25 research outputs found
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Impact of economic policy uncertainty on financial flexibility before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
Purpose: This study examines the influence of economic policy uncertainty on financial flexibility before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Few prior studies have examined this association specifically for debt and cash flexibility.
Design/methodology/approach: Using quarterly data from 2016 to 2022, 1014 observations were collected from the S&P Capital IQ database for listed tourism companies in India. The pre-pandemic period is defined as 2016 Q1 to 2020 Q1, whereas the pandemic period is from 2020 Q2 to 2022 Q3. The data are analysed using ordinary least squares, probit, logit and difference-in-difference (DID) estimation.
Findings: The evidence of this study suggests a negative association of economic policy uncertainty with debt flexibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings also suggest that COVID-19 induced economic policy uncertainty results in high cash flexibility. This meets the expectations for the crisis period, as firms are likely to hold more cash and less debt capacity to manage their operations. The results are robust for various estimation techniques.
Research limitations/implications: This study is limited to one emerging country and is specific to one non-financial sector. Future research could extend to more emerging countries and include other non-financial sector companies.
Practical implications: The findings of this research are useful for tourism sector managers as they can effectively manage their cash and debt flexibility during crisis periods. They will need to prioritise cash flexibility over debt flexibility to manage operations effectively. Policymakers need to provide clear and stable economic policies to help firms manage their debt levels during a crisis.
Originality/value: To the best of the author's knowledge, no existing studies have investigated the influence of economic policy uncertainty on the financial flexibility of tourism companies before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this study establishes a novel set of critical determinants, such as economic policy uncertainty
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Does the efficiency of a firm’s intellectual capital and working capital management affect its performance?
This study explores the efficiency of intellectual capital (ICE) and working capital management (WCME) in the GCC industrial sector and its potential impact on firm performance. The data were gathered from Standard & Poor's database from 2015 to 2019. This study uses data envelopment analysis (DEA), regression analysis, and robustness tests to accomplish its aims. The results indicate that most firms do not employ their intellectual and working capital investments well and need improvement actions to achieve the best practices. The regression model results reveal that ICE and WCME significantly and positively influence firms' performance. The results of this study support the resource-based, trade-off, and pecking order theories. The study findings have important implications for many stakeholders; for example, they would be helpful for firm decision-makers in managing their investments in intellectual and working capital to achieve the best practices and improve a firm's performance. In addition, the findings would be helpful for financiers, because high-performance firms are likely to have more reasonable valuations that facilitate debt financing. Moreover, the findings have noteworthy implications for trading procedures as investors aspire to attractive economic returns for their investments in corporations that pasture ICE and WCME issues. Additionally, these findings have important implications for employee job satisfaction and retention by improving IC management
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Intellectual capital and institutional governance as capital structure determinants in the tourism sector
Purpose: This study investigates the capital structure determinants of the Middle East tourism sector by examining intellectual capital (IC) efficiency and institutional governance along with firm-specific and macroeconomic variables. This research also identifies the determinants of capital structure for tourism companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and non-GCC countries.
Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from 45 listed tourism companies of nine Middle Eastern countries over five years from 2014 to 2018. The data were analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and checked for robustness using the generalised methods of moment (GMM) estimation.
Findings: Overall, the results indicate that tourism companies rely more on short-term debt (STD) than long-term debt (LTD), thus decreasing liquidity and increasing financial risk. Furthermore, tourism companies in non-GCC countries have higher IC efficiency compared to those in GCC countries. The aggregate institutional index is much higher for GCC countries compared to non-GCC countries. The OLS estimations suggest IC efficiency and institutional governance index provide inconclusive evidence as a determinant of capital structure proxy. High capital employed efficiency (CEE) is associated with more leverage for tourism firms. Theoretically, the results support pecking order and trade-off theories due to the relationships between firm-specific indicators and debt.
Originality/value: This study closes the gap in the capital structure debate by providing valuable insights into IC efficiency and institutional governance. These two factors serve as capital structure determinants in the Middle East and the GCC and non-GCC regions
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The impact of narcissism, self-confidence and auditor’s characteristics on audit report readability
Purpose: The present study aims to assess the impact of narcissism, self-confidence and auditor's characteristics on audit report readability for companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange.
