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This study explores the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors on corporations by investigating how board gender diversity moderates the relationship between ESG practices and corporate performance across different regions. Using traditional data envelopment analysis (DEA) and chance‐constrained DEA models, the study analyzes 225 financial service firms over an 11‐year period (2011–2021). Results indicate that high (low) board gender diversity levels significantly influence the connection between the environmental (social) aspects of ESG practices and corporate performance. Thus, the roles of stakeholder engagement and regional distinctions are highlighted in achieving sustainable development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 2008 financial crisis, central banks (such as the Fed) adopted a quantitative easing (QE) policy to stimulate their countries' economies and overcome severe economic and financial recessions. However, apart from stimulating the economy by issuing a substantial amount of currency to purchase long-term bonds and suppress interest rates, QE policy also contributed to a boom in the real estate and construction sectors. Therefore, this study employs data envelopment analysis to measure the business performance (BP) of construction companies, and explore the impact of QE policy on the BP of construction companies, between 2004 and 2015, using hierarchical regression. We also examine the moderating role of the debt ratio on the relationship. Focused on publicly listed construction companies in Taiwan, this research reveals three encouraging findings. Firstly, QE policy indeed enhanced the BP of Taiwanese construction companies. Secondly, performance improvements in construction companies due to QE policy show a time-diminishing trend, suggesting the importance of seizing the initial policy benefits of QE implementation. Lastly, construction companies with appropriate financial leverage may exhibit better BP. These findings can provide valuable insights for relevant government entities and decision-makers in the industry for policy and investment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green supply chain management (GSCM) has been applied by semiconductor firms to ameliorate environmental problems. This study aims to evaluate the green performance of semiconductor supply chains to examine the effect of GSCM. Using the meta‐frontier Malmquist productivity index as the research method, and a sample of global semiconductor firms consisting of three groups, design, manufacturing, and assembling, as research objects, this study evaluates variation in performance while considering environmental variables and disregarding environmental variables respectively, and compares the differences between those two conditions for the whole supply chain and each group in the supply chain. This study discovers no significant differences in both considering and disregarding environmental variables scenarios, productivity of the whole supply chain shows progress. This study found the investment in enhancing technology development as a more important factor in productivity improvement and identifies design as the global leading sub‐industry in the semiconductor supply chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate performance in the global retail industry. We adopt the modified data envelopment analysis (DEA) game cross-efficiency approach in assessing the longitudinal efficiency of a sample of 414 listed retail firm-year observations given by Forbes 2000 between 2013 and 2018. The performance result indicates that the Americas retail industry is growing steadily and continues to dominate other regions. Not only the retail industry but all industries in Europe have severe environmental safety rules and management requirements in business operations, hence, Europe also scored high in both the overall environmental index in CSR and all their component indices. Additionally, panel regression revealed that the environmental dimension in CSR is significantly and directly correlated to firm performance. This study's findings will provide practitioners and policymakers with managerial and strategic implications to enhance their efficiency by applying the CSR dimension in the retail industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Consensus on how intellectual capital (IC) affects corporate performance is limited because of various measurement models of IC and corporate performance. This study thus aims to further the debate on the relationship between IC and corporate performance from the perspectives of nonlinearity, the capital values of IC and the use of a holistic measure of corporate performance. Design/methodology/approach: Using 1,395 firm-year observations derived from Vietnamese listed companies from 2010 to 2018, this study focuses on (1) presenting an IC model benchmarked on value-creating expenses; (2) using a directional distance function (DDF)-based stochastic nonparametric envelopment of data (StoNED) framework to scrutinize multiple performance indicators and the capital values of people, structures and relationships simultaneously; and (3) adopting firm-year cluster-robust regressions to analyze the nonlinear association between IC and corporate performance empirically with an appropriate U test. Findings: Results suggest that human capital (HC), structural capital (SC) and relational capital (RC) are the main contributors of high corporate efficiency, whereas only HC and RC contribute to high corporate profitability. These results are absent when this study employs the conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA), which is also a multidimensional framework, as the dependent variable. More importantly, IC and its components can improve corporate performance, namely, both corporate efficiency and corporate profitability up to a critical point, after which the effects would drop. Practical implications: Overall, this study highlights not only the need to invest in IC but also its associated costs. That is, policymakers also need to note the marginal cost of investing in IC, which may in the end outweigh the benefits from IC. Originality/value: This study extends IC-related studies by investigating the nonlinear relationship between IC and corporate performance. Moreover, the value of this study also lies in the multidimensional DDF-based StoNED framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study utilizes mediation analysis and bootstrapping to analyze the mediating effect of capital structure on the association between managerial ability and firm performance. The dataset consists of 6384 firm-year observations from the Taiwanese electronics industry during 2005–2018. Our results indicate that (1) low (high) levels of debt are likely observed in firms with CEOs with high (low) ability, (2) managerial ability positively affects firm performance, and (3) capital structure mediates the positive relationship between managerial ability and firm performance. Overall, the findings may have limited generalizability due to the specific sample characteristics and provide convincing support for the importance of capital structure as a mediator in the managerial ability-firm performance nexus. Specifically, this study highlights the need for examining the effect of managerial ability on firm performance through a mediator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine the effects of current overproduction on future operating efficiency and inventory write‐downs. Using electronic manufacturing companies listed on NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ during the period of 2003–2013, this study: (i) employs the interaction term between relative fixed cost levels and excess quantity of inventory produced to measure overproduction, (ii) utilizes the dynamic slacks based measure model to estimate operating efficiency, and (iii) examines inventory write‐downs. Our findings show that overproducing firms experience improved but unsustainable subsequent operating efficiency, as overproduction is a result of optimistic sales forecasting, which leads to higher subsequent inventory write‐downs. Overall, this paper suggests that production managers should be prudent in anticipating future sales demand, as short product life cycle might