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The Indian government made Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mandatory in 2013 by amending the Companies Act, complicating research studies on the topic. This paper is a bibliometric analysis of recent trends in research on CSR in India. VOSViewer is employed to visualize networks such as keyword co-occurrences and author collaborations. With the help of BibExcel, other aspects of bibliometric analysis are carried out. Based on an analysis of 685 papers/retrieved articles from Scopus, the study finds that a company's financial performance has become central to CSR orientation in recent years. Co-occurring keywords suggest that sustainability issue is becoming important and that CSR fosters a positive brand image of companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoters play a very important role in the performance of companies. In India, the average holding of promoters is very large at around 54%. These promoters are either government or private individuals and business houses. India started the privatization process in a big way in the early 1990s and also started disinvesting stakes in major public sector companies, while retaining a minimum of 51% stake in a majority of companies, in effect keeping the control. The paper with an objective to study whether there exists a significant difference in the performance of government promoted firms and private firms and found a significant difference in the performance between them using both independent sample t-test and pooled panel data regression. The paper is based on the data of public listed companies in India over a period of 11 years (2008-2019). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper evaluates the effect of Working Capital Management (WCM) on firm profitability of selected textile companies in India. The study is based on secondary data collected by CMIE from the companies’ annual reports for the years 2011-2020. Regression analysis is used on a panel sample of 98 companies from India’s Bombay Stock Exchange. Various financial ratios related to Working Capital (WC) and profitability and panel data techniques like Fixed Effect Model, Random Effect Model and Hausman test, etc. are also used. The results showed that WCM has a significant impact on a firm’s profitability in the textile sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper attempts to study the determinants of choice between debt and equity for companies in India for a five-year period from 2015 to 2020 over a balanced panel dataset of firms listed on NSE-CNX 100. The study looks at the impact of explanatory variables such as, size, tangibility, age, liquidity, growth, profitability, volatility, debt serving capacity, and non-debt tax shield on Indian companies' long, short, and total debt ratios. Panel regression fixed effects model has been employed, and tangibility, size, age, liquidity, profitability and financial distress are found to be significant factors affecting capital structure ratio, whereas growth, non-debt tax shield and debt serving capacity did not show any significant effect on the debt ratio. For selected companies in India, the study's empirical findings support the pecking order theory rather than trade-off theory claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial distress refers to the inability of firms to fulfill their debt obligations. This paper studies the impact of certain corporate governance measures or board characteristics on the probability of financial distress in various corporate sectors (manufacturing and non-manufacturing) in India. The higher the institutional ownership, the lower is the financial distress for the majority of the sectors, except telecom where firms having higher institutional ownership are found to be more financially distressed. Higher managerial ownership leads to less financial distress in the consumer and transport equipment sector. Measures like board size, number of board meetings, and commissioner's proportion are found to have a different impact on the probability of financial distress in diverse sectors. It has been observed that they have a positive influence on some sectors and a negative influence on others. So overall, a sectoral difference was observed in the impact of various board characteristics on the financial distress of firms in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was conducted to know the extent of web reporting practices in the Indian corporate sector and inter-sector comparison of web reporting practices. A sample of 50 companies from different sectors was covered for this purpose. The analysis of results of the study shows that about 80% of the sample companies provided mandatory and voluntary information. The banking sector provided financial information to a greater extent compared to the other sectors. Balance sheet and profit and loss account have been provided in a majority of the cases, and only a few companies provided the director's report and auditor's report. Most of the companies provided information about the company profile, company history, company products and services, etc. and did not give any relevant information from the user's point of view. Results show that the Indian companies have started using the Internet as a medium for reporting. Though the percentage of companies giving information for investor's use is not very high, there are chances of an increasing trend in the Indian corporate sector. The percentage of Indian companies reporting via Internet is low compared to other advanced countries, but will gain importance in the future. The paper suggests that greater stress should be given to providing up-to-date financial information and to including full annual report while presenting information on websites. Awareness should be created among various users regarding corporate web reporting, and users' perception should be kept in mind while providing web disclosures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing literature shows that monitoring the effect of concentrated ownership has a positive impact on firm value. However, the economic channel of such a positive impact has not been examined. This study offers a possible economic channel and tests it empirically using a panel of Indian firms. The hypothesis of the paper is that concentrated ownership increases the competitiveness of the firms, through efficient monitoring of their activities, in