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The paper evaluates the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on firm performance along with other corporate finance variables. As expected, Covid-19 had a negative impact on firm’s performance, especially on small firms with pronounced leverage. The paper also highlights that firms with higher cash holdings were resilient in the face of the pandemic. Manufacturing firms were the worst hit as their tasks could not be executed remotely; supply chain of raw materials was severely disrupted. Another sector that bore the brunt was travelling and hospitality, where tasks cannot be digitized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender equality has been a top priority in sustainability agenda at global level under the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (UN SSE) Initiative. The paper examines the impact of gender diversity on firm performance in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality. For the analysis, S&P BSE Sensex constituent companies were considered, and data for the period 2015-16 to 2020-21 was examined. The paper employed ADF test to check stationarity and multiple regression analysis-Least squares method to analyze gender diversity impact on firm performance, using Eviews software. The findings show that total gender diversity (TGD) has a positive and significant impact on firm performance (ROA, ROE and ROCE), and board gender diversity (BGD) shows positive and insignificant association with ROA, ROE and ROCE. The study further shows that firm size, firm age and board size have significant association with firm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies the impact of Domestic Institutional Ownership (DIO) upon firm performance in India using panel data for NSE 500 companies from 2010 to 2016. The study finds DIO to have a positive impact on Tobin's Q in panel regressions-fixed effects after using controls such as firm age, size, leverage, marketing intensity, foreign institutional ownership and promoter ownership. The study also tests the impact of Mutual Fund Ownership (MFO) and the impact of Banks, Development Financial Institutions (DFI), Insurance companies' (BFII) ownership separately and found MF has a positive impact on Tobin's Q. The study observed that all variables DIO, MF and BFII had no impact on Return on Assets (ROA) but BFII is found to have a negative impact on Return on Equity (ROE). The study found a positive impact of Mutual Funds (MFs) and a negative impact of 'Banks, FIs and Insurance companies' on firm performance in India. The paper contributes to the empirical literature on institutional ownership and firm performance in emerging economies. It has important implications for firms, investors, corporate policy makers and researchers particularly, in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian companies have participated in the worldwide trend of consolidation through cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). During the last decade, there has been a sharp and consistent increase in the number of M&As in India. The paper explores the impact of cross-border M&A on firm performance and financial distress of selected cases in India from diverse sectors. The motive is to get a clear understanding as to whether the cross-border M&As actually lead to improvement in growth, profitability and efficiency of Indian corporate firms, and also whether it helps in reducing their financial distress. For this purpose, the paper has focused on a sample of nine large cross-border M&As in India from different sectors. It is found that these M&As have been effective in improving the firm performance and financial distress in some cases, whereas it has led to increased distress and reduced performance in others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the effect of eleven Audit Committee (AC) characteristics on Firm Performance (FP). It identifies characteristics that significantly influence FP and develops an index to provide a holistic approach to the relationship between AC effectiveness and FP. It applies cross-sectional time-series FGLS regression and checks robustness using panel-corrected standard error regression after identifying heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation, and cross-sectional dependence of 375 observations. The study finds a significant positive effect of AC expertise, attendance in AC meetings, and the absence of executive directors in AC on both Return on Assets (ROA) and market capitalization of the firms. Gender diversity is exclusively significant for ROA, while shareholding positively impacts firm's market capitalization. This study is the first to use some new individual AC characteristics like the absence of executive directors in AC and AC charter and representation of AC members in board meetings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the effect of capital structure on the organizational performance of listed Ghana Club 100 companies on the Ghana Stock Exchange during a 10-year period from 2007 to 2016. The study focuses on Ghana Club 100 companies because these companies are touted as the role model for their peers. The Ghana Club 100 companies are the top 100 companies in Ghana that are ranked annually in order of excellent performance by the Ghana Investment Promotion Center. The three key ranking criteria used by the GIPC are size, profitability and growth. The study employs a Fixed Effect Panel Regression Model to test these variables in the light of capital structure adequacy and performance. The results showed a negative relationship between capital structure and organizational performance. Specifically, the different measures of debt to total capital reduce firms' performance. The study is robust to the use of different measures of capital structure. The study proposes that the high gearing levels among GC 100 firms are not profit enhancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capital Structure (CS) of an organization and its composition has always affected its business performance and value creation. The selection of appropriate CS helps an organization to sustain its growth in the future. It is dependent on the level of financial leverage it is going to consider for optimal combination of CS. The study explores the impact of financial leverage on the business results of manufacturing firms in emerging economies like India for the period 2011 to 2021. The choice of appropriate combination of debt level will affect the profitability of a firm. It was found that there is an inverse association between Short-Term Debt (STD), Long-Term Debt (LTD) and size and business performance of the manufacturing industry in India. An empirical model was developed to analyze the impact on Return On Equity (ROE), Return on total Assets (ROA) and Return on Capital Employed (ROCE), which was found to be significant and established a negative association with financial leverage of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the impact of executives having multiple directorships on the financial performance and asset quality of banks. The research has been carried out on 36 banks operating in India over a 19-year period (2001-2019) using an unbalanced panel implementing fixed effects model, with statistical evidence demonstrating its applicability. The study finds a positive significant effect of multiple directorships on bank performance, thereby confirming the “quality hypothesis” that busy directors are more likely to be better directors. In addition, it also finds significantly negative effect of multiple directorships on gross nonperforming asset ratio. Furthermore, the findings also reveal that larger board size and CEO duality are positively associated with a firm’s profitability, which helps to improve the asset quality of banks, and the total number of committees is inversely associated with the profitability of the firm. Overall, the findings suggest that despite the strain that many directorships may impose on directors, busy directors bring in more experience, knowledge, abilities and network that enhance the value of the firm. In sum, the findings imply that board effectiveness, as assessed by numerous directorships, is an important aspect of board operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the growing public concern regarding industrial activities, today the performance of an organization is judged not only on the basis of its financial results, but also with regard to its contribution to protecting and improving the environment. In this scenario, the need for accounting and reporting on the environmental issues and their disclosure in the annual reports has become an important part of corporate accounting and reporting system. Many companies undertake various activities to protect the environment in which they are functioning, but the question remains as to whether they account for their activities in monetary terms and report it in their financial reports. Hence, the present study is undertaken with the objective of analyzing the accounting and the reporting practices of Maharatna companies relating to environmental aspects. The study is based on secondary data collected from the companies' reports. The data is analyzed with the help of disclosure index. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between capital structure and firm performance has received considerable attention in finance literature. This study examines the impact of capital structure on performance of some selected manufacturing companies in Nigeria using the annual data of five firms for a period of eleven years (2002-2012). The study hypothesizes a negative relationship between capital structure and firm performance measured in terms of return on equity and return on investment. However, the results of Panel Least Square (PLS) regression confirm that debt ratio, asset turnover and size of the firm are positively related to firm performance, while evidence of a negative and significant relationship is found between asset tangibility and measures of firm performance in the model. This implies that the sampled firms are not able to utilize the fixed asset of their total assets judiciously to impact positively their performance. Hence, it is suggested that although asset tangibility shows a negative relationship with both the performance indicators, it should be considered as a driving factor to capital structure because firms with more tangible assets are less likely to be financially constrained. Finally, the results show that growth fails to have a significant effect on either of the performance indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]