Divestitures create shareholder value by helping firms to optimize their portfolio of assets. However, firms may forego value enhancing divestitures because of agency problems. More specifically, large controlling shareholders may prefer to retain the assets in order to extract private benefits...

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 policy question of whether the quality of firm-level CG has any effect on...

This paper investigates the direct and joint effects of bank governance, regulation, and supervision on the quality of risk reporting in the banking industry, as proxied for by operational risk disclosure (ORD) quality in European banks. After controlling for the endogeneity between bank...

This study examines the impact of ownership structure on Chinese banks' risk-taking behaviours. We classify the Chinese commercial banks into three categories based on the types of controlling shareholder, and find that banks controlled by the government (GCBs) tend to take more risks than those...

In this paper, we assess which firm-characteristics are associated with a firm's decision to announce a share repurchase programme in a cross-country framework. In the models, we incorporate firm-specific financial characteristics and measures of share price performance. We find that size, cash...

This paper investigates the impact of family control on French acquirers' performance. We consider a sample of 239 acquisitions undertaken by French listed companies between January 1997 and December 2006. Comparing both, short-term and long-term performance, we find that family-controlled firms...

We study the determinants of firms’ post-IPO trajectory in terms of three outcomes: delisting; acquisition with change of corporate control; and acquisition without such change. Our risk assessment models examine some historical and some current information. Variables cover the perspectives of...

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) could lead to a firm diversifying into new industries, and the impact of this may be related to the firm's prior diversification. Using a panel of 1030 M&A transactions from 2000 to 2010, we find that previously diversified firms are more likely to pursue...

This study examines the long run performance of firms offering multiple rights issues in the UK and differentiates between one-time and multiple issuers. By analysing a sample of 1146 rights issues offered by 788 London Stock Exchange listed industrial companies between 1988 and 2008, this study...

In this paper, we examine whether findings on downward accrual-based earnings management for firms publicly ‘seeking a buyer’ from the US can be extrapolated outside of the US context, given that past research has indicated that the function of the Merger and Acquisition (M&A) markets is...