their product markets, thus increasing the growth rate of firms. The results show that both institutional and promoter ownership have a positive impact on firm competitiveness. However, foreign concentration has an insignificant impact. Moreover, for business group-affiliated firms, only institutional concentration has a positive impact. The results remain robust for different specifications and endogeneity issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Value-based accounting has significant impact on financial reporting of organizations. Value-based accounting distinguishes itself from traditional cost-based accounting by including the future outlook. This paper attempts to provide the present scenario of valuebased accounting with respect to Indian industries. It also attempts to apply the valueadded model in Indian industry to understand the relation of value addition with book value of net profits. It tries to measure the performance of organizations on the basis of different value-based accounting. Using the data of organizations included in the BSE 100 index for the year 2009, the paper identifies the contribution of variables belonging to income and expenses to value addition of the organization through regression analysis. It is found that Economic Value-Added (EVA) of Indian organizations is always lower than the accounting profit. However, most of the organizations in India have positive Market Value-Added (MVA). But the continuance of negative EVA in future would also result in negative MVA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prediction of stock prices has become an important area of research in the field of financial analytics and has garnered a lot of attention among academicians. Drawing on the literature on application of econometric tools and also machine learning techniques, this paper presents a framework for predicting stock returns using three unsupervised feature selection techniques, four predictive modeling techniques and finally an ensemble combining the four predictive modeling techniques. To design the ensemble, evolutionary algorithm is applied. In order to assess the results of our study, four different performance measures, namely, Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Squared Error (MSE), Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) and Index of Agreement (IA) have been utilized. Our feature selection results indicate that all explanatory variables are not significant for different classes of companies and also for different time periods. This gives us insight into the fact that, for stock returns prediction, one has to be careful of the predictors to be chosen. Further, results indicate that for all the forecasting methods, namely, random forest, bagging, boosting and support vector regression, forecasting efficiency for large cap and mid-cap firms was better than that of small cap firms. Statistical analysis through Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) suggests that of all four predictive modeling techniques, boosting was the most efficient technique for forecasting the stock returns. We then proceeded to construct an ensemble of the above four methods. In terms of all four measurement metrics, performance of the proposed ensemble was better in both training and testing phase as compared to the efficiency of the individual predictive modeling techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poor performance of Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) in the 1980s made reform increasingly urgent in the context of the broader strategy of liberalization of the economy to deal with the perceived weaknesses of India's development strategy in general and PSEs in particular. In this context, this paper tries to analyze the performance of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE) against the backdrop of liberalization measures introduced in the 1990s and afterward. The paper makes an assessment on the basis of some selected indicators for the period of 1980-81 to 2008-09. The findings suggest that the PSEs' performance was better in all the indicators in the post-liberalization regime compared to the pre-reform period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times, many highly leveraged companies in Indian corporate sector followed the route of disposal of their non-core assets to reduce the debt burden. 'Non-core assets' means the assets not used in core business operations. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework about the non-core assets, its relevance and fill the gap in disclosure requirement in companies' financial statements in this regard. Existing disclosure requirements limit the information availability regarding the holding of non-core assets on the face of the balance sheet statement as well as in notes to accounts. The paper using the existing literature, in addition to information available in Revised Schedule VI to the Companies Act 1956 and Indian Accounting Standards 1, 6 and 10, finds that disposal of non-core assets during the turbulent times are one of the common practices. However, there are lacunas in the disclosure requirements regarding the noncore assets in company's financial statements. The findings of the present study may attract the attention of various users of financial statements and may form the base for revising the disclosure norms in this regard to bring greater transparency. The study is a pioneering attempt to examine the possibility of showing each class of fixed tangible asset under the heads 'core assets' and 'non-core assets' to facilitate better decision making and compliance with the conventional wisdom of transparency, corporate governance and full disclosure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the commitment by the enterprises to integrate social, environmental and ethical concerns into its business process to make contributions to the community and society. The New Companies Act 2013 has mandated CSR for the companies with effect from April 2014. This paper focuses on the CSR spend made by corporate India and its composition. The paper also aims to study the relation between CSR spend, ownership structure, market capitalization and industry classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing globalization and integration of capital markets, the world is fast adopting a single language of financial reporting, i.e., International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). More