BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND THE PRICING OF INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS (IPOS): DOES THE EXISTENCE OF A PROPERLY STRUCTURED BOARD MATTER? EVIDENCE FROM FRANCE

The purpose of this study is to introduce the board of directors as a signal of firm quality to abate information asymmetry. This study is based on agency theory and signaling theory to suggest that the existence of properly structured board at the time of the IPO may signal high firm quality to potential investors. To do that, I examine the association between board of directors' characteristics (including board composition, board size, leadership structure (CEO duality) and existence of an audit committee) and underpricing of 133 Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in France between 2000 and 2004. Empirical evidence suggests that there is a positive effect of board size on underpricing and a negative association between the proportion of independent directors and underpricing. However, CEO duality as well as existence of an audit committee have no significant impact on underpricing. Overall, these results are consistent with the assumption that board attributes may be used as a signal of firm quality.Board of directors, Signaling theory, Agency theory, Initial Public Offerings, Underpricing

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT EARNINGS FORECAST QUALITY: EVIDENCE FROM FRENCH IPOS

International audienceThis study examines whether corporate governance attributes have an effect on the quality of financial disclosure. Specifically, we examine the association between board attributes, ownership retained, auditor quality, and underwriter reputation and management earnings forecast quality measured by management earnings forecast accuracy and bias. Using 117 French IPOs, we find that management earnings forecast quality is significantly associated with some corporate governance attributes. For the board of directors, we find that IPO firms are more likely to issue less accurate and more optimistic earnings forecast when the board size is large. We also find that IPO firms are more likely to issue more accurate and more conservative earnings forecast when the proportion of independent directors on the board is higher. However, CEO duality is not significantly associated with management earnings forecast quality. For ownership retained, we find that IPO firms are more likely to issue more accurate and more conservative earnings forecast when the proportion of shares retained by insiders is higher. With respect to auditor quality, our results show that auditor quality has no significant influence on management earnings forecast quality. Finally, concerning underwriter reputation, our results show that IPO firms are more likely to issue less accurate but more conservative earnings forecast when the IPO firm is underwritten by a more prestigious underwriter. Our results provide evidence that financial disclosure quality is higher in firms with properly structured board of directors. These findings have implications for policy makers and market participants. Potential investors should consider the firm specific as well as corporate governance characteristics as they evaluate management earnings forecast quality

Does Herding Behavior Exist in The Cryptocurrency Market?

This paper examines herd behavior in the cryptocurrency market using data of the top 15 large cryptocurrencies and the CCi30 Index as a proxy for market return. The idea that investors mimic and follow the behavior of others in the cryptocurrency market rather than conducting their own research has received attention in the finance literature. The CSAD results in the static model detected herding but given the existence of structural breakdowns and nonlinearities in the data series, we opted to conduct a rolling window analysis. The results indicate strong herding behavior that fluctuates over time. Furthermore, results from the logistic regression reveals that herding develops as uncertainty increases. Our findings are consistent with earlier research on identifying herding behavior in cryptocurrencies. It is an attempt to shed light on portfolio and risk management, trading strategies, and market efficiency

L'influence de l'incertitude de la tâche et de la structure organisationnelle sur les caractéristiques des Systèmes d'Information Comptables (SIC) : Étude empirique

L'objectif de cet article est d'examiner l'influence de la technologie et de la structure organisationnelle sur les caractéristiques des systèmes d'information comptables (SIC). En adoptant une perspective modératrice, on a examiné les effets d'interaction entre les caractéristiques des SIC, l'incertitude de la tâche et la structure organisationnelle sur la satisfaction des managers. L'échantillon est composé de 48 managers appartenant à des entreprises tunisiennes. Des modèles de régression multiples avec terme multiplicatif et des dérivées partielles de ces modèles ont été utilisés pour tester les hypothèses de recherche. Les résultats de l'étude montrent que les effets d'interaction entre les caractéristiques des SIC et l'incertitude de la tâche ont un impact positif sur la satisfaction des managers. En outre, les résultats montrent que les effets d'interaction entre les caractéristiques des SIC et la structure organisationnelle ont un impact positif sur la satisfaction des managers.Les systèmes d'information comptables (SIC); caractéristiques de l'information; l'incertitude de la tâche, la structure organisationnelle; l'approche de traitement de l'information; satisfaction des managers

