The purpose of this paper, structured in three Sections, is twofold: (a) The first is to analyse the conditions under which a group of financial firms is considered to be a ‘financial conglomerate' in accordance with the (complex) definition of this term in Article 2 (point (14)) of the...

Hedge funds and other private equity funds are aggressive monitors of corporate America. Their investment strategies are designed to squeeze agency costs and other inefficiencies out of under performing companies. Mutual funds and public pension funds, by contrast, have remained relentlessly...

Recent literature has documented a link between institutional equity ownership (IO) and cost of debt capital, and interpreted it as a corporate governance effect. However, institutional equity investors may also affect cost of debt through their influence on information asymmetry condition of...

This study proposes and tests a series of related hypotheses concerning the impacts of institutions' monitoring on managers' investing financing operating activities as well as accounting and reporting the outcomes of such activities. In developing and testing the hypotheses, the study...

This study expounds on the debate regarding dividend payouts for different types of politically tied firms in Malaysia. We recognize the heterogeneity of political ties of politically connected firms (PCFs) by government-linked companies (GLCs) and non-GLC PCFs. The results show that PCFs are...

Activist hedge funds are the new breed of corporate raiders, yet we know little about how the management and board of target firms respond to activist investors. Using a behavioral perspective, we propose that the activist's reputation for being confrontational may serve as a signal that conveys...

We examine the influence of common ownership on commonalities in the information environment. Specifically, we study commonalities in financial statements and in the actions of key agents such as financial analysts and firm managers who contribute and respond to the information environment....

While shareholder engagement has captured much attention recently, the evidence on the role of large institutional investors remains relatively scarce. Large asset managers have become an increasingly powerful force since the financial crisis of 2008, with the top 20 managers controlling...