New issue of the Corporate Ownership and Control journal
The editorial team of Virtus Interpress is pleased to introduce a new issue of the journal Corporate Ownership and Control. This issue consists of works by authors from the USA, New Zealand, India, Germany, Tunisia, Canada, Italy, the UAE, Switzerland, Egypt, and others, and points toward a vision of governance that is both systemic and relational, capturing the inherent dynamism of strategic corporate governance.
In particular, the presented papers analyze such crucial topic as corporate governance quality, sustainability strategy, financial performance, financial statement fraud, financial stability, risk management, business decisions, artificial intelligence (AI), corporate social responsibility, communication intensity, Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), sustainability performance, sustainability reporting, board size, insider directorship, board independence, board interlock, internationalization, audit committee, general takaful, integrated reporting, sustainability, energy utilities, utility holdings, digital transformation, ESG controversies, firm value, audit process, etc.
The full issue of the journal is available at the following link .
The first conceptual paper by Iwan Suhardjo, Chris Akroyd, Khomsiyah, and Meiliana Suparman addresses the gap in integrating sustainability into organizational strategy and performance measurement and proposes a sustainability strategy map and integrated sustainability performance scorecard framework as an approach to integrating sustainability into business operations and decision-making.
Kannadas Sendilvelu contributes to the understanding of the financial performance associated with mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the business-to-business (B2B) sectors, an area of strategic and economic significance. The author’s results indicate that post-merger financial performance is significantly determined by both the nature of the acquisition and the specific sector in which the company operates, offering valuable insights for academics, practitioners, and policymakers engaged in strategic financial analysis.
Sabrine Nasfi Snoussi, Faten Nasfi Salem, and Neila Boulila Taktak aim to investigate the impact of pressures exerted on personnel and governance officials on the detection of fraud risk in financial statements. The findings show that external pressure and achievement of financial objectives have a positive effect on the ability of external auditors to detect fraud risk in financial statements, while financial stability is not significant. This study has implications for external auditors who can find clear and simple indicators that can assist them in detecting fraud risk in financial statements.
Werner Gleißner and Patrick Ulrich analyze interdependencies among governance, risk, compliance, and controlling functions in German companies, assessing cultural, institutional, and instrumental factors, and provide insights into how the maturity of risk management and cultural openness to risk affect the integration of governance, risk, and compliance practices, supporting a decision-oriented approach to risk governance.
Sana-ur-Rehman Sheikh, Muhammad Mohiuddin, and Zhan Su investigate the intensity and scope of CSR communication among textile companies in two major emerging markets, Pakistan and China, to understand how local institutional environments shape CSR strategies. The findings suggest that stakeholder pressures, institutional voids, and varying cultural norms can significantly influence both the content and verification of CSR activities.
Paola Vola, Giorgio Cantino, and Sara Gransinigh focus on investigating how the most widespread reporting frameworks lead to effective stakeholder engagement. The paper aims to explore how to operationalize stakeholder selection and engagement, referencing various initiatives in the field of sustainability reporting, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), while considering both voluntary and mandatory provisions.
Hatem Elfeituri and Tariq Alfitouri examine the impact of working capital management and COVID-19 on the financial performance of UK retail firms over the period from 2001 to 2022. The research contributes to the understanding of how working capital factors affect financial outcomes in the UK retail sector, providing valuable insights for policymakers, regulators, and managers aiming to enhance financial performance.
Madhurima Basu and Rona Elizabeth Kurian explore the impact of board composition on the degree of firm internationalization for emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). Departing from previous studies focused on developed market multinational enterprises (DMNEs), in light of institutional voids in emerging economies, the authors hypothesize the relationship of board size, insider leadership, board independence, and board interlock with the level of internationalization of EMNEs.
Eze Agha and Festus Olatunbode Ashogbon explore how voluntary internal corporate governance disclosures in Nigeria and South Africa influence the firm value of listed firms, which is proxied by market capitalisation-to-book value, focusing on five internal board disclosures. The results show that regulatory bodies and stakeholders must move beyond adherence to corporate governance codes and be guided by the principles, with a bias for competencies and qualities of persons appointed to the board, and uphold clear objectives and effectiveness for board meetings and oversight responsibilities of directors.
Tariq Bhatti and Osama Shoaib examine the factors influencing the decisions of the UAE consumers when choosing between conventional and takaful automobile insurance, with a particular focus on why takaful policies are less popular. The results conclusively show that for takaful insurance, respondents prioritized reputation, ease of interaction, and Sharia compliance as crucial determinants, aligning with previous studies that emphasize the importance of ethical considerations in Islamic finance, however, the findings highlight that comprehensive coverage, positive reviews, and recommendations are more influential for conventional insurance.
Raffaele Adinolfi, Manuela Lucchese, and Silvia Solimene explore the implementation of the integrated reporting (IR) framework in a small Italian coastal municipality, analyzing the challenges and opportunities encountered during the process. The study also highlights how the IR framework can address the separation of ownership and control in the public sector by increasing transparency and accountability in the management of public resources.
Charles J. Tawk, Aidan McKearney, Dory N. Daw, and Jie Deng assess the relationship between psychological capital (PsyCap) and employee retention and explore changing attitudes towards the role of PsyCap in the UAE. Qualitative data generated from informants signal a new interest and changing management attitudes towards PsyCap in organizations, due primarily to the impact of COVID-19 and the UAE government strategies. The paper adds value by providing findings from the specific nexus of retention and PsyCap in mapping attitudinal changes to PsyCap in the UAE and suggesting the possibilities for leveraging this interest within organizations.
Kudret Topyan, Chia-Jane Wang, and Natalia Boliari investigate how ownership structure affects debt financing costs for U.S. energy utility companies. By comparing option-adjusted yield spreads of bonds issued by stand-alone utilities and holding companies — while controlling for credit rating, maturity, and issue size — the authors find that stand-alone utilities incur a modestly higher cost of debt, paying approximately 7 basis points more than utility holding firms.
Vincenzo Scafarto, Michele Galeotti, and Gaetano della Corte empirically examine the impact of digital transformation (DT) on firm ESG performance using data from Italian listed companies for the year 2023, and also investigate whether board gender diversity has a moderating role in this association. The authors’ results diverge from previous research, which suggests that board gender diversity has a negative moderating effect between DT and ESG performance.
Isaac Bonaparte and Henry Kimani Mburu focus on the relationship between corporate governance quality and ESG controversies and how these two affect firm value. The study differs from recent and contemporaneous research on ESG controversies in that we use corporate governance indices that not only focus on the basic attributes required in corporate governance codes but also features that dictate how corporate boards (and executives) operate (behave). In addition, the authors examine the mediation effect of ESG controversies on the corporate governance-firm value relationship.
In the final research, Noha Mahmoud Kamareldawla explores the stages of the audit process to be improved through the implementation of AI technology in an emerging setting. The study provides empirical evidence for the ethical challenges expected to arise from AI implementation and empirical evidence of a prior projection that AI implementation in the audit field may negatively impact auditors’ due professional care, competence level, and their professional judgment. However, the findings did not support the notion of prior studies that AI may impair auditors’ independence, accountability, or even their commitment to their careers.
We hope that researchers will find the articles in this issue particularly interesting and useful for their research activities and that they will contribute to overcoming the gaps highlighted in these publications.