than 100 countries have adopted IFRS and many others have given their consent to adopt IFRS in the near future. India is in line to converge with IFRS. This paper investigates the impact of IFRS adoption on financial activities of Indian companies by using a sample of eight companies for three years, 2010-11 to 2012-13. The study considers four areas of financial activity, i.e., financial risks, investment activities, operating activities and debt covenants. The results reveal that the financial indicators, investment activities and operating activities have been significantly affected by the adoption of IFRS, while financial risks and debt covenants fail to show a statistically significant impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines empirically the relation between intellectual capital efficiency and firms' market valuation in India. Using data from Indian listed companies and Pulic's Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC) measure, the paper constructs panel regression models for 10 years across seven industrial categories to examine the relationship between the intellectual capital efficiency and firms' Market-to- Book Value (MTBV). The results suggest that the explanatory power of the individual components of intellectual capital efficiency (physical capital efficiency, human capital efficiency and structural capital efficiency) is observed to be better than the aggregate composite measure (VAIC). The results also affirm that expenditure on innovative capital and relational capital captures additional information on structural capital and has a positive effect on firms' value contemporaneously. Further, in the presence of all the intellectual capital components, firms with greater innovative capital and relational capital in the ensuing year tends to have higher MTBV in the following year. The study does not support the idea that after controlling for structural capital efficiency, the firms with greater innovative capital tend to have higher MTBV during pre- and post-2008 financial crisis in general and across the Indian industries. The results extend the understanding of the role of intellectual capital in creating firms' MTBV for companies in Indian economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the association between a firm's R&D spending and its future returns. Unlike the US firms, which can only expense R&D, Australian GAAP permits firms to either expense or capitalize their R&D expenditure. India is following Ind AS 38 which requires research expenditure to be recognized as expense and development expenditure to be recognized as an intangible asset if, and only if specified criteria are met, otherwise shall be recognized as an expense. Hence, Indian setting provides for the use of both methods of accounting either expenser or capitalizer. However, less research is available that relates R&D spending of a firm to its future returns. The present study tries to find out the relationship between R&D expenditure and its future returns for R&D active Indian firms. The study is based on 15 years (2001-2015) CMIE data selected from those companies which have R&D activities during the span of the sample period. The market impact of the R&D intensity of all R&D active firms, 'capitalizer's and 'expenser's has been examined separately. The results suggest that capitalized portion of R&D is capable of generating more future returns. Expensed portion of R&D is not strongly associated with future holding period returns. However, it is observed that the firms who expensed their total R&D expenditures perform better in comparison to the firms who capitalized their total R&D expenditures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) set by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are adopted by the companies for the preparation of the financial statements. This ensures easy understanding and facilitates comparability of the financial statements of different enterprises of different countries and provides relevant and meaningful information to the various users of the financial statements. In India, the new set of standards which have been converged with IFRS is known as Indian Accounting Standards or Ind AS and will be implemented in India in a phased out manner (Phase 1, 2 and 3) as have been notified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on February 25, 2011. The recent announcement made by the Finance Minister in the year 2015 made it mandatory for all the listed companies either to adopt IFRS or converge with effect from the accounting year 2016-17. IFRS is recommended for adoption with several benefits in mind and some of the companies have already adopted new standards and have started reporting accordingly. In this context, the present paper presents an overview of double adoption of IFRS globally by the significant trade forums and the Indian companies which are voluntarily adopting IFRS. It also analyzes the financial implications of adoption of IFRS by the select companies in India. The study is based on secondary data, and Gray comparability index, t-test and F-test are employed for analyzing the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the relationship between CSR rating and financial parameters (sales and profit before tax) and age of companies, in India. Using a quantitative methodology, the study found that profit is more correlated to CSR rating as compared to sales and age of the companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian Government's new policy of 'Make in India' has taken everyone by surprise, whether Indian or foreign country heads and/or entrepreneurs. This will make India a production hub, next only to China. Indian Government is trying to replicate China's model through 'Make in India' slogan in all aspects, viz., production, GDP growth, market share, employment, and environment pollution. Therefore, this paper seeks to identify the effects of 'Make in India' by taking lessons from China and elaborate on the ways and means to combat the side effects on various stakeholders. The end result of the discussion is, bringing in a responsible business model for the businesses that are pursuing the 'Make in India' dream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the core idea of lean production of eliminating wastes, while incorporating the major lean principle 'pull system' in the Rapsri Engineering Products Company (REPCO) Limited, Harohalli Industrial Area, Ramanagar