Design/methodology/approach: The study’s statistical population comprises firms listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. The present research used a systematic elimination method, and 1,162 firm-year observations were obtained for seven years from 2012 to 2018. Three variables including auditor tenure, audit fee and audit specialization are used for measuring auditing features. The Fog index is used as a proxy for measuring audit report readability. In addition, in this paper, four regressions, including fixed effects, random effects, pooled and T+1, are used to estimate reliable coefficients.
Findings: The findings show a negative and significant relationship between auditor’s characteristics (tenure, fee and specialization) and audit report readability. Moreover, the variables of the auditor’s narcissism, self-confidence and mandatory auditor change have a positive and significant association with audit report readability. This study lends support to the theories of personality disorder and behavioral decision.
Originality/value: Since narcissism and self-confidence are two characteristics that shape an individual’s character and personality, some involved behavioral factors in auditors’ characteristics contribute to their decisions. The effects of these should be detected to enhance the decision-making process. The said factors significantly impact audit report readability. Hence, this paper attempts to assess the effect of the said factors on audit report readability
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Impact of financial literacy on savings behavior: the moderation role of risk aversion and financial confidence
This research examines the impact of financial literacy on the savings behavior of investors residing in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. It also investigates the moderating impact of financial confidence and risk aversion in the relationship between financial literacy and savings behavior. The primary data were collected from 357 respondents through a structured questionnaire using the snowball sampling method. The findings of this study suggest that financial literacy has a positive impact on investors' savings behavior. Further, the study also found that risk aversion significantly moderates the relationship between financial literacy and savings behavior. The three-way interaction between financial literacy, risk aversion, and financial confidence significantly affects the investors’ savings behavior. The study suggests that policymakers should emphasize training programs for investors on financial literacy, financial confidence, and risk aversion
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Intellectual capital efficiency, institutional ownership and cash holdings: a cross-country study
Purpose: This study investigates the roles of intellectual capital efficiency and institutional ownership on cash holdings and their speed of adjustment.
Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of 432 firm-year observations of tourism-listed companies, three measures of cash holdings are used as dependent variables and intellectual capital efficiency and institutional ownership as independent variables. The financial data is collected from the S&P Capital IQ database for the period 2015 to 2020. Two system-generalized methods of moment estimation are used for the robustness checks of the results.
Findings: The study provides evidence that an increase in intellectual capital efficiency in tourism firms results in lower cash holdings. The research findings also report that characteristics such as firm size, age and market-to-book value ratio are associated with cash holdings. Furthermore, institutional ownership in these firms did not affect the cash holdings. The results also confirm the existence of a target cash holding level to which the tourism firms attempt to converge. These results are robust to the alternative proxy of cash holding and endogeneity tests.
Research limitations/implications: The study uses intellectual capital efficiency measured by the model proposed by Pulic. Alternative measures of intellectual capital can be included in future studies. Future research can also investigate the impact on cash holdings before and during the pandemic for tourism companies. The study is limited to the impact of institutional ownership thus research can be extended to consider other types of ownership.
Practical implications: The findings of this study indicate that tourism companies should take into account the impact of intellectual capital efficiency on their cash holdings decisions. The industry uses a specific financial management strategy in light of better efficiency and possibly values the opportunity cost of holding more cash. Additionally, regulators should re-examine the role of institutional ownership in tourism firms as it was found to have no impact on cash holdings. The regulators may need to consider other factors, such as firm size and age, when developing policies and regulations to ensure that tourism firms have adequate cash holdings.
Originality/ Value: This study adds to the body of knowledge on the factors that influence cash management and ideal cash levels for the tourism industry. The examination of the effect of intellectual capital on cash holdings is a novel contribution, filling a gap in the existing literature. The findings on the speed of adjustment towards optimal cash holdings also provide support for the trade-off theory
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Does intellectual capital and corporate governance have an impact on annual report readability? Evidence from an emerging market
Purpose: This study examines the impact of intellectual capital efficiency and corporate governance mechanisms on the annual report readability of Oman's financial sector companies.
Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a sample of 150 firm-year observations of listed financial sector companies in the Muscat Securities Market, Oman, from 2014 to 2018. Flesch Reading ease and Flesch Kinkaid Index are used as proxies for annual report readability. As part of sensitivity analysis, the study also uses the natural logarithm of annual report pages as alternative readability measures. The investigation is conducted using random effects regression analysis and supported with system GMM estimation for robustness.
Findings: The findings of this study demonstrate a decrease in intellectual capital efficiency associated with better readability of annual reports for the financial sector firms. Alternatively, banks report a positive association of intellectual capital efficiency with the Flesch Reading ease score of the annual report. The structural capital and capital employed efficiency are also found to be negatively associated with annual report readability. Corporate governance mechanisms such as dispersed ownership and audit committee size also result in easy-to-read annual reports that support agency theory.
Research limitations/implications: The research was conducted for financial firms of Oman, and thereby the findings can be generalized to the financial sector of countries with similar settings, such as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.
Practical implications: The policy implications arising from this study suggest a strengthening of the intellectual capital efficiency and corporate governance mechanisms to improve the readability of the firms and thereby increase investor confidence.
Originality/value: This paper's uniqueness is in the model used to investigate the impact of intellectual capital efficiency and corporate governance mechanisms on the annual report readability of an emerging market
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Does managerial ability and auditor report readability affect corporate liquidity and cost of debt?
Purpose: This study investigates the impact of managerial ability and auditor report readability on the cost of debt and corporate liquidity in Omani-listed industrial companies.
Design/methodology/approach: The study uses data from the S&P Capital IQ database and audited annual reports published on Muscat Securities Market. The sample consists of 35 firms (175 firm-year observations) from 2015 to 2019. Managerial ability is measured using the data envelopment analysis proposed by Demerjian et al. (2012a, b). Auditor report readability is measured as a log of the auditor report digital file size proposed by Loughran and McDonald (2014).
Findings: This study finds that a company's managerial ability reduces the cost of debt lending support to upper echelons and agency theory. Highly able managers of industrial companies are associated with increased corporate liquidity consistent with the precautionary motive of holding cash. In addition, less-readable auditor reports contribute to higher debt costs and reduce corporate liquidity.
Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, few studies have explored the influence of managerial ability and auditor reporting readability on firms' financial policy. For industrial-sector firms, this study demonstrates the managerial ability and readability of auditor readability as significant determinants of the cost of debt and corporate liquidity, especially during periods of uncertainty. Thus, the findings can be generalized to other non-financial sector firms in the country and the Middle East
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Risks and regulation of cryptocurrency during pandemic: a systematic literature review
Cryptocurrencies differ from traditional financial assets as they are not governed by any higher authority, have no physical representation, are indefinitely divisible, and are not based on any tangible assets or country. While their popularity and use have surged over the years, they are still subject to an underlying risk. The purpose of this research is to investigate the regulatory approach for cryptocurrencies adopted around the world. To achieve the purpose of this research, extant literature is examined using a systematic literature review. Using a total of 49 Scopus indexed shortlisted articles, the extant literature on the various risks related to cryptocurrency and the regulatory approach adopted for the same was explored. The prior literature was classified into four thematic clusters of the regulatory approach to risks: pandemic, volatility, money laundering and cyber security. The findings suggest the regulations governing cryptocurrency are still at an infancy stage, and it still suffers from the challenge of limited transparency. The pandemic did not have a drastic impact on cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are volatile in reaction to economic policy uncertainty and macroeconomic variables. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this review paper is one of the few contributing to the gaps in the literature on the various risks and their associated regulatory approach to managing cryptocurrency
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Business strategy and earnings management: financial versus non-financial firms
This study investigates the impact of business strategy on earnings management practices for financial and non-financial firms in Oman. To assess the research objective, 430 firm-year observations from 2015 to 2019 were employed in the study. Using regression analysis, the findings suggest that differentiation strategy positively affects earnings management in financial sector firms. In addition, cost leadership strategy positively affects earnings management in non-financial sector firms. This indicates that business strategy is associated with company leaders managing their earnings while they are trying to survive through competition. These findings are useful for regulators, as they can introduce mechanisms to curb earnings management practices and instil more faith in investors