Impact of COVID19 on the Islamic cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency is a new form of digital asset based on a network distributed across a large number of computers. The main objective of this work is to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the Islamic cryptocurrency markets returns. In this methodology, we identify a group of Islamic cryptocurrencies consisting of the X8X, Hellogold and OneGram. This paper uses the Newey-West standard errors regression to estimate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Islamic cryptocurrencies returns. The empirical results show that COVID-19 total deaths have a negative effect on respectively the X8X cryptocurrency, HelloGold, and OneGram cryptocurrencies. In the same way, the COVID-19 total confirmed cases growth has a negative effect on respectively the X8X cryptocurrency, and OneGram cryptocurrencies. This study contributes to the literature by identifying the impact of COVID-19 on the Islamic cryptocurrency markets

Islamic view towards Bitcoin

This paper proposes to analyze the agent behavior by means of big data extracted from the search engine « Google trends » and Twitter API to visualize the emotions and the manner of thinking about « Bitcoin » in the Islamic context. Two kinds of sentiment measures are constructed. The first is based on the search query of the word « Bitcoin » with religious connotation all over the world from 14/04/2017 to 14/04/2018 in weekly frequency. The second is built on twitter data from 03/04/2018 to 13/04/2018, by using a Bayesian machine learning device exploiting deep natural language processing modules to assign emotions and sentiment orientations. In the next step, the Granger causality analysis is used to investigate the hypothesis that this sentiment causes the volatility and the returns of « Bitcoin ». The results show that, at a first-level that twitter users of the word « Islamic Bitcoin » improve positive sentiment. Secondly, the Twitter sentiment measure has a significant effect on lagged Bitcoin returns and volatility. Furthermore, this sentimental variable Granger causes Bitcoin returns and volatility.  This study contributes to the literature by studying the influence of the doctrinal view towards Bitcoin on his prices dynamics. Knowing that Bitcoin is a new financial asset and there is a large debate on his compliance with sharia

Biopreservative effect of the tunisian halophyte lobularia maritima flavonoid fraction, used alone and in combination with linalool in stored minced beef meat

In the present study, Lobularia maritima (Lm) flavonoid extract (LmFV) was characterized by HPLC analyses and five compounds were detected. Further, to describe the chemical content of the matrix, GC-MS analyses after silylation were performed; the obtained results showed the presence of a large number of components belonging to several chemical classes, mostly sugar alcohols, sugars, fatty acids, and terpenes. Firstly, the antibacterial activities of this fraction and linalool (Lin) were evaluated against eight foodborne pathogenic strains with MIC values between 2.3 and 5.8 mg/mL and 0.23 and 0.7 mg/mL, respectively. Then, the antioxidant activity of both was evaluated by the DPPH antiradical test and the phosphomolybdenum test. Furthermore, the biopreservative effect of LmFV alone and in combination with Lin on minced beef stored at 4 C for 14 days was evaluated using microbiological and physiochemical tests. LmFV at 4.6% alone significantly reduced microbial spoilage in ground meat (p < 0.05). The combination of LmFV (4.6%) and Lin (0.46%) was more effective than LmFV alone in inhibiting bacterial contamination, reducing TBARS values and the risk of bacterial contamination, and reducing the accumulation of Met myoglobin (MetMb). This combination, therefore, extends the shelf life of the product by about 10 days. Based on these microbiological results and physicochemical parameters, it can be stated that the addition of Lin potentiates the flavonoid fraction of L. maritima more strongly against the deterioration of meat quality by significantly improving its biopreservative effect as a natural conservativ