District, Karnataka. The aim of this project is to increase the productivity in order to maximize the financial profits in the manufacturing of a product named GEIS-2, which has a wide domestic as well as international market. In order to achieve this objective, the lean principles are applied to reduce the waste and to create continuous flow of production. For the purpose of analysis, step-by-step procedure of implementing lean techniques is used. The value-added activities and non-value activities have been analyzed, time study has been done on all the operations. The analyzed data are placed in value stream mapping to get the overall results of efficiency and effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral communication in the workplace covers a large area ranging from formal presentations to participation in teams and meetings. In recent years, there has been an impetus to focus on the quality of spoken interactions for employees within and outside the organization. This paper deals with the workplace oral communication needs of large and medium enterprises of the manufacturing sector dealing with heavy boilers, equipments, fabrication, etc. A survey was conducted and a questionnaire was administered to the employees of large and medium engineering industries. The first section of the paper provides insights into workplace oral communications, followed by a discussion of the research findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The turn of the century has witnessed a paradigm shift in business objectives. The economic objective of profit earning, though essential, is insufficient to satisfy the ever-growing and divergent needs of a myriad of stakeholders that modern corporations have to contend with. The corporation, being a legal entity, is viewed as any other citizen in the society, having its rights and duties. Hence, the concepts of corporate citizenship and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have come into vogue. CSR initiatives, to really bear fruit, must result in a mutuality of benefits for the society/stakeholders as well as for the corporation itself. CSR initiatives should be so integrated and internalized by the corporations that they are placed at the very heart of the business and not merely as an appendage to it. Corporations that have understood this mantra of corporate success have internalized the benefits flowing from responsible corporate citizenship and can hope to reap rich dividends in terms of improved corporate reputation, gaining consumers' trust, employee motivation and retention and favorable market positioning, just to name a few. This paper seeks to study how some Indian companies at the forefront of corporate citizenship have integrated their CSR initiatives with their business strategy, rather than undertaking some unfocused CSR measures simply as a knee-jerk reaction to external societal pressures. Such a study may throw some light on the question as to why an organization contributes to social cause and what it expects to gain in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares 15 life insurance companies operating in India for 2005-06 to 2008-09 using the old and new revenue maximizing approach. The difference between the two approaches lies in the specification of the production possibility set. In both the approaches, only the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was found to be efficient for the observed years followed very closely by Sahara life. However, since in the old approach, the technically inefficient firms are penalized very harshly, the grand mean technical efficiency score is less than 50% to that in the new approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are designed as a common set of language for business affairs so that company accounts could be understandable and comparable across international boundaries. IFRS leads to changes in the financial statement of the company. In order to check whether shareholders' wealth is affected or not by adoption of IFRS, the present research has been carried out. The objectives of the present paper are to determine the shareholders' wealth in terms of EVA (absolute and relative) before and after adoption of IFRS for Indian companies and to examine the different components of EVA before and after adoption of IFRS in India. To check the impact, paired data t-test has been administered for testing significance. The results of the study reveal that there is no improvement in EVA and EVA-related financial parameters due to IFRS adoption. For consistency concern, coefficient of variation has also been calculated. The results indicate that consistency in EVA and EVA-related financial parameters is observed after adoption of IFRS. It may also be concluded that the fundamental principle of accounting, i.e., consistency, is supported to a large extent by IFRS adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or converged Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) and its implications are imperative for Indian companies. India has decided to converge with IFRS, which means that India will have its own converged standards in line with the IFRS. On January 2, 2015, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs notified (PIB, 2015) that Ind AS would be mandatorily applicable for accounting period ending March 31, 2016 for companies falling under certain classifications. It is expected that once these are implemented, it will have a significant impact on financial statements. The convergence of IFRS will benefit Indian companies as they would be comparable to the peers internationally, which in turn would lead to a greater equity and debt participation by international players, thus making funding easier and cheaper. This paper focuses on two key issues: Are financial statements prepared using the two different standards significantly different? And, is there an increase in equity participation of foreign investors in Indian companies which have adopted IFRS? Companies covered in the study report financial statements as per two accounting standards because they are listed on Indian stock exchange and NASDAQ. Since these Indian companies have dual listing (India and international), on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), they report as per Indian GAAP, and as these companies are listed on NASDAQ, they need to prepare financial statement using IFRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethics refers