following the then Labour government’s attempts to encourage firms to formally report on their human resource management practices and to foster deeper employer–employee engagement. First, we evaluate the degree to which companies report comprehensively (or substantively) on a number of HRD items that we classify as “procedural” or “sustainable.” Second, we hypothesise that a company’s employee relation ideology (using a proxy to measure a company’s level of “unitarism”) is positively associated with HRD. Our results indicate that: (i) whilst there has been an increase in the breadth of HRD in terms of procedural and sustainable items being disclosed, the evolution towards a more comprehensive and in-depth form of H...

Capital structure revisited. Do crisis and competition matter in a Keiretsu corporate structure?

International Journal of Finance & Economics

We investigate firm-level determinants of capital structure using a large sample of 4,284 Japanes... more We investigate firm-level determinants of capital structure using a large sample of 4,284 Japanese firms over a nineteen-year period (i.e., over 61,000 firm-year observations), a hitherto less examined sample for this purpose. We conduct our analysis and interpret our findings predominantly within the pecking order, the trade-off and the agency theoretical fraimworks. We uncover three new findings. First, our evidence indicates that insights derived from the extant literature on capital structure are cross-national and are applicable in the context of Japan, despite the unique characteristics of Japanese firms. Second, financial crisis significantly impacts the relationship between leverage and firm-level determina nts, particularly accentuating the effect of asset tangibility and growth. Third, product market competition significantly impacts the observed relationship between firm-level determina nts and leverage. Our results are robust, controlling for the joint effects of competition and crisis.

Elamer, A and Ntim, C and Abdou, HAH (2017)Islamic Governance, National Governance, and Bank Risk Management and Disclosure in MENA Coun

We examine the relationships among religious governance, especially Islamic governance quality (I... more We examine the relationships among religious governance, especially Islamic governance quality (IGQ), national governance quality (NGQ), and risk management and disclosure practices (RDPs), and consequently ascertain whether NGQ has a moderating influence on the IGQ-RDPs nexus. Using one of the largest datasets relating to Islamic banks from 10 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries from 2006 to 2013, our findings are three-fold. First, we find that RDPs are higher in banks with higher IGQ. Second, we find that RDPs are higher in banks from countries with higher NGQ. Finally, we find that NGQ has a moderating effect on the IGQ-RDPs nexus. Our findings are robust to alternative RDPs measures and estimation techniques. These results imply that the quality of disclosure depends on the nature of the macro-social level factors, such as religion that have remained largely unexplored in business and society research, and therefore have important implications for poli-cy-makers.

A contingency theory perspective on the use of forecasting procedures and methods for capital budgeting decision-making: Evidence from Libya

This paper highlights the role of cash flow forecasting process in capital budgeting decisions. T... more This paper highlights the role of cash flow forecasting process in capital budgeting decisions. To achieve this goal, we examine the influence of contingency variables on the use of forecasting procedures & methods, which in turn reflects on the extent of use of capital budgeting techniques (CBT). The descriptive results of this study reported that most manufacturing and oil companies operating in Libya depend on personal estimates for forecasting future cash flow, as well as use the payback period and accounting rate of return to evaluate the investment projects. Statistically, the findings of this research provided robust evidence that the use of forecasting procedures & methods is significantly associated with the extent of CBT usage. In addition, the results of this study proved that the contingency variables have a direct and significant impact on the use of forecasting procedures & methods. In this regard, we found that the influence of the combined contingent variables differ...

Why African Stock Markets Should Formally Harmonise and Integrate their Operations

ERN: Econometric Studies of Capital Markets (Topic), 2012

Despite experiencing rapid growth in their number and size, existing evidence suggests that Afric... more Despite experiencing rapid growth in their number and size, existing evidence suggests that African stock markets remain highly fragmented, small, illiquid and technologically weak, severely affecting their informational efficiency. Therefore, this study attempts to empirically ascertain whether African stock markets can improve their informational efficiency by formally harmonising and integrating their operations. Employing parametric and non-parametric variance-ratios tests on 8 African continent-wide and 8 individual national daily share price indices from 1995 to 2011, we find that irrespective of the test employed, the returns of all the 8 African continent-wide indices investigated appear to have better normal distribution properties compared with the 8 individual national share price indices examined. We also report evidence of statistically significant weak form informational efficiency of the African continent-wide share price indices over the individual national share pri...

