Physical characteristics of the Chief Executive Officer and firm accounting and market-based performance

Despite the key role of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), extant literature pays little attention to the physical characteristics of the CEO. Therefore, this paper investigates certain physical characteristics - such as age, gender, ethnicity and nationality of the CEO in relation to accounting (ROE) and market-based (market value) firm performance. The paper applies OLS with robust standard errors to a panel composed of 1600 firm-year observations of non-financial Malaysian listed companies between 2010 and 2014. The results reveal that the ethnicity (Chinese) and nationality (foreign) of a CEO have a significant positive association with both proxies of firm performance, while the age of the CEO has no significant effect. Moreover, a female CEO has an insignificant and significant positive relation with ROE and firm market value, respectively. Alongside contributing to the limited literature that exists in relation to the subject, the paper provides important insights for regulators, shareholders, investors, banks, corporate boards and financial institutions in regards to the evaluation of firms and the allocation of economic resources

Memory Threads: Organizing Digital Memories to Organize Social P2P Networks

Human remember their memories based on some reference which helps in recalling those memories. These references are usually common for many people, objects, places and so on. We organize human digital memories in the form of memory threads, according to the references of the memories in order to present information about different places, persons, etc. We organize peers in our Entity-based social peer-to-peer network according to memory threads in the form of memory threads-based communities. In our approach, peers having human digital memories with similar reference keys are grouped together under certain criteria. The criteria for thread selects peers with similar digital memories and arrange them in a specific order that define a structure of thread, which allows tracing via memories and accessing peers at different locations in threads easily. This approach is more scalable because it brings the most similar peer together in a community of similar peer. The known location of peer and data allows fast data searching. Also, a community presents useful information about the entity in network

Corporate Social Responsibility and Firms’ Financial Performance: A Conceptual Framework

This paper conceptually analyses the impact of corporate social responsibility(CSR) on firms’ financial performance. CSR is considered as an important business strategy that achieves a steady growth in firms’ profitability through improving their image. It includes all those strategies which account for are an ethical conduct and society friendly approach beneficial for the development of society. In addition to profit-maximization, the firm is also supposed to undertake activities which uplift the life of employees and the general public. In this regard, the conceptual framework of the current study shows that firms spend on awarding scholarships to needy students, health activities such as health awareness program, free medical camps, environmental protection awareness programs and sports activities. The conceptual framework alsohighlights that firms with large capital spend more on CSR activities owing to anincreased pressure of the government, public, media and other stakeholders. Based on the previous extant literature, it is also assumed that firms which earn higher profits spend more on CSR in the coming year/s that have positive impacts on their profitability. However, by following theoretical postulations, it is assumed the relationship between CSR and firms’ profitability may be endogenous. Accordingly, this study proposes dynamic GMM estimation that is a preferred technique, particularly in the presence of endogeneity

GENDER DIVERSITY, CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND FIRM PERFORMANCE IN MAJOR ASIAN ECONOMIES

This study analyzes the effects of gender diversity and corporate governance on firm’s performance in Asian major economies. The study finds positive and significance impact of gender diversity on firm’s performance. In addition, the study explored significant role of executive female directors as compared to non-executive female directors. The impact of board characteristics and ownership structure on firm’s performance were also examined and found the evidences of positive association of them with firm’s performance in most cases except India (where the state ownership exhibited negative impact on firm’s performance). The study also provides comparative analysis of developed and developing economies in Asia and reported significance role of female representation in emerging markets as compared to developed and overall markets results. Lastly, the study also confirms non-existence of reverse causality between gender diversity and firm’s performance by applying t-tests and breaking down the sample according to women participation in the corporate board. The results confirm the role of female representation on firm performance from tokenism to critical mass. Consequently, the results strongly suggest that gender diversity in firm’s board needs to be enhanced, compulsory laws being a key determinant to achieve the desired results in Asian context

GENDER DIVERSITY, CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND FIRM PERFORMANCE IN MAJOR ASIAN ECONOMIES

This study analyzes the effects of gender diversity and corporate governance on firm’s performance in Asian major economies. The study finds positive and significance impact of gender diversity on firm’s performance. In addition, the study explored significant role of executive female directors as compared to non-executive female directors. The impact of board characteristics and ownership structure on firm’s performance were also examined and found the evidences of positive association of them with firm’s performance in most cases except India (where the state ownership exhibited negative impact on firm’s performance). The study also provides comparative analysis of developed and developing economies in Asia and reported significance role of female representation in emerging markets as compared to developed and overall markets results. Lastly, the study also confirms non-existence of reverse causality between gender diversity and firm’s performance by applying t-tests and breaking down the sample according to women participation in the corporate board. The results confirm the role of female representation on firm performance from tokenism to critical mass. Consequently, the results strongly suggest that gender diversity in firm’s board needs to be enhanced, compulsory laws being a key determinant to achieve the desired results in Asian context