to moral demands regarding the business and is based on a theory of the relationship between business and society. Ethics is a good business investment that generates trust and confidence between the parties and in turn guarantees long-term performance. Corporate identity is formed in the way a company manages the stakeholder claims through its values and actions. This paper attempts to define different nonfinancial parameters of ethical identity based on corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and sustainability and measure the extent of ethical practices followed in selected companies based on these parameters. Using Kruskal Wallis analysis, it was found that there is a significant difference between different industries in following and reporting ethical practices in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With integrated global economies and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, uniformity of financial reporting by Indian companies is inevitable for the authenticity of their financial statements worldwide. The emergence of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) marks the biggest revolution in financial reporting, though not without posing challenges of convergence in India. In order to harmonize with the financial reporting worldwide, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has issued 35 IND AS--the converged accounting standards which are in line with IFRS subject to certain carve outs (differences) due to tax-related issues, as notified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. With reference to this convergence, this paper provides an insight into the revised framework of AS 6 - Depreciation and AS 10 - Fixed Assets, with the formation of new IND AS 16 -- Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE) and its implications through various illustrations. Moreover, the issues of recognition of assets are explained through different models of measurement, determination of their carrying amounts, accounting treatment of revaluation and depreciation charges on the assets. The analysis shows that adaptation to IFRS convergence opens new avenues for the accounting profession, followed by unforeseeable challenges. The analysis of the standard concludes that significant parts (components) of a PPE can be recognized, depreciated and derecognized separately and individually. There will be major changes in the value of PPE in the financial statements due to treatment of revaluation surplus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business enterprises consume the resources of the society for manufacturing of goods and services. Now in the process of creation of business utilities like form utility, time utility, ownership utility, etc., both the ecosystem and the society get severely affected due to Green House Gases (GHG) emission and other hazardous activities, thereby creating a social obligation on the corporate houses to take care of the society and uphold the tenet of 'People', 'Planet' and 'Profit'. In view of the growing importance and mandatory requirements under Companies Act, 2013, for the companies to undertake Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) subject to certain requirements, it is of paramount research interest to reconnoiter the social and financial dimensions of select companies of eight core sectors of Indian economy, i.e., Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity. The basis for undertaking a study of the above-mentioned core sectors are that most of the core sector-based companies by nature of their activities emit GHG, utilize non-renewable resources, constitute 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), contribute substantially to the Gross Domestic Product of India, etc. The social and relationship capital will be studied for both public and private sector companies and correlation analysis among CSR expenditure and Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) and CSR and Profits After Tax (PAT) will be done to understand the relationship between CSR activities and the mentioned financial variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of Internet for business has created a large amount of scholarly literature on Internet marketing and consumer behavior. But relatively little empirical work has been undertaken on branding strategies over Internet. In recent years, customers are giving more value to brand and online experience. Also, the shift of power from companies to customer has pushed businesses to redefine their marketing and branding strategies. The paper contributes to the knowledge on online branding through exploratory research and identifies the ways in which the online channel is being used to support brands. The focus of this research is the online fashion store and multichannel retailers in India. The findings of the research confirm a consistency in multichannel brand visibility approaches over online and other channels, but their strategy for online brand relationship is still underdeveloped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the research is to empirically investigate the impact of Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) practices on organization's performance—operational, environmental, and financial. The paper also aims to theorize and empirically assess a comprehensive GSCM practices and performance model. The data from a national sample of 161 company managers working for Indian manufacturing organizations participating in green supply chain is analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) methodology. Hypotheses are formulated for linkages between GSCM practices and organizational performance. The results of hypotheses testing show that there is a positive relationship between GSCM practices and organization's performances. All these performances in turn enhance the overall organizational performance. The findings may prove to be effective in inducing Indian firms to adopt GSCM practices for improving their performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decade witnessed discussions about the overwhelming impact of microfinance in empowering women and fighting out the age-old gender discrimination. Ample number of success stories of women were quoted in this context. Many state governments, taking the cue, acted swiftly in identifying the 'best fit' model of Self-Help Group (SHG)-bank linkage program and implementing it. SHG federation model is one