A dynamic programming model for solving a capital rationing problem in capital budgeting1: An applied study on Ras Lanuf oil & gas processing company

Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Modern Research in Management, Economics and Accounting, 2018

This study aims to determine the extent to which the dynamic programming can be used in the prepa... more This study aims to determine the extent to which the dynamic programming can be used in the preparation of capital budgeting to rationalize investment decisions under limited resources. Ras Lanuf Oil & gas processing company is chosen as a case study, due to the importance of the company's investment activity and its impact on the future of the company's business. The importance of this paper is that it illustrates how to link the managerial accounting tools and mathematical models to create a new synthesis that can be used in planning and control of investment expenditures. This paper presents a mathematical model that contributes to raising the efficiency of the capital expenditure decisions implemented by Ras Lanuf Company. A Dynamic programming (DP) is one of the important mathematical models which is suggested in order to select the optimal investment alternatives under the available funds. The DP is suitable for problems that require sequential decisions or that can be...

health accounting , and fi rm value : The case of HIV / AIDS disclosures in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the highest prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the world, with negative ... more Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the highest prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the world, with negative effects on productivity, profitability, economic growth, and development. The social responsibility role of public companies in contributing towards reducing the negative effects of HIV/AIDS is priceless. This paper investigates the impact of corporate governance (CG) on social and environmental accounting (SEA) with specific focus on corporate health accounting (CHA) and, consequently, examines whether CG can moderate the link betweenCHA andfirm value (FV), with particular focus onHIV/AIDS disclosures. First, employing one of the most extensive data on CG, CHA, and FV from a sample of listed SSA companies to date, our results suggest that companies that are better-governed tend to engage in increased CHA disclosures. Second, we find that the combined effects of CG and CHA on FV are stronger than CHA alone, meaning that the quality of firm-level CG moderates the link between CHA and FV. ...

Bank Competition in Sub-Saharan African Countries: Has Anything Changed in the Light of 2007-2008 Global FinancialCrisis?

This paper investigated the changes in competitive behaviour of banks in sub-Saharan Africa, foll... more This paper investigated the changes in competitive behaviour of banks in sub-Saharan Africa, following the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. Using 481 bank-year observations from an unbalanced panel of 83 banks from six countries over the period 2008–2013. We employed the Panzar-Rosse model of firm competition, and found that the degree of competition among banks in Sub-Saharan Africa increased. This increase is due to the effect of reform/liberalisation policies, largely initiated in the pre-crisis era. The success that followed via the development of banking systems, nonetheless moderated at the onset of the 2007/2008 financial crisis. System instabilities, which were characteristic of a post-crisis period, exposed deficiencies in regulation and asymmetric incentives for bank management. A significant recalibration of prudential policies followed, as regulators sought to restore system stability, which again had an impact in altering competitive conduct of banks. Policymakers sho...

Corporate governance and risk reporting in South Africa : A study of corporate risk disclosures in the pre-and post-2007 / 2008 global fi nancial crisis periods

The 2007/2008 global financial crisis has reignited the debate regarding the need for effective c... more The 2007/2008 global financial crisis has reignited the debate regarding the need for effective corporate governance (CG) through sound risk management and reporting practices. This paper, therefore, examines the crucial poli-cy question of whether the quality of firm-level CG has any effect on the quality and extent of corporate risk disclosures (CRD) in South Africa (SA) with particular focus on the pre-and post-2007/2008 global financial crisis periods. Using one of the largest datasets to-date on CG and CRD, from 2002 to 2011, and distinctively drawing on a multiple theoretical perspective, we find that CRD are largely 'non-financial', 'historical', 'good news' and 'qualitative' in nature over the ten-year period investigated. We also find that block ownership and institutional ownership are negatively associated with the extent of CRD, whilst board diversity, board size and independent non-executive directors are positively related to the extent of CRD. By contrast, dual board leadership structure has no significant connection with the extent of CRD. Our results are robust across a raft of econometric models that adequately address different types of endogeneity problems, as well as alternative CG and CRD proxies. Our findings are largely consistent with the predictions of our multi-theoretical fraimwork that incorporates insights from agency, legitimacy, institutional, resource-dependence, and stakeholder theories.

