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Purpose – This paper aims to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and shareholder wealth arising from announcement returns of security issuance from a frontier market. It also explores the role of business group affiliation (BGA) on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses short-term scenarios to examine the link between CSR and shareholder wealth using the event study methodology which helps us mitigate the reverse causality problems related to studies of the relationship between CSR and firm value. Abnormal returns surrounding the security issue announcements were generated using the market model. Findings – This paper finds that security issuers with high CSR scores are associated with higher shareholder value. However, this paper finds that CSR activities of security issuers with BGA are value destroying which is consistent with the agency perspective of CSR. Research limitations/implications – This study is limited to only one nascent market, namely the Colombo Stock Exchange. Originality/value – This study documents that CSR and BGA are important determinants, among others, of stock price reactions to security offerings in emerging markets.

This study examines the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on greenhouse gas emission disclosure and the extent to which the disclosure of greenhouse gas emission information is associated with earnings management and the liquidity of firms’ shares. The sample for this study is drawn from Australian publicly listed firms that voluntarily disclosed their greenhouse gas emission information through voluntary disclosure channels such as the Carbon Disclosure Project, annual reports, standalone sustainability reports, and corporate websites between 2006 and 2009. This study adopts the Carbon Disclosure Project 2010 scoring methodology to measure the quality of greenhouse gas emission disclosure. A content analysis was used to score the quality of voluntary disclosures in annual financial and sustainability reports, and the information provided on company websites. In this thesis, two competing views: the stakeholder value maximisation view and the shareholder expense view are examined in relation to the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on greenhouse gas emission disclosures and the extent to which the disclosure of greenhouse gas emission information is associated with earnings management. The stakeholder value maximisation view predicts that firms engage in socially responsible initiatives such as greenhouse emission reduction strategies and targets associated with climate change to fulfil the legitimate interests of stakeholders. On the other hand, the shareholder expense view suggests that firms engage in socially responsible initiatives such as greenhouse gas emission reduction initiatives at the expense of shareholders. This research contributes several new findings to the literature. Firstly, with regards to the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and voluntary disclosure, this thesis has found that effective corporate governance mechanisms such as greater board independence, the absence of Chief Executive Officer duality, the pres

This paper examines why Australian firms issue standalone warrants and how the market perceives this type of capital raising method. We find that firms with smaller size, smaller issue proceeds, higher risk and lower ownership concentration choose standalone warrants rather than rights issues of equity to raise equity capital. Price reactions to standalone warrant announcements are significantly and positively related to takeup and underwriting status consistent with the findings of Balachandran, Faff and Theobald (JFE, 2008) for the announcements of rights issues of equity. Price reactions are stronger for moderately out-of-the-money warrants than in-the-money and deeply out-of-the-money warrants. We also find that managers of larger/moderate/smaller firms with higher/moderate/lower pre-event RUNUP and lower/moderate/higher risk choose in-themoney/moderately-out-of-the-money/deeply out-of-the money warrants.