such improved model of microfinance. However, the changing times were also a witness to the 'melt down' of high expectations about the transformational effects of microfinance. Several doubts were raised about the genuineness of gender equity brought about by mere financial help. Disillusioned by the performance of microfinance in empowering women, it is now widely felt that a further probe is necessary about the process of empowerment that exactly takes place. The present paper attempts to study the impact of the program on SHG members, i.e., loan beneficiaries in the Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh. Respondents are divided into two groups, namely, micro-entrepreneurs and passive beneficiaries and the path of empowerment for both these groups is identified. Empowerment taking place in various domains is studied and it is concluded that the path of empowerment is different for each group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporations in India are under growing pressure from internal as well as external stakeholders to achieve corporate sustainability and consider the economic, environmental and social implications of their activities. Sustainability reporting is gaining momentum globally as an important communication tool for companies to disclose their sustainability plans and performance and enhance stakeholder confidence. This paper aims to review the various initiatives and trends of corporate sustainability with special reference to the recent trends of sustainability reporting in India. It also provides an overview of the development of various guidelines related to corporate sustainability reporting. The study finds that the sustainability reporting scenario in India is still at nascent stage. However, it contends that Indian corporations have been showing positive signs in embracing this concept, and the recent policy developments shall also encourage the reporting efforts in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian capital market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) introduced a unique accreditation mechanism for Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in 2007, whereby all IPOs have to undergo mandatory quality grading by independent rating agencies. In this paper, we claim that such an objective-autonomous and exogenous certifying mechanism-provides a better opportunity to test the well-established credit rating hypothesis, especially in the context of the emerging markets with institutional voids. Employing a sample of 142 Indian IPOs (January 2007 to December 2011), we also experiment ex-ante uncertainty with the efficacy of IPO grading mechanism. Grading decreases IPO underpricing and positively influences the demand of retail investors, issue size, earnings before interest and dividend, long-term debt-equity, equity ratio and profit to the book value ratio. Grading also diminishes the number of shares offered, debt-equity ratio and earnings before interest, dividend and tax, fixed assets ratio, and has much impact on ex-ante uncertainty. Notwithstanding, grading does not affect the subscription rate, offer timing (difference in days between offer days and listing days), firm's age, debtors turnover ratio, creditor payment method, cash to price earnings ratio, Post-Issue Promoter's Holding (PIPH), interest coverage ratio, inventory turnover ratio, market capitalization, price earnings ratio, return on capital employed and return on net worth of the IPOs. IPO grading is important to capture firm size, business group affiliation and firm's quality of corporate governance. Our findings reveal that in the emerging markets, a regulator's role to signal the quality of an IPO contributes to market welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many applied approaches to corporate social reporting. They range from simple 'narrative disclosures' which provide nonfinancial qualitative information about social responsibilities discharged by the concerned company to 'financial disclosures' which provide financial or quantitative information about the same. This paper examines the existing models of corporate social reporting and aims to develop a suitable model for Indian companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The brand rejuvenation and innovation has become an imperative for many companies because of the factors like the vibrancy of the consumer choices and preferences, limited life cycle of the brands, inherent risks, uncertainties involved in the promotion of new brands and the ever present dangers of brand erosion and fatigue. Hence, the paper intends to probe the rationale behind such makeover and the crucial factors which play a major role in the determination of success and failure in the brand rejuvenation efforts in the context of Indian corporate in particular and global companies in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suppliers and dealers are two important stakeholders of any corporate organization, especially those dealing in products. The suppliers provide raw materials at the right time and right place every time and thus, help the organization to meet the customers' demands. The dealers, on the other hand, are the face of the organization before the prospective customers and act as an important channel of communication between the organization and the final consumers. It is for this reason that enlightened business organizations today, treat their suppliers and dealers as members of their extended business family and as equal and long-term partners in progress. In this paper, the authors have used the case study of a twowheeler automobile industry leader-TVS Motor Company Ltd., and attempted to describe their supplierand dealer-focussed initiatives. The data collection for the case has been done by the authors through personal interviews with top executives of the company and supplemented through other information available in the public domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business groups today, by and large, play a vital role in Indian economy. Corporate India, as seen today, was nurtured by many business groups that had left a strong imprint on the country's economy. In this context, it is highly interesting to explore the underpinnings of a business group's ability to create value for its shareholders. For this purpose, business groups have been categorized as family managed and non-family managed. This paper attempts to compare the