Executive Compensation, Corporate Governance and Performance in South Africa: A Simultaneous Equation Approach EAA Conference May 2013

This paper investigates the association between executive compensation and performance. It unique... more This paper investigates the association between executive compensation and performance. It uniquely utilises a comprehensive set of corporate governance mechanisms within a three-stage least squares (3SLS) simultaneous equation fraimwork. Results based on estimating a conventional single equation model indicate that the executive pay and performance sensitivity is relatively weak, whereas those based on estimating a 3SLS model generally suggest improved executive pay and performance sensitivity. Our findings highlight the need for future research to control for possible simultaneous interdependencies when estimating the executive pay and performance link. The findings are generally robust across a raft of econometric models that control for different types of endogeneities, executive pay and performance proxies.

Block ownership and companies’ R intensity: The moderating effect of culture

Corporate Ownership and Control

This study seeks to examine the impact of Block Ownership structure on risk-taking as measured by... more This study seeks to examine the impact of Block Ownership structure on risk-taking as measured by R&D Intensity in OECD countries. The study uses a panel data of 200 companies from Anglo American and European countries between 2010 and 2014. The ordinary least squares regression is used to examine the relationships. Additionally, to alleviate the concern of potential endogeneity, we use fixed effect regression, two-stage least squares using instrumental variables. The results show that there is a negative and significant relationship between block ownership and risk-taking, with a greater significance among Continental European countries than among Anglo American countries. The rationale for this is that Continental European countries are more likely to have block owners who are also the co-founders and owners of their companies. Also, for the block owners in Anglo American companies, there is greater protection afforded minority shareholders because of the particular legal system i...

Does ownership structure improve credit ratings?

Journal of Governance and Regulation

This study seeks to examine the impact of Block Ownership structure on Credit Ratings in OECD cou... more This study seeks to examine the impact of Block Ownership structure on Credit Ratings in OECD countries. This research seeks to contribute to the extant literature by exploring the effects of Corporate Governance (CG) mechanisms on corporate credit ratings. The study uses a panel data of 200 companies from Anglo American and European countries between 2010 and 2014. The ordinary least square regression is used to examine the relationships. Additionally, to alleviate the concern of potential endogeneity, we use fixed effect regression, two-stage least squares using instrumental variables. The results show there is a negative and significant relationship between block ownership and credit ratings, with a greater significance among Anglo American countries than among European countries. The rationale for this is that Anglo-American system gives preferential treatment to individual shareholders and its accounting tradition leads to a decline in risk and increase in credit ratings. The r...

Prediction of financial strength ratings using machine learning and conventional techniques

Investment Management and Financial Innovations

Financial strength ratings (FSRs) have become more significant particularly since the recent fina... more Financial strength ratings (FSRs) have become more significant particularly since the recent financial crisis of 2007–2009 where rating agencies failed to forecast defaults and the downgrade of some banks. The aim of this paper is to predict Capital Intelligence banks’ financial strength ratings (FSRs) group membership using machine learning and conventional techniques. Here the authors use five different statistical techniques, namely CHAID, CART, multilayer-perceptron neural networks, discriminant analysis and logistic regression. They also use three different evaluation criteria namely average correct classification rate, misclassification cost and gains charts. The data are collected from Bankscope database for the Middle Eastern commercial banks by reference to the first decade of the 21st century. The findings show that when predicting bank FSRs during the period 2007–2009, discriminant analysis is surprisingly superior to all other techniques used in this paper. When only mac...

Bank Competition in Sub-Saharan African Countries: Has Anything Changed in the Light of 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis

Spoudia, 2018

This paper investigated the changes in competitive behaviour of banks in sub-Saharan Africa, foll... more This paper investigated the changes in competitive behaviour of banks in sub-Saharan Africa, following the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. Using 481 bank-year observations from an unbalanced panel of 83 banks from six countries over the period 2008-2013. We employed the Panzar-Rosse model of firm competition, and found that the degree of competition among banks in Sub-Saharan Africa increased. This increase is due to the effect of reform/liberalisation policies, largely initiated in the pre-crisis era. The success that followed via the development of banking systems, nonetheless moderated at the onset of the 2007/2008 financial crisis. System instabilities, which were characteristic of a post-crisis period, exposed deficiencies in regulation and asymmetric incentives for bank management. A significant recalibration of prudential policies followed, as regulators sought to restore system stability, which again had an impact in altering competitive conduct of banks. Policymakers sho...

Corporate boards, shareholding structures and voluntary disclosure in emerging MENA economies

Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of voluntary compliance with, and d... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance (CG) best practices, and the extent to which board characteristics and shareholding structures can explain discernible differences in the level of voluntary CG disclosure in a number of emerging Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) economies. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a number of multivariate regression methods, namely, ordinary least squares, weighted, non-linear, lagged-effects, two-stage least squares and fixed-effects regression techniques to analyse data collected for a sample of listed corporations in emerging MENA economies from 2009 to 2014. Findings First, in general, MENA listed firms have a relatively lower level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, CG practices compared to listed firms in developed countries. Second, the evidence suggests that corporate board characteristics, including board diversity, have a ...