cause higher inventory obsolescence on excess production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the association between management characteristics and corporate performance, as well as how it is moderated by managerial ability among 103 Chinese chemical companies for the period 2008–2010. While we measure management characteristics from the perspectives of human quality, team structure, and economic incentives, we employ dynamic data envelopment analysis to gauge managerial ability. Our ordinary least squares regression results show that management characteristics are positively related to corporate performance, which is proxied by Tobin's Q. Furthermore, we find that managerial ability can further strengthen the positive relationship between management characteristics and corporate performance. In addition, we include graphs highlighting the moderating effects of managerial ability on the relationship between management characteristics and corporate performance. Overall, this study provides a greater understanding of the upper‐echelon theory and insights of managerial ability in a dynamic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of asset‐light strategy on the corporate performance of listed Asian telecommunications corporations and the moderating effect of managerial ability on the association between asset‐light strategy and corporate performance. The study applies the dynamic slacks‐based measure (DSBM) model and Tobit regression to measure managerial ability. The empirical results show that asset‐light strategy positively affects corporate performance and that managerial ability has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between the degree of asset‐lightness (DAL) and corporate performance. The findings further show that the greater the managerial ability, the stronger the relationship between DAL and corporate performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the innovation ability and business performance of global companies in the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry by using dynamic data envelopment analysis and ranking methods with the DuPont model. Results indicated that compared with business performance, A&D companies exhibit lower scores and higher standard deviations in the innovation ability, which signified that they should first work on reducing the gap in the level of innovation ability. DuPont analysis indicated that typical A&D companies exhibit the highest ROE. Finally, this study offers managers and policymakers detailed insights into potential areas of improvements in innovations, business performance, and profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how patents and research and development (R&D) spikes affect the corporate performance of 863 firm‐year observations of U.S. biopharmaceutical companies. First, a dynamic data envelopment analysis model is adopted to evaluate the performance of the U.S. biopharmaceutical companies. Then, ordinary least squares regression is used to explore the effects of three patent‐related variables (patent counts, citations, and claims) and R&D spikes on corporate performance. This study finds positive impacts of patent counts, citations, and claims on corporate performance. In addition, the results show that R&D spikes have negative contemporaneous effects and time‐lagged effects on corporate performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the association between related‐party transactions and the efficiency of Taiwanese electronics companies following the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for the period 2010–2018. Tests of differences in mean showed that the efficiency and related‐party transactions of the sample companies were significantly lower in the post‐IFRS era. Regression results indicated that related‐party transactions have significantly positive effects on efficiency; however, this positive association turned out to be smaller following the adoption of IFRS in Taiwan. Overall, this study suggests that changing accounting policy and rules can significantly affect related‐party transactions in companies, and ultimately corporate performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution from the creative industry to the regional economic growth has made the creative industry a new driver in economic development. But as a relatively young economic sector, the creative industry has its unique way of profiting through generating intellectual property with human creativity, talents, and skills. This profiting mechanism draws attention from both academia and industry to explore the factors that influence the performance of creative industry. This study explores the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance of the creative industry. Using the dynamic DEA approach, we evaluated the longitudinal efficiency performance of 53 creative firms during the period of 2010–2013. Regression analysis was employed to determine if corporate social responsibility influences financial performance. The empirical results indicated that content media related businesses, which include motion pictures, publishing, and broadcasting, are the performance growth leaders, and the regression result showed that corporate social responsibility has a significant positive influence on the financial performance of the creative industry. In addition, the results also revealed that risk taking and capital oriented characteristics exist within the creative industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies dynamic network data envelopment analysis to compare a dual banking system, namely conventional and Islamic banks, with emphasis on risk measures. Non-oriented, variable return-to-scale dynamic network slacks-based measure is used to model the banking performance for the period 2008-2012. Under the consideration of risk measures, the findings highlight that Islamic banks excel in managerial efficiency while conventional banks surpass in profitability efficiency. Furthermore, the regression results find that the number of directors on the risk management committee has a positive impact on banking performance. Meanwhile, the high number of independent directors improves the profitability efficiency but worsens the managerial efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ever since China surpassed Taiwan to become the largest exporter of electronic products, dependence between the two sides has deepened, which prompts Taiwanese companies to go public in China. This study conducted the data envelopment analysis (DEA) and regression analysis to analyse the impacts of the depth and breadth of investments in China on the performance of Taiwanese listed electronic companies. The empirical results show that, the breath of the investments in China has a positive correlation with the performance of Taiwanese companies; while the depth of investments in China has a negative and significant effect on the performances due to the companies' lack of know-how, which leads to a highlearning cost. In summary, companies should strategize their decentralized and concentrated investments in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] An innovation ratio two-stage DEA is constructed to calculate BHC performances. [•] The fuzzy multiple objective programming is applied to calculate performance. [•] The links between IC and the BHCs’ performance are also investigated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate performance. Using a two-stage approach, we first evaluate the efficiency and metafrontier framework of companies in the US telecommunications industry. In the second stage, we run ordinary least squares regression analysis to examine the relationship between CSR and corporate performance. Our first-stage findings show that the sample companies should first improve their scale inefficiencies rather than the inefficiencies in management practices. Through analysis on metatechnology ratios, we provide an insight on the potential improvement in performance caused by changes in the production environment. Our second-stage analysis shows that the social aspects of CSR have positive impacts on corporate performance. Overall, this study contributes to increased understanding of the social aspects of CSR and the performance of US telecommunications companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]