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This paper examines the antecedents of cashless payment systems among businesses in Malaysia. The adoption of cashless payment systems by businesses has the potential to reduce the costs related to handling huge amounts of cash in the market and enhance transaction speed. Unfortunately, its current adoption in Malaysia is still small and very little is known about the factors. A seven-factor model based on the TOE framework was developed and tested. The partial least square (PLS) statistical approach was employed to analyze data collected from 200 business entities in Malaysia. The results reveal that compatibility and technology competence have higher significant relationships with the adoption of cashless payment systems. Management support, firm critical mass, competitive pressure, and information intensity are significantly related to the adoption of cashless payment systems, while firm size is not associated with it. The findings of this study provide significant practical implications for Malaysian stakeholders and technology vendors to recognize factors that affect a firm's adoption of cashless payment systems to support business transactions. By investigating the phenomenon through the TOE framework, this study presents an integrated model of cashless payment systems by businesses. Our findings also offer guidance for future application of the PLS method in cashless payment and related research. The paper provides a more holistic understanding of the factors influencing cashless payment systems among businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The competency of an auditor is important when comes to conducting audit tasks particularly one who has extensive knowledge, specific skills and techniques. This study aims to identify the key factors affecting the auditors' performance. Through the lens of the Behavioral Decision Theory (BDT) framework, this study examines the direct effects of audit competency, situational support and information search factors in enhancing auditors' performance. A survey was conducted on audit firms of varying sizes in Malaysia. The data were collected and were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) statistical tools. Based on evidence from external auditors, the results indicate that audit competency, situational supports and information search are important in the efficiency and effectiveness of auditors' performance. This study has several contributions to the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capital structure and firm's efficiency have been one of the major topics discussed in corporate financial parlance due to its importance for the survival and sustainability of firms. Several theories such as the pecking order theory, trade-off theory, agency cost theory, and capital structure irrelevant theory have been employed to delineate the relationship between capital structure and firm efficiency. This study examined the moderating effect of firm size on capital structure and firm efficiency of listed firms on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The data for eighteen (18) financial firms and forty-four (44) non-financial firms was obtained for the period 2010 and 2017. For this study, the panel fully modified ordinary least square method (PFMOLS) was employed because all the variables are stationary at a first difference and are cointegrated. More so, the PFMOLS can rectify the problem of serial correlation and heteroscedasticity and give an optimal estimate. The outcome of the study revealed that firm size has a moderating effect on the relationship between capital structure and efficiency of non-financial firms, while it has no moderating effect on the relationship between capital structure and firm efficiency of financial firms in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manuscript type: Research paper. Research aims: This paper aims to examine the determinants that influence companies to report material sustainability information in their corporate annual reports. Design/Methodology/Approach: To validate the determinants influencing materiality disclosure, content analysis was conducted on the annual reports of the top 113 Malaysian public listed companies in 2016, and the smart partial least squares technique was employed to examine the proposed relationships. Research findings: The empirical results indicate that board activity and board independence play a significant role in the determination of materiality disclosure. The results also reveal that board size, company size, profitability, leverage and industry are insignificant predictors of materiality disclosure. The results indicate that many listed companies in Malaysia disclose some amount of material sustainability information. However, the level of disclosure remains relatively low. Theoretical contribution/Originality: Notwithstanding that materiality is regarded as a key reporting principle in the preparation of sustainability reports, research on the application of the materiality concept in sustainability reporting remains to be an unexplored theme in Malaysia. This work sheds light on materiality disclosure in sustainability reporting of large companies operating in Malaysia through the combined views of the stakeholder and legitimacy theories. Practitioner/Policy implications: The results should be of great interest to policymakers who are concerned with formulating sustainability policies to achieve greater materiality disclosure. It also provides strategic insights to companies that board characteristics, such as board activity and board independence, influence materiality disclosure. Board members are urged to consider the importance of the reporting materiality determination process; otherwise, poor reporting may result in conflict with major stakeholder groups who do not see the material issues disclosed in the sustainability reports. Research limitation/Implications: The results are limited to the context of Malaysia. Future researchers can compare materiality disclosure with other countries, such as Singapore and Thailand, to enrich the sustainability reporting literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the debt financing determinants within corporations based on the annual time series data between 2008 to 2018 using Panel Least Square technique (PLS). The findings show that asset tangibility, profitability, non-debt tax shield, firm growth and firm size are statistically significant in explaining the variation in debt policy. The result also shows that there is a positive relationship between asset tangibility, profitability, non-debt tax shield and debt policy while, the result exhibits a negative relationship between firm growth, firm size and debt policy. It is therefore recommended that management needs to increase efficiency by maximizing the use of debt in the capital structure option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present research paper examines the determinants of capital structure decision of Indian food processing industry and assesses the moderating effect of firm size on this relationship. Using financial data of 40 firms for 10 years (2009-10 to 2018-19), panel least square regression analysis has been performed for data analysis. Based on regression results, the study concludes tangibility, tax rate, and cash flow as significant determinants of long-term borrowing for overall sample firms. On the other hand, tangibility, liquidity and profitability are significant factors affecting short-term borrowings of selected companies. Further, the study confirms that size of the firm moderates the effect of selected determinants on debt ratio of different categories of firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime and corruption are ubiquitous worldwide. They have long been both cause and consequence of poverty and various other societal problems around the world, especially in underdeveloped countries. Crime and corruption take different forms, existing at all levels of society and deeply affecting people's lives, from underground exchanges inside or between businesses, to judiciary or police functions and municipal or national government departments. Undermining