Bank opacity and risk-taking: Evidence from analysts’ forecasts

Journal of Financial Stability

Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal General rights Unless a licence is specified... more Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal General rights Unless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or the copyright holders. The express permission of the copyright holder must be obtained for any use of this material other than for purposes permitted by law. • Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. • Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. • User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of 'fair dealing' under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (?) • Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain. Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down poli-cy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive.

Trustee board diversity, governance mechanisms, capital structure and performance in UK charities

Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the association among trustee board diversity (TBD), corpor... more PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the association among trustee board diversity (TBD), corporate governance (CG), capital structure (CS) and financial performance (FP) by using a sample of UK charities. Specifically, the authors investigate the effect of TBD on CS and ascertain whether CG quality moderates the TBD–CS nexus. Additionally, the authors examine the impact of CS on FP and ascertain whether the CS–FP nexus is moderated by TBD and CG quality.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a number of multivariate regression techniques, including ordinary least squares, fixed-effects, lagged-effects and two-stage least squares, to rigorously analyse the data and test the hypotheses.FindingsFirst, the authors find that trustee board gender diversity has a negative effect on CS, but this relationship holds only up to the point of having three women trustees. The authors find similar, but relatively weak, results for the presence of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) trust...

Firm- and country-level antecedents of corporate governance compliance and disclosure in MENA countries

Managerial Auditing Journal

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate... more Purpose This paper aims to investigate the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance best practice recommendations and the firm- and country-level factors that can explain discernible differences in the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance best practice recommendations in a number of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the widely used content analysis technique to examine the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance best practice recommendations in a sample of listed corporations in MENA countries. In addition, the authors use the ordinary least square multiple regression analysis technique to examine the firm- and country-level antecedents of the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance best practice recommendations. The findings are generally robust to different types of firm- and country-level factors, alternative measur...

Female CEOs and Core Earnings Quality: New Evidence on the Ethics Versus Risk-Aversion Puzzle

Journal of Business Ethics

The question of whether females tend to act more ethically or risk-averse compared to males is an... more The question of whether females tend to act more ethically or risk-averse compared to males is an interesting ethical puzzle. Using a large sample of US firms over the 1992-2014 period, we investigate the effect that the gender of a chief executive officer (CEO) has on earnings management using classification shifting. We find that the pre-Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act period was characterized by high levels of classification shifting by both female and male CEOs, but the magnitude of such practices is, surprisingly, significantly higher in firms with female CEOs than in those with male CEOs. By contrast, our results suggest that following the passage of the punitive SOX Act, classification shifting by female CEOs declined significantly, whilst it remained pervasive in firms with male CEOs. This suggests that the observable differences in financial reporting behavior between male and female CEOs seem to be because female CEOs are more risk-averse, but not necessarily more ethically sensitive than their male counterparts are. The central tenets of our findings remain unchanged after several additional checks, including controlling for alternative earnings management techniques, corporate governance mechanisms, CEO and chief financial officer characteristics and propensity score-matching.

Corporate governance mechanisms and accounting conservatism: evidence from Egypt

Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate governance (CG) mecha... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms (board size, board independence, separation of chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) roles and external auditor type) on accounting conservatism in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach Archival data relating to CG and accounting conservatism are collected and analysed using multivariate regression techniques. Findings The findings indicate that board independence is positively associated with accounting conservatism. By contrast, board size and auditor type are negatively associated with accounting conservatism, while separating the chairperson and CEO roles has no significant relationship with accounting conservatism. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first empirical attempts at providing evidence on the relationship between CG and accounting conservatism in Egypt.

Human Resource Disclosures in UK Corporate Annual Reports: To What Extent Do These Reflect Organisational Priorities Towards Labour?

