Tag Archives: governance

Bringing two worlds together: The investor-policy maker interface in collaborative sovereign engagement initiatives

By | September 28, 2023
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The importance of public policy has increased for investors since 2015, when governments committed to shifting trillions of dollars to be consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement and to increase investments in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Further, investors have accepted the influence of ESG factors on delivering financial returns, recognizing the need… Read More »

A Recurrence of Financial Distress for Borrowers with Student Loans 

By | August 11, 2023
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In the world of student loans, things look grim. Borrowers owe an estimated $1.6 trillion in student loans—a figure which is second only to mortgage debt in the total amount of consumer debt attributed to Americans. Student loan borrower were hopeful that the Biden administration—which promised to provide up to $20,000 in relief for student… Read More »

Patience is Key: The Time it Takes to See Benefits from Continuous Auditing 

By | August 6, 2023
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Continuous auditing (CA) was introduced decades ago to enhance the quality of assurance by continuously and automatically analyzing data running through a corporate system based on rules defined by internal auditors. As CA is designed to provide more feedback on deviations and more timely feedback compared to traditional auditing, it is expected to enhance monitoring.… Read More »

When Machines Call the Shots: Legal Considerations for the AI-Powered Board of Directors 

By | April 3, 2023
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Back in 2014, the Hong Kong-based venture capital group Deep Knowledge Ventures announced that it had successfully appointed an algorithm named “VITAL” to its board of directors. This system of artificial intelligence (AI) was purportedly given the right to vote on whether the firm needed to invest in a specific company or not, similar to… Read More »

The Effect of Financial Reporting on Strategic Investments: Evidence from Purchase Obligations 

By | August 11, 2022
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Firms make investments to increase their future profits because they help reduce production costs, increase capacity, or upgrade their products or services. However, firms do not always make investments to improve production efficiency or customer demand. They often make investments to strategically influence competitors’ behavior. Due to their costly-to-reverse and time-bound nature, investments signal credible… Read More »

Are Foreign Donors Good Monitors?

By | June 28, 2021
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Economic and accounting literature has long found that foreign investments provide a multitude of benefits to local stock markets and economies. Foreign inflows to for-profit firms are found to harvest not only capital but also managerial and marketing skills in addition to business connections and human resource development. For-profit foreign institutional investors have also been… Read More »

The Role of the Board’s Financial Expertise in the IPO Process

By | June 4, 2021
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Since the 1970s, the underpricing of IPOs has been a well-observed phenomenon and many issuers see their stock price rising sharply on the first day of trading, which means that the IPO firm could have realized higher proceeds from the offering (“money left on the table”). As a result, venture capitalists and Silicon Valley companies recently expressed their… Read More »

The Importance of Firm-Specific Knowledge in Audit Committee Chair Successions

By | June 2, 2021
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The audit committee chair is considered the cornerstone of the audit committee. Charged with directing the committee’s activities, the chair sets the agenda and presides over its meetings. The chair must ensure that committee members focus on key issues and fulfill their roles as part of the group. The chair also acts as the liaison between the… Read More »

What Is the Impact of Mutual Funds’ ESG Preferences on Portfolio Firms?

By | May 27, 2021
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Institutional ownership has increased tremendously over the past few decades. This shift in ownership has led to major concerns as to whether institutional investors have the incentives or the tools to be active shareholders. Assessing how effective institutional investors are in their stewardship activities has therefore become critical. However, such an assessment has proven difficult,… Read More »