How Does Group Affiliation Affect The Diversification Performance Of Familycontrolled Firms In Malaysia? – A Governance Perspective

This paper examines the roles of business group affiliations and whether the size and ownership structure of business groups influence the performance outcomes of diversification among family-controlled firms in Malaysia. It presents evidence that agency-driven and thus performance-diminishing firm diversification is more likely to take place in firms affiliated with a family-controlled business group than in independent firms. The findings support the hypothesis that if the benefits of diversification can be captured through group-level diversification, then diversification at the firm level is more of an act of expropriation. In Malaysia, the undue political interference in business that to a certain extent has contributed to a weak enforcement of rules causes the enhanced control of family ownership through the formation of large and structurally complicated business groups to go unchecked. This grants the controlling families opportunities to pursue sub-optimal firm diversification policies that bring them more self-interested benefits at the expense of firm performance

The influence of ownership, control, governance and diversification on the performance of family-controlled firms in Malaysia

This study explores how a concentrated ownership structure and the underlying firm strategies/activities or practices influence the performance of family-controlled publicly-listed firms in Malaysia. Specifically, it aims to enhance our understanding of how differing types of significant owners, control-enhancing means, business groups and firm diversification affect firm performance within a national corporate governance system characterized by pervasive political involvement in business. It also aims to enhance out understanding of the role of board independence in moderating the above effects. the distinctiveness of this study arises from its approach of considering ownership structure and the underlying firm strategies/activities or practices in an integrated manner with particular emphasis on their inter-relationships. Multivariate with moderate regression analysis were utilized as primary tools of analysis. Based on a sample of 314 firms, major findings include (i) the proportion of family equity ownership positively influences corporate performance, (ii) group-affiliated firms generally under-perform non-group affiliated firms, (iii) the heterogeneity of business groups results in considerable differences in performance. Specifically, size of business group has a negative moderating effect on the firm diversification-performance relationship, (iv) profit redistribution occurs in firms that have a high level of family ownership and that are affiliated to large business groups, (v) board independence in general lacks effectiveness in moderating the influence of firm strategies or activities on firm performance. In terms of practical/managerial implications, the study demonstrates (i) the importance of conceptualising corporate governance in a broader sense, particularly in emerging economies such as Malaysia, (ii) how policymakers and regulators may identify and better monitor firms that are more likely to expropriate investors and/or exhibit governance problems, and (iii) a potentially fruitful approach to be adopted by investment professionals in selecting firms with better overall governance structures and performance that enhance their investment returns, particularly in the long term

Environmental management system and financial performance

The paper aims to explore the relationship between ISO 14001 certification and a company's financial performance to investigate whether the certification to ISO 14001 environmental management standard has benefited the company's financial performance or not. Using Malaysia as the research context, the results of a linear regression analysis show that firms with above-average performance have a greater tendency to pursue ISO 14001 certification. The findings also indicate that there is a significant relationship between ISO14001 certification and a company's financial performance in an emerging economy context. The reason is the adoption of ISO 14001 standard does offers many benefits to companies, such as greater reputation and brand awareness on one hand, and higher sales and investors' confidence on the other. The ISO 14001 certification helps to develop a better system which leads to costs reduction and revenue increase in the long run

Stock return, currency and general elections

The association between political elections and stock market performance for Malaysia market is discussed in this paper. This study aims to investigate the impact of General Elections in Malaysia on stock market indices. To provide additional support of the impact of general elections on stock returns through other channels, currency changes were also included in this study so as to discover the mediation effect of the exchange rate on the relationship between general elections and stock returns. Since the exchange rate does, to some extent, influence stock return, the relationship between exchange rates and stock returns during different stages of a general election cannot be overlooked. The results showed that currency change is negatively related with stock returns in pre-election and post election stages, but it is not significant during the election period. The impact of currency on stock return exists as a mediation effect during election period. In a nutshell, the currency change directly impacts stock return with a negative influence. However, the direct relationship between currency and stock return disappears during the election week. Thus, stock return is affected by currency change indirectly

An empirical study of auditors switching, corporate governance and financial performances of Malaysian Public Listed Companies (PLCs)

In the past years, regulators and the business communities had expressed worries about the alarming rate at which firms or corporations collapse due to the mismanagement and manipulation of resources as seen in the cases of Enron, WorldCom in the United States of America; and to be specific in Malaysia, the cases of Megan Media Holdings Berhad and Transmile Group. Auditor switching is evident and the disorder of auditor switching often takes place in Malaysia; however, as time goes by, it is decreasing. Thus, this paper seeks to empirically examine the effect of auditor switching and corporate governance on financial performance of Malaysian PLCs. Secondary data on a total number of 100 PLCs from years 2009 to 2013 are used. The results reveal that the effect of auditor switching on performance does not vary with duality role and the board size. However, the independent director does not cause a good firm performance. Nonetheless, auditors do not have a direct effect on financial performance since they are not directly involved with the management of the firms which negates the results of previous study. Therefore, this paper has vital impact in that regulators and the public need to be educated through awareness campaigns to emphasize on the auditors’ roles as agents in understanding the impact of the association between corporate governance and financial performance. Furthermore, auditor switching should embrace not only rotation of audit partners, but rotation of audit firms as well in view that this will help in infusing discipline from the top to the bottom of the audit firms and the companies