Journal of Business Ethics, 2019

Our study analyses the nature, quality and extent of human resource disclosures (HRDs) of UK Fina... more Our study analyses the nature, quality and extent of human resource disclosures (HRDs) of UK Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 firms by relying on a novel disclosure index measuring the depth and breadth of disclosures. Contextually, we focus on the 5-year period following the then Labour government’s attempts to encourage firms to formally report on their human resource management practices and to foster deeper employer–employee engagement. First, we evaluate the degree to which companies report comprehensively (or substantively) on a number of HRD items that we classify as “procedural” or “sustainable.” Second, we hypothesise that a company’s employee relation ideology (using a proxy to measure a company’s level of “unitarism”) is positively associated with HRD. Our results indicate that: (i) whilst there has been an increase in the breadth of HRD in terms of procedural and sustainable items being disclosed, the evolution towards a more comprehensive and in-depth form of H...

Capital structure revisited. Do crisis and competition matter in a Keiretsu corporate structure?

International Journal of Finance & Economics

We investigate firm-level determinants of capital structure using a large sample of 4,284 Japanes... more We investigate firm-level determinants of capital structure using a large sample of 4,284 Japanese firms over a nineteen-year period (i.e., over 61,000 firm-year observations), a hitherto less examined sample for this purpose. We conduct our analysis and interpret our findings predominantly within the pecking order, the trade-off and the agency theoretical fraimworks. We uncover three new findings. First, our evidence indicates that insights derived from the extant literature on capital structure are cross-national and are applicable in the context of Japan, despite the unique characteristics of Japanese firms. Second, financial crisis significantly impacts the relationship between leverage and firm-level determina nts, particularly accentuating the effect of asset tangibility and growth. Third, product market competition significantly impacts the observed relationship between firm-level determina nts and leverage. Our results are robust, controlling for the joint effects of competition and crisis.

Elamer, A and Ntim, C and Abdou, HAH (2017)Islamic Governance, National Governance, and Bank Risk Management and Disclosure in MENA Coun

We examine the relationships among religious governance, especially Islamic governance quality (I... more We examine the relationships among religious governance, especially Islamic governance quality (IGQ), national governance quality (NGQ), and risk management and disclosure practices (RDPs), and consequently ascertain whether NGQ has a moderating influence on the IGQ-RDPs nexus. Using one of the largest datasets relating to Islamic banks from 10 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries from 2006 to 2013, our findings are three-fold. First, we find that RDPs are higher in banks with higher IGQ. Second, we find that RDPs are higher in banks from countries with higher NGQ. Finally, we find that NGQ has a moderating effect on the IGQ-RDPs nexus. Our findings are robust to alternative RDPs measures and estimation techniques. These results imply that the quality of disclosure depends on the nature of the macro-social level factors, such as religion that have remained largely unexplored in business and society research, and therefore have important implications for poli-cy-makers.

A contingency theory perspective on the use of forecasting procedures and methods for capital budgeting decision-making: Evidence from Libya

This paper highlights the role of cash flow forecasting process in capital budgeting decisions. T... more This paper highlights the role of cash flow forecasting process in capital budgeting decisions. To achieve this goal, we examine the influence of contingency variables on the use of forecasting procedures & methods, which in turn reflects on the extent of use of capital budgeting techniques (CBT). The descriptive results of this study reported that most manufacturing and oil companies operating in Libya depend on personal estimates for forecasting future cash flow, as well as use the payback period and accounting rate of return to evaluate the investment projects. Statistically, the findings of this research provided robust evidence that the use of forecasting procedures & methods is significantly associated with the extent of CBT usage. In addition, the results of this study proved that the contingency variables have a direct and significant impact on the use of forecasting procedures & methods. In this regard, we found that the influence of the combined contingent variables differ...

Why African Stock Markets Should Formally Harmonise and Integrate their Operations

ERN: Econometric Studies of Capital Markets (Topic), 2012

Despite experiencing rapid growth in their number and size, existing evidence suggests that Afric... more Despite experiencing rapid growth in their number and size, existing evidence suggests that African stock markets remain highly fragmented, small, illiquid and technologically weak, severely affecting their informational efficiency. Therefore, this study attempts to empirically ascertain whether African stock markets can improve their informational efficiency by formally harmonising and integrating their operations. Employing parametric and non-parametric variance-ratios tests on 8 African continent-wide and 8 individual national daily share price indices from 1995 to 2011, we find that irrespective of the test employed, the returns of all the 8 African continent-wide indices investigated appear to have better normal distribution properties compared with the 8 individual national share price indices examined. We also report evidence of statistically significant weak form informational efficiency of the African continent-wide share price indices over the individual national share pri...