performance indicators and the value created by a family managed firm with those of a non-family managed firm belonging to the same industry. It also throws light on the literature-based definitions of a Family Managed Business (FMB) and how it is different from a Non-Family Managed Business (NFMB). Further, the paper gives a concrete analysis of the various parameters used to assess shareholder value creation from both perspectives. The study shows that even a professionally managed non-family business can create value to its shareholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study looks into the impact of corporate governance and firm attributes on Intellectual Capital (IC) disclosure in Indian publicly listed companies. The IC disclosure was measured using content analysis method. The study examined annual reports of top Indian corporations based on their market value from 2009-2010 to 2018-2019. The influence of corporate governance and firm attributes on IC disclosure was investigated using panel data analysis. The findings show that corporate governance and firm attributes impact the amount of IC information revealed in Indian listed companies' annual reports. The study focused solely on information reported in annual reports; other forms of corporate communication were not included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the corporate sector, capital structure decisions are vital and there are numerous internal (firm's characteristics) and external factors (fiscal policy, monetary policy, inflation rate and other economic conditions) that affect the capital structure decisions of a company. An erroneous capital structure decision can spoil a company's fundamentals. This study inspects the key determining factors of fund structure decisions through firm-specific determinants of NIFTY 50 Index Companies in India. The objective is to assist corporations in making capital structure decisions. A thorough review of literature has been undertaken to find out key internal determinants of capital structure decisions. The study finds that profitability, size of the firm, tax rate, tangibility, liquidity, age of the firm and trade risk are noteworthy in determining leverage decisions of a firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial inclusion mission has gained tremendous relevance in an emerging economy like India. Financial exclusion seems to be more severe in rural and backward locations. In this respect, the current analysis is an attempt to explore the behavior of inclusion/ exclusion across varied population groups. The pooled dataset spanning over the period from 1990 to 2008 for rural and urban regions separately has been employed. A set of control variables have been included to disentangle the role of various demographic and institutional factors. Bank group size, as captured by assets, has a direct influence on the number of operating branches. Ownership effect also plays a key role in determining the number of branches operating. Test of convergence has been carried out to examine if lesser branched regions are catching up with their counterparts with higher branch network. Evidence of conditional convergence has been found. Finally, structural change has also been observed in terms of the number of functioning branches. The result is a testimony to the fact that inclusion policies are actually translating into significant improvement of branch density in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between the performance and ownership structure of a sample of 98 mid-cap companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India, as mid-cap sector is considered a high growth sector of the economy. In India, the shareholders are broadly divided into two categories-promoter shareholders and non-promoter shareholders. The study results suggest that promoters' shareholding (measure of concentration) is statistically significant in explaining performance. When concentration is treated as endogenous, the same is found to be dependent on performance. The study highlights that the ownership of high growth mid-cap companies of India continues to remain concentrated, even in the post-1992 economic liberalization, impacting the performance amid the general perception that substantial diffuseness has occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capital expenditure decisions have a long-term effect on the value of the firm. Extant literature posits that stock prices of companies increase very quickly to incorporate such information. However, limited research has been undertaken in this area in India and thus the motivation for the present study. This paper examines stock market reaction to the announcement of 493 capital expenditure decisions made by companies during the period January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2006. An event study methodology is used to examine the share price behavior around such announcements. Results indicate that the market reacts significantly on the day of announcement, thus reflecting that it views such decisions as value enhancing. The study also looks at the size effect of capital expenditure decisions. Results show that the reaction of the Indian stock market is statistically, positively significant for large investments, and positive but insignificant for small investments. The results of the study are in sharp contrast to the international evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new development in service exports is the explosive growth of business services including professional services. In India, the IT industry forms the major share of foreign exchange earnings. This paper analyzes the performance of individual or standalone firms and business group affiliated firms in the IT industry and tries to give insight into what propels service exports in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of ownership on performance and risk of commercial banks in India during the period 1995-2007. The study, using t-test, fixed effects and random effects models, examines whether there exists any significant difference in the performance and risk among State-Owned Banks (SOBs), Domestic Private Banks (DPBs) and Foreign Banks (FBs), controlling other factors. The empirical results show significant differences in the performance and risk, and FBs seem to be more profitable and more risk-taking than both DPBs and SOBs. Bank capital and demand deposits are positively associated and loans