An agency perspective on firm diversification, efficiency and performance: evidence from Malaysia

We examine, from the agency perspective, the relationship between three important corporate measures among the Malaysian publicly-listed family-controlled firms: firm diversification, asset utilization efficiency and firm performance. We also explore the role of board independence in moderating the firm diversification-performance relationship. Our findings suggest that the greater the extent of firm diversification, the poorer will the asset utilization efficiency be. The poorer efficiency is likely to have caused the equally poorer performance for the firms in our findings. Notably, firm diversification is found to be more detrimental to performance for those firms affiliated to business group compared to firms without group affiliation. The group-affiliated firms which are found to be more diversified than the non-group firms, could have engaged in greater diversification for the self-interest of the controlling family. Specifically, we find that the agency-driven diversification causes the ROA (Tobin’s Q) of the firms to be lowered by 0.354% (0.026) for every additional increase in the number of business segments as the measure of firm diversification. In terms of the moderating effect of board independence, our finding shows that audit committee of board comprises entirely of independent outside directors positively moderate the firm diversification-performance linkage and is capable of reversing the apparently negative linkage between the two

The impact of working capital management on firm’s profitability: evidence from Malaysian listed manufacturing firms

This study investigates the relationship between working capital management and firm’s profitability of Malaysian listed manufacturing firms. It aims to examine the impact of working capital management from the aspects of aggressive working capital policy and efficiency of working capital management. Data is obtained from the annual reports of 122 firms listed in the industrial products sector of Bursa Malaysia Main board for the 6 year period from 2007 to 2012 to determine the relationships between the variables of working capital management and firm’s gross operating income (GOI). The results indicate that GOI is negatively related to the degree of aggressiveness of investment policies but positively related with the degree of aggressiveness of financing policies. Moreover, as a comprehensive measure of the efficiency of working capital management, the study finds cash conversion cycle is positively related to GOI. It shows that an increase in inventory conversion period is positively related to firms’ profitability. Likewise, firms can increase profitability by reducing the period of collecting account receivables

The Impact of Working Capital Management on Firm's Profitability: Evidence from Malaysian Listed Manufacturing Firms

This study investigates the relationship between working capital management and firm's profitability of Malaysian listed manufacturing firms. It aims to examine the impact of working capital management from the aspects of aggressive working capital policy and efficiency of working capital management. Data is obtained from the annual reports of 122 firms listed in the industrial products sector of Bursa Malaysia main board for the six year period from 2007 to 2012 to determine the relationships between the variables of working capital management and firm's gross operating income. The results indicate that gross operating income is negatively related to the degree of aggressiveness of investment policies but positively related with the degree of aggressiveness of financing policies. Moreover, as a comprehensive measure of the efficiency of working capital management, the study finds cash conversion cycle is positively related to gross operating income. It shows that an increase in inventory conversion period is positively related to firms' profitability. Likewise, firms can increase profitability by reducing the period of collecting account receivables. Keywords: Working Capital Management, Profitability, Manufacturing Firms, Malaysia. JEL Classifications: G30, G31, L6

The relationship between board characteristics and firm financial performance in Malaysia

Corporate governance has drawn attention of investors and government after the incidence of financial crisis world- wide since the late 90’s. Despite that reforms of corporate governance have been in place in Malaysia, voluntary disclosure of corporate governance has yet to proof its impact on the financial performance of the companies. This study examines the relationship between corporate governance attributes and firm financial performance in Malaysia. The relationship between board characteristics (board tenure, board size and CEO duality) were analyzed to investigate their correlation with firm financial performances. A total of 100 public listed companies were randomly selected from Bursa Malaysia for the year 2009 to 2013. Random effect panel data regression was obtained by using Stata. This study finds that board size, board tenure were significant to Return on Equity (ROE) and Return on Assets (ROA). However, firm size has no significant relationship with firm financial performance. It is recommended that apart from including more variables as controlling effects on firm financial performance and examining few industries as sample, it is also good to examine the correlation between board characteristics and corporate governance variables (foreign listings, equity analysis, external auditors, leverage ratios, dividend policy, etc.) on one hand, and ownership structures on the other hand, that have significant impact on firm financial performance

Does dysfunctional behavior matter when it comes to audit quality in Malaysia?

Audit quality is becoming a concern and a problematic issue due to corporate scandals in the business sector. The auditors were accused of incompetence and lack of independence in detecting fake financial reporting, which led to the company’s failure. The dysfunctional auditors’ behaviour has an impact on audit quality. As a result, this study aims to scientifically investigate and analyse the elements that may lead to dysfunctional auditor conduct and decreased audit quality. The factors addressed include time constraints, task complexity, and client importance on dysfunctional auditor behaviour and audit quality in the Malaysian setting. A total of 133 respondents were involved in this survey, selected by the snowball sampling method. The results reveal the propensity of individual auditors to accept dysfunctional behaviour due to time, budget pressure, and task complexity. Surprisingly, client importance does not impair auditors’ independence. Auditors play an essential role in maintaining the quality of audit reports and restoring public trust in the audit profession since auditors are granted credibility to assure financial accounts. As a result, this paper has important implications. It provides valuable insight for Malaysian regulators and audit firms to identify factors influencing dysfunctional auditor behaviour and deterioration of audit quality and develop various approaches to address these issues while maintaining the value of an audit for external users