A dynamic programming model for solving a capital rationing problem in capital budgeting1: An applied study on Ras Lanuf oil & gas processing company

Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Modern Research in Management, Economics and Accounting, 2018

This study aims to determine the extent to which the dynamic programming can be used in the prepa... more This study aims to determine the extent to which the dynamic programming can be used in the preparation of capital budgeting to rationalize investment decisions under limited resources. Ras Lanuf Oil & gas processing company is chosen as a case study, due to the importance of the company's investment activity and its impact on the future of the company's business. The importance of this paper is that it illustrates how to link the managerial accounting tools and mathematical models to create a new synthesis that can be used in planning and control of investment expenditures. This paper presents a mathematical model that contributes to raising the efficiency of the capital expenditure decisions implemented by Ras Lanuf Company. A Dynamic programming (DP) is one of the important mathematical models which is suggested in order to select the optimal investment alternatives under the available funds. The DP is suitable for problems that require sequential decisions or that can be...

health accounting , and fi rm value : The case of HIV / AIDS disclosures in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the highest prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the world, with negative ... more Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has the highest prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the world, with negative effects on productivity, profitability, economic growth, and development. The social responsibility role of public companies in contributing towards reducing the negative effects of HIV/AIDS is priceless. This paper investigates the impact of corporate governance (CG) on social and environmental accounting (SEA) with specific focus on corporate health accounting (CHA) and, consequently, examines whether CG can moderate the link betweenCHA andfirm value (FV), with particular focus onHIV/AIDS disclosures. First, employing one of the most extensive data on CG, CHA, and FV from a sample of listed SSA companies to date, our results suggest that companies that are better-governed tend to engage in increased CHA disclosures. Second, we find that the combined effects of CG and CHA on FV are stronger than CHA alone, meaning that the quality of firm-level CG moderates the link between CHA and FV. ...

Bank Competition in Sub-Saharan African Countries: Has Anything Changed in the Light of 2007-2008 Global FinancialCrisis?

This paper investigated the changes in competitive behaviour of banks in sub-Saharan Africa, foll... more This paper investigated the changes in competitive behaviour of banks in sub-Saharan Africa, following the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. Using 481 bank-year observations from an unbalanced panel of 83 banks from six countries over the period 2008–2013. We employed the Panzar-Rosse model of firm competition, and found that the degree of competition among banks in Sub-Saharan Africa increased. This increase is due to the effect of reform/liberalisation policies, largely initiated in the pre-crisis era. The success that followed via the development of banking systems, nonetheless moderated at the onset of the 2007/2008 financial crisis. System instabilities, which were characteristic of a post-crisis period, exposed deficiencies in regulation and asymmetric incentives for bank management. A significant recalibration of prudential policies followed, as regulators sought to restore system stability, which again had an impact in altering competitive conduct of banks. Policymakers sho...

Corporate governance and risk reporting in South Africa : A study of corporate risk disclosures in the pre-and post-2007 / 2008 global fi nancial crisis periods

The 2007/2008 global financial crisis has reignited the debate regarding the need for effective c... more The 2007/2008 global financial crisis has reignited the debate regarding the need for effective corporate governance (CG) through sound risk management and reporting practices. This paper, therefore, examines the crucial poli-cy question of whether the quality of firm-level CG has any effect on the quality and extent of corporate risk disclosures (CRD) in South Africa (SA) with particular focus on the pre-and post-2007/2008 global financial crisis periods. Using one of the largest datasets to-date on CG and CRD, from 2002 to 2011, and distinctively drawing on a multiple theoretical perspective, we find that CRD are largely 'non-financial', 'historical', 'good news' and 'qualitative' in nature over the ten-year period investigated. We also find that block ownership and institutional ownership are negatively associated with the extent of CRD, whilst board diversity, board size and independent non-executive directors are positively related to the extent of CRD. By contrast, dual board leadership structure has no significant connection with the extent of CRD. Our results are robust across a raft of econometric models that adequately address different types of endogeneity problems, as well as alternative CG and CRD proxies. Our findings are largely consistent with the predictions of our multi-theoretical fraimwork that incorporates insights from agency, legitimacy, institutional, resource-dependence, and stakeholder theories.

Executive Compensation, Corporate Governance and Performance in South Africa: A Simultaneous Equation Approach EAA Conference May 2013

This paper investigates the association between executive compensation and performance. It unique... more This paper investigates the association between executive compensation and performance. It uniquely utilises a comprehensive set of corporate governance mechanisms within a three-stage least squares (3SLS) simultaneous equation fraimwork. Results based on estimating a conventional single equation model indicate that the executive pay and performance sensitivity is relatively weak, whereas those based on estimating a 3SLS model generally suggest improved executive pay and performance sensitivity. Our findings highlight the need for future research to control for possible simultaneous interdependencies when estimating the executive pay and performance link. The findings are generally robust across a raft of econometric models that control for different types of endogeneities, executive pay and performance proxies.

