We study the effect of corporate culture on the relationship between firm performance and CEO turnover. Utilising a measure of cultural dimension developed in organisation behaviour research, we quantify corporate culture by assessing official documents using a text analysis approach. We employ...

We show that public companies frequently changed their board structures before implementation of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, with two-thirds of firms changing board size or independence during an average two-year period. Board changes were associated with changes in firm-specific fundamentals, but...

We find that firms that treat their employees better are less likely to be acquired. The shareholders of employee-friendly targets also receive lower premiums and smaller share of the surplus created by the deal. We also show that bidders tend to improve their employee policy following the...

This paper sheds light on the impact that environmental, social and governance (ESG) corporate practice disclosure has on equity financing. We present a unique framed field experiment in which professional private equity investors competed in closed auctions to acquire fictive firms. We hence...

Golden parachutes (GPs) have attracted substantial attention from investors and public officials for more than two decades. We find that GPs are associated with higher expected acquisition premiums and that this association is at least partly due to the effect of GPs on executive incentives....

We study 121 voluntary dual class share unification in Europe during 1996–2009, and uncover evidence suggesting a positive valuation response to governance improvements and a negative valuation response to possible financial tunneling. Corporate governance improvement is attained by abolishing...

Using block share acquisitions made by private equity (PE) funds, we examine the sources of value gains in PE minority equity investments. We find that compared with non-PE acquirers, PE acquirers are more likely to place representatives with finance experience or those with experience in the...

While stock options are commonly used in managerial compensation to provide desirable incentives, they can create adverse incentives to distort the choice of investment risk. Relative to the risk level that maximizes firm value, call options in a compensation contract can induce too much or too...

We analyze acquirer wealth effects using a comprehensive sample of government asset sale announcements in 123 countries around the world in 1984–2009. Overall, we find positive abnormal returns to acquirers of state-owned assets. Returns are greater when the acquirer is domestic, when the sale...

We examine the IPOs of and acquisitions made by special purpose acquisition corporations (SPACs). This unique sample provides a perspective on these two corporate events unencumbered by much of the typical confounding information. We find the IPO gross spreads of these simple firms similar to...