are negatively associated with bank profitability, whereas size of banks and growth rate of economy are negatively associated with bank risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indian companies have also started compensating their managers through the issuance of stock options. This paper tests whether the issuance of stock option plans by Indian companies is viewed by the market as value enhancing or not. The study, using a standard event study methodology, analyzes the stock market reaction around the announcement of awarding of 57 employee stock option plans during the period 2006-2007. The study finds no significant price reaction on the announcement day, but does find a significant positive reaction two days prior to the announcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A company is an organization where a cluster of individuals work with a commonality of aim to achieve the objectives of the company and to earn maximum profit. But there also exist differences of interests and opinions among individuals, where a few form the majority while the rest form the minority. It is this balancing act between the majority and minority that requires careful judicial scrutinization to avoid abuse of position. This paper is an attempt to describe the law related to prevention of oppression and mismanagement in India and England. It also compares the discretionary power of courts to provide just and equitable remedies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decisions concerning capital structure are crucial for every business organization as maximization of firm value is a complex task and involves the selection of debt and equity securities in a balanced proportion, keeping in view the different costs and benefits attached to these securities. This empirical study aims to explore the factors that affect the capital structure in Indian firms and to know which capital structure theory--whether the pecking order theory or the trade-off theory--justifies the findings of the study. The investigation is performed using panel data procedures on Indian firms during 2009-2018. The dependent variables used are short-term debt, long-term debt and total debt. Profitability, firm's size, growth rate, tangibility, business risk, interest coverage ratio, non-debt tax shield, tax rate and liquidity are taken as the independent variables. The results suggest that variables such as profitability, firm's size, liquidity, risk and tax rate affect the capital structure of the Indian firms, and short-term debt is found to be an essential financing source of the Indian firms. This study has laid some groundwork to explore the determinants of the capital structure of the Indian firms upon which a more detailed evaluation could be based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of publicized accounting frauds around the world, such as Satyam fraud (India), Enron failure (USA), Tyco failure (Ireland), show that firms use Related Party Transactions (RPTs) to manage earnings for financial reporting purposes or to divert firms' resources to their controlling shareholders at the expense of minority shareholders. This study aims to explore the relationship between RPTs and earnings management practices of selected companies in India. The amount of discretionary accruals derived from modified Jones models (Dechow et al., 1995) is used as a proxy to measure earnings management. Based on 218 firm-year observations taken from BSE-200 index based companies for the financial year 2014 and 2015, this study finds that there is a statistically significant relationship between RPTs and earnings management. The findings also reveal that the effect of new RPT regulations in mitigating earnings management is not significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study is to examine the value relevance of accounting information in the Indian corporate sector based on financial information on share price, book value, earnings and dividend in 125 companies selected from BSE 500 companies for the period between 2000 and 2012 using Ohlson model (1995). The results indicate that accounting information has high value relevance in Indian corporate sector with dividend, book value and earnings with their respective adjusted R2 values of 40%, 34% and 21% for the period of study. The value relevance of dividend is found to increase over time as against decreases in book value and earnings. The combined influence of book value and dividend on share prices is the highest at 55% during the period of study. Finally, it was found that there is a significant association between share price and the three accounting variables used in the study at the significance level of 0.05. The study also indicates that accounting variables influence share prices and hence there exists financial reporting quality in Indian corporate sector. The present research has strong implication on the role of accounting information in developing rational investor behavior in the stock markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present study is to develop a service quality scale by identifying the attributes of internal service quality delivered by small and medium manufacturing enterprises to their supplier units in order to ease their working and improve their delivery performance. 120 representatives from supplier units delivering materials and other supplies to small and medium manufacturing enterprises of North India responded to a questionnaire survey. Construct validation using exploratory factor analysis showed an interpretable latent structure consisting of four dimensions. Confirmatory factor analysis developed a valid and reliable service quality measurement scale with 16 items. It was observed that service quality of manufacturing units working towards suppliers comprises four dimensions, viz., assurance, communication, alignment and responsiveness. Snowball sampling was undertaken for this research. The scale developed in this research can be used by managers of small and medium manufacturing units in identification of opportunities for assuring service excellence to their suppliers to facilitate their working and improve performance, thereby mutually benefitting both partners as well as the whole supply chain. This research provides a framework to researchers to build more service quality scales in similar situations so that more concrete generalizations can be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]