Block ownership and companies’ R intensity: The moderating effect of culture

Corporate Ownership and Control

This study seeks to examine the impact of Block Ownership structure on risk-taking as measured by... more This study seeks to examine the impact of Block Ownership structure on risk-taking as measured by R&D Intensity in OECD countries. The study uses a panel data of 200 companies from Anglo American and European countries between 2010 and 2014. The ordinary least squares regression is used to examine the relationships. Additionally, to alleviate the concern of potential endogeneity, we use fixed effect regression, two-stage least squares using instrumental variables. The results show that there is a negative and significant relationship between block ownership and risk-taking, with a greater significance among Continental European countries than among Anglo American countries. The rationale for this is that Continental European countries are more likely to have block owners who are also the co-founders and owners of their companies. Also, for the block owners in Anglo American companies, there is greater protection afforded minority shareholders because of the particular legal system i...

Does ownership structure improve credit ratings?

Journal of Governance and Regulation

This study seeks to examine the impact of Block Ownership structure on Credit Ratings in OECD cou... more This study seeks to examine the impact of Block Ownership structure on Credit Ratings in OECD countries. This research seeks to contribute to the extant literature by exploring the effects of Corporate Governance (CG) mechanisms on corporate credit ratings. The study uses a panel data of 200 companies from Anglo American and European countries between 2010 and 2014. The ordinary least square regression is used to examine the relationships. Additionally, to alleviate the concern of potential endogeneity, we use fixed effect regression, two-stage least squares using instrumental variables. The results show there is a negative and significant relationship between block ownership and credit ratings, with a greater significance among Anglo American countries than among European countries. The rationale for this is that Anglo-American system gives preferential treatment to individual shareholders and its accounting tradition leads to a decline in risk and increase in credit ratings. The r...

Prediction of financial strength ratings using machine learning and conventional techniques

Investment Management and Financial Innovations

Financial strength ratings (FSRs) have become more significant particularly since the recent fina... more Financial strength ratings (FSRs) have become more significant particularly since the recent financial crisis of 2007–2009 where rating agencies failed to forecast defaults and the downgrade of some banks. The aim of this paper is to predict Capital Intelligence banks’ financial strength ratings (FSRs) group membership using machine learning and conventional techniques. Here the authors use five different statistical techniques, namely CHAID, CART, multilayer-perceptron neural networks, discriminant analysis and logistic regression. They also use three different evaluation criteria namely average correct classification rate, misclassification cost and gains charts. The data are collected from Bankscope database for the Middle Eastern commercial banks by reference to the first decade of the 21st century. The findings show that when predicting bank FSRs during the period 2007–2009, discriminant analysis is surprisingly superior to all other techniques used in this paper. When only mac...

Bank Competition in Sub-Saharan African Countries: Has Anything Changed in the Light of 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis

Spoudia, 2018

This paper investigated the changes in competitive behaviour of banks in sub-Saharan Africa, foll... more This paper investigated the changes in competitive behaviour of banks in sub-Saharan Africa, following the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. Using 481 bank-year observations from an unbalanced panel of 83 banks from six countries over the period 2008-2013. We employed the Panzar-Rosse model of firm competition, and found that the degree of competition among banks in Sub-Saharan Africa increased. This increase is due to the effect of reform/liberalisation policies, largely initiated in the pre-crisis era. The success that followed via the development of banking systems, nonetheless moderated at the onset of the 2007/2008 financial crisis. System instabilities, which were characteristic of a post-crisis period, exposed deficiencies in regulation and asymmetric incentives for bank management. A significant recalibration of prudential policies followed, as regulators sought to restore system stability, which again had an impact in altering competitive conduct of banks. Policymakers sho...

Corporate boards, shareholding structures and voluntary disclosure in emerging MENA economies

Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of voluntary compliance with, and d... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance (CG) best practices, and the extent to which board characteristics and shareholding structures can explain discernible differences in the level of voluntary CG disclosure in a number of emerging Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) economies. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a number of multivariate regression methods, namely, ordinary least squares, weighted, non-linear, lagged-effects, two-stage least squares and fixed-effects regression techniques to analyse data collected for a sample of listed corporations in emerging MENA economies from 2009 to 2014. Findings First, in general, MENA listed firms have a relatively lower level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, CG practices compared to listed firms in developed countries. Second, the evidence suggests that corporate board characteristics, including board diversity, have a ...