The Feasibility of Carbon Capturing, Storage and Utilization Projects in Developing Countries: A Case of Malaysia

The rapid change in climate and the high cost of controlling it are the issues caught much attention around the world especially during the last two decades. The CCSU (Carbon Capture, Storage and Utilization) is widely believed the mechanism to control both these issues to a great extent. However, the adoption, expansion, or development of CCSU isn't yet common to counter these issues. The pace of CCSU adoption and development is greatly impaired by its high cost and non-availability of funds in both developed and developing countries of the world. The scenario in developing countries is worse as these countries have no mandatory obligation for carbon emissions like developed countries. Subsequently, most of the developing countries except few are not willing to carry out CCSU operations voluntarily. This paper, therefore, sheds light on various costs associated to CCSU operations and the potential sources of financing them in developing countries especially Malaysia. The paper concludes that public awareness is fundamental in persuading governments and other entities to finance CCSU operations and ensuring the feasibility, economic viability and success of these projects. The paper recommends that governments, environmental agencies, international financial institutions, and developed countries should support CCSU projects in developing countries by providing funds and capacity building measures. The paper contributes to the limited literature and policy making of CCSU funding especially in developing countries like Malaysia where the mechanism (CCSU) is yet in embryonic stage. Keywords - CCSU, Public Awareness, Developing countries, Malaysia JEL Classifications: L13, Q3

Improving Source Location Privacy in Social Internet of Things Using a Hybrid Phantom Routing Technique

The amalgamation of Smart IoT and Machine learning is an emerging research area. In this context, a new trend in IoT called Social IoT has been considered for this study. The Social IoT has benefits of connectivity exhibited within the network of connected objects through the Internet of Things (IoT). It covers the entire world and provides innovative services to improve life standards, establishes novel businesses, and makes buildings and cities. Certain smart things allow the collection of ubiquitous data or traffic, which pose a threat to source location privacy. Therefore, it limits the source of the Internet of Things vision if implemented wrongly. These threats come along with some challenges, adversary profiles, and the location privacy of personal data. When they are used to monitor important assets, the attacker can easily hunt the location of these assets. However, the source location constitutes a way to prevent the adversary from finding the location of the source. This research has used a hybrid phantom method by combining the phantom node and multi-path route that improves privacy and reduces the consumption of energy. The Analytic Hierarchal Process (AHP) is used for phantom node selection, based on parameters such as energy, distance, heterogeneity, and neighbor list. The result shows the average consistency value of the parameters is 4.2 and the consistency index value is 0.066. The overall priority of the alternative node is 2.089 as compared to other nodes. The sum of the vector weight value is obtained as 4.845. The total average energy consumption is 1.211 J and the average safety period capture ratio is 59.41%. The proposed techniques overwhelmed the deficiencies in existing techniques, reduces energy consumption improves the safety period and increases the network lifetime

How MCCG 2012 impacted board independence and firm performance in Malaysia: A proposed analysis

Purpose: The renowned agency theory and Corporate Governance (CG) codes around the world advocate independence of corporate boards.It is a common belief of the public, investors, regulators and policy makers that CG regulations strengthen independence of the board which improves firm performance.Hence, this paper proposes to test the common belief by examining the relationship between board independence as recommended by the recently introduced CG code (MCCG 2012) in Malaysia and financial performance of the listed companies from 2010 to 2013 in pre and post context of the code.Design/methodology/approach: This theoretical paper proposes to examine the impact of CG regulation (MCCG 2012) regarding board independence (separate leadership structure, proportion of independent non-executive directors on the board and independent chairman) on firm performance by using Ordinary Least Square (OLS) for a stratified random sample of 270 companies from all sectors of the Malaysian economy except banks and insurance companies. Findings/ highlights: The proposed study will provide empirical evidence to the inconclusive debate regarding the relationship between board independence and firm performance in the context of regulatory intervention (MCCG 2012).The study will also fill the literature gap as MCCG 2012 or any of its recommendation in relation to firm performance is yet to be investigated in Malaysia.Practical implications: The recommendations of MCCG 2012 regarding board independence (separate leadership structure, proportion of independent directors and independent chairman) are voluntary (comply or explain) and not part of the mandatory listing requirements of Bursa Malaysia yet.Thus, the empirical findings of the proposed investigation will help reduce the level of disparity between MCCG 2012 and mandatory listing requirements of Bursa Malaysia. Originality/value: The proposed study has value for policy makers, regulators, banks, Bursa Malaysia, shareholders, securities commission and government in Malaysia by knowing the impact of MCCG 2012 on board independence and its relation with firm performance