both political and economic development, crime and corruption can worsen income polarities and harm the poorest most. Currently there are quite many studies focusing on why firms pay for briberies; however, very few studies have considered how firms deal with crime. This paper empirically studies how firms in developing economies cope with both crime and corruption. To be specific, I look into the potential determinants on why and how much worldwide firms spend on protection payments. Using a unique firm-level dataset extracted from the World Bank's Enterprise Surveys from 2006 to 2014, this paper focuses on two types of protection payments made by firms operating in developing economies: (1) open security payments, intended to avoid criminal losses exoterically, and (2) underground bribery payments, intended to meet corrupt government officials' needs secretly. Overall data on 120 developing countries were extracted, and 105,282 observations became available. I start with ordinary least squares (OLS) to estimate the determinants of how much a firm decides to pay for protection. Furthermore, to alleviate the potential simultaneity problem embedded in the OLS method, I also use probit estimation for the firms' decisions to pay. Results obtained through multiple statistical and econometric examinations suggest that firm-level characteristics such as employment size, international business connections, labor quality, and expansion experience exert profound and differentiated influence on firms' payments. Meanwhile, bureaucratic inefficiency and social instability significantly raise firms' incentive to pay. Firms that are smaller with fewer foreign business connections, lower labor quality, and defective infrastructure tend to pay, and pay more, for protection, as do those firms that have grown faster and longer. Besides, fast expansion makes firms more vulnerable to extortion, and more likely to encounter with crime and corruption. Various tests confirmed the robustness of these findings. There are several important policy implications based on these findings. First of all, governments need to enhance the quality of the society's infrastructure. This will effectively decrease firms' extra security expenditures. Also, the government must endeavor to control corruption, especially among those small and less productive firms. Enhanced supervision and auditing procedures must be developed, and create a better growth atmosphere for all firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine if the cash flow and short-term accruals and long-term accruals together have a role to play in explaining the change in dividends. Design/methodology/approach – The authors’ mainly used the same models developed by Atieh and Hussain (2008) and expanded on this model by including contextual factors: firm growth, firm size, gearing and quality of earnings. Using 344 observations from Jordanian firms, the association of variables with dividend changes was analyzed using the generalized least square regression. Findings – The results reveal consistency with previous studies that disaggregated earnings outperforms the cash flow model in explaining the changes in dividends. Also, the explanatory power of the Lintner (1956) model is improved by replacing earnings with cash flow and short-term and long-term accruals, which is in line with previous studies. Regarding the effect of contextual factors, the superiority of the accrual model is affected by the contextual factors proposed, except for geared firms. The accrual model is superior for high growth, large firms and poor quality of earnings. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the existing literature that the Lintner (1956) model’s explanatory power can be improved by replacing earnings with its components mainly cash flows and short-term and long-term accruals. These results support the evidence related to developed markets. The paper also provides evidence of the importance of firm characteristics on the information content of the components of earnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the joint effects of technology and exports on the economic performances of electronics firms in Malaysia. The empirical results based on the Partial Least Square (PLS) estimate procedure show that technological capability plays a multiple role in that it influences both the exports and performance of a firm simultaneously. More importantly, we find evidence that exports act as a mediating variable between technological capability and firm performance. Size is found to influence all three: product capabilities, exports and firm performance but not process capabilities. This paper concludes that researchers, in future studies, need to examine the dynamism between size, technology, exports and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the association between board characteristics and shareholders' assessment of their exposure to economic and agency risks as reflected in the volatility of stock returns. Our hypotheses incorporate prior evidence that small and large firms have 'dramatically' different board structures, reflecting the firms' different monitoring and advising needs. We hypothesize and find evidence that only the shareholders of well-established large firms are able to generate positive net benefits, in the form of lower equity risk, from independent boards and well-connected independent directors with multiple directorships. We also find professional and formal industry degree qualifications on the board are associated with shareholders' risk assessment for some small firms consistent with the focus of small firms on building growth and scale. While we find evidence that formal industry professional affiliations (weak evidence) and MBAs provide benefits for the shareholders of large firms, there is limited evidence that financial expertise on the board systematically influences shareholders' risk assessments for small or large companies. The key conclusion from the evidence in this paper is that a 'one size fits all' approach to governance in relation to the board of directors may not meet the diverse needs of companies at different stages of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on risk mitigation theory, this article examines whether the improvement of firms' social performance reduces debt financing costs (CDFs) in China, the world's largest emerging market. Employing both the ordinary least square (OLS) and the two-stage instrumental variable regression methods, we find that improved corporate social responsibility (CSR) reduces the CDF when firms' CSR investment is lower than an optimal level; however, this relationship is reversed after the CSR investment exceeds the optimal level. Firms with extremely low or extremely high CSR are subject to a higher CDF. The results also suggest that the optimal CSR level for small firms is higher than that for large firms. This study is the first to document a U-shaped relationship between CSR and CDF and also the first to investigate this relationship within an emerging market context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note offers a more appropriate procedure than that employed by Smyth, Boyes, and Peseau for testing hypotheses regarding orthogonal least squares. The procedure is asymptotically valid and is well-grounded in the testing theory of principal components. The note also updates the SBP results on the interchangeability of alternative firm size measures by applying the above test to data for 1978 that are comparable to the SBP data. Finally, the two testing procedures are directly compared by applying both to the 1978 firm size data.
Our conclusion, based on 1978 data, that interchangeability of firm size measures generally is not warranted is similar to the findings of SBP for earlier periods. Minor variations between results, however, do exist, and they may suggest some caution in applying the results obtained for one time period to situations of another period. Direct comparison of the two techniques also reveals some differences; the asymptotic test in two cases suggests greater caution than the SBP test in rejecting the proportionality hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]