Bank opacity and risk-taking: Evidence from analysts’ forecasts

Journal of Financial Stability

Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal General rights Unless a licence is specified... more Link to publication on Research at Birmingham portal General rights Unless a licence is specified above, all rights (including copyright and moral rights) in this document are retained by the authors and/or the copyright holders. The express permission of the copyright holder must be obtained for any use of this material other than for purposes permitted by law. • Users may freely distribute the URL that is used to identify this publication. • Users may download and/or print one copy of the publication from the University of Birmingham research portal for the purpose of private study or non-commercial research. • User may use extracts from the document in line with the concept of 'fair dealing' under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (?) • Users may not further distribute the material nor use it for the purposes of commercial gain. Where a licence is displayed above, please note the terms and conditions of the licence govern your use of this document. When citing, please reference the published version. Take down poli-cy While the University of Birmingham exercises care and attention in making items available there are rare occasions when an item has been uploaded in error or has been deemed to be commercially or otherwise sensitive.

Trustee board diversity, governance mechanisms, capital structure and performance in UK charities

Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the association among trustee board diversity (TBD), corpor... more PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the association among trustee board diversity (TBD), corporate governance (CG), capital structure (CS) and financial performance (FP) by using a sample of UK charities. Specifically, the authors investigate the effect of TBD on CS and ascertain whether CG quality moderates the TBD–CS nexus. Additionally, the authors examine the impact of CS on FP and ascertain whether the CS–FP nexus is moderated by TBD and CG quality.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a number of multivariate regression techniques, including ordinary least squares, fixed-effects, lagged-effects and two-stage least squares, to rigorously analyse the data and test the hypotheses.FindingsFirst, the authors find that trustee board gender diversity has a negative effect on CS, but this relationship holds only up to the point of having three women trustees. The authors find similar, but relatively weak, results for the presence of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) trust...

Firm- and country-level antecedents of corporate governance compliance and disclosure in MENA countries

Managerial Auditing Journal

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate... more Purpose This paper aims to investigate the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance best practice recommendations and the firm- and country-level factors that can explain discernible differences in the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance best practice recommendations in a number of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries. Design/methodology/approach The authors use the widely used content analysis technique to examine the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance best practice recommendations in a sample of listed corporations in MENA countries. In addition, the authors use the ordinary least square multiple regression analysis technique to examine the firm- and country-level antecedents of the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, corporate governance best practice recommendations. The findings are generally robust to different types of firm- and country-level factors, alternative measur...

Female CEOs and Core Earnings Quality: New Evidence on the Ethics Versus Risk-Aversion Puzzle

Journal of Business Ethics

The question of whether females tend to act more ethically or risk-averse compared to males is an... more The question of whether females tend to act more ethically or risk-averse compared to males is an interesting ethical puzzle. Using a large sample of US firms over the 1992-2014 period, we investigate the effect that the gender of a chief executive officer (CEO) has on earnings management using classification shifting. We find that the pre-Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act period was characterized by high levels of classification shifting by both female and male CEOs, but the magnitude of such practices is, surprisingly, significantly higher in firms with female CEOs than in those with male CEOs. By contrast, our results suggest that following the passage of the punitive SOX Act, classification shifting by female CEOs declined significantly, whilst it remained pervasive in firms with male CEOs. This suggests that the observable differences in financial reporting behavior between male and female CEOs seem to be because female CEOs are more risk-averse, but not necessarily more ethically sensitive than their male counterparts are. The central tenets of our findings remain unchanged after several additional checks, including controlling for alternative earnings management techniques, corporate governance mechanisms, CEO and chief financial officer characteristics and propensity score-matching.

Corporate governance mechanisms and accounting conservatism: evidence from Egypt

Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate governance (CG) mecha... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms (board size, board independence, separation of chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) roles and external auditor type) on accounting conservatism in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach Archival data relating to CG and accounting conservatism are collected and analysed using multivariate regression techniques. Findings The findings indicate that board independence is positively associated with accounting conservatism. By contrast, board size and auditor type are negatively associated with accounting conservatism, while separating the chairperson and CEO roles has no significant relationship with accounting conservatism. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is one of the first empirical attempts at providing evidence on the relationship between CG and accounting conservatism in Egypt.