This paper examines whether Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance has an impact on companies' market value and cash holdings. Drawing from 27 European Union countries, a comprehensive sample of 1144 companies was collected from LSEG Data & Analytics over an 11-year period (2013–2023). This research applied panel regression (fixed and random effect techniques) to investigate the relationships; based on the significant result of a Hausman test, the fixed effect regression has been analyzed. The results show that the more efficient and effective the ESG performance, the higher the company value. In addition, cash holdings affect the market value positively, which indicates that as companies hold high cash reserves, their market value increases. The main recommendation provided to different board members in the EU region is to follow the ESG principles and guidelines and to hold more cash since this should substantially raise the company's value. Our results are robust since the Tobit regression provided results similar to those of the fixed effect technique.

This study examines how board gender diversity affects listed non-financial European companies’ financial performance. Data from the Refinitiv Eikon Platform—LSEG and World Bank databases was used to complete the analysis. The total sample included 4257 companies for the period 2011–2023. This study examined board gender diversity and its interaction with liquidity while controlling for board characteristics such as board size, independence, and board meetings. Controlling for firm characteristics (firm size and leverage) and macroeconomic variables like inflation and GDP. This study estimated the connection using panel regression. Due to Hausman test significance, fixed effect estimation was used. The findings demonstrated a notable and favorable influence of board features, such as gender diversity, board independence, and board size, on European nonfinancial companies. Additionally, liquidity positively affects firm performance. Furthermore, the findings indicated that leverage had a significant negative impact on profitability. Finally, both the size and GDP have a significant beneficial impact on profitability. Our findings indicate that an increased representation of women on the board of directors is associated with greater independence among board members and a higher number of board members being hired. This, in turn, has a positive impact on profitability due to the extensive experience shared among board members. Additionally, this leads to improved governance, enabling better control over decisions and a greater focus on the long-term investment strategy of the company. Our results are robust, as are similar results reported by the GMM regression.

The main aim of this empirical paper is to examine the impact of board size and gender diversity on the firm value of 354 non-financial firms listed on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The vital importance of this paper is to shed light on the presence of female directors on the boards of directors in the GCC. This empirical paper applied several estimation techniques such as ordinary least squares (OLS) and panel regression (fixed & random effect) on a dataset that is extracted from the Refinitiv Eikon platform for the period 2010–2022. This investigation controlled for firm age, firm size, profitability, and leverage in the model developed. The significant result of the Hausman test approved the results of the fixed effect model which reveals that gender diversity, firm size, profitability, leverage, and board size significantly positively impact the firm value, unlike the firm age which appeared to be statistically insignificant. The results imply that the larger the board size and the higher the presence of women on the boards of directors in the GCC region, the better the profitability. This indeed recommends the decision takers include more members especially women in the decision-making process.

Corporate strategies today are shaped by the increased importance given by companies, investors, and regulators to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities. This paper empirically investigated the impact of ESG on the performance of banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region by collecting and analyzing the data of 29 banks located in the six GCC countries — namely the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. It studies data for the period 2010–2022 collected from the Refinitiv Eikon platform. Applying the ordinary least squares (OLS) and panel regression (fixed and random effect) techniques, it examines the impact of ESG on the performance of these banks. The significant Hausman test favored using the fixed effect results. The results suggest that a bank’s size positively influences its performance. The larger the bank the more diverse its ESG activities and the better its performance. Additionally, ESG and asset quality have a significant negative correlation to performance, implying a lower asset quality indicates higher loan loss provision and leads to lower financial performance. Finally, the results also suggest banks are overinvesting in ESG to comply with the latest standards set by investors and regulators.

The paper examines how liquidity risk affects the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) bank profitability. Banks need profitability to survive, but liquidity risk measures long-term company health. Through Refinitiv Eikon, quantitative data was collected over 11 years from 2012 to 2022 for 71 MENA banks to support the theoretical study. Return on Equity (ROE), a profitability indicator, is the dependent variable, whereas liquidity risk is the independent variable and controlling for size, loan quality, inflation, gross domestic product, income diversification, operational efficiency, capital adequacy, and growth. This study estimates the impact of liquidity risk on MENA bank profitability using OLS and panel regression (fixed and random effects). Several results were found, such as that bank size, operational efficiency, and non-performing loans negatively affect profitability, suggesting that large banks have higher operating costs and may weaken profitability in MENA. Besides, additional non-performing loans increase the bank’s costs and thus diminish profitability. Also, if the bank has no control over the operational expenses, then this will lead to reduce profitability. Liquidity risk, capital adequacy, income diversification, and growth have a positive significant impact on ROE implying that banks with higher growth opportunities, better capital adequacy ratio, more income sources, and liquidity risk will result in higher profitability as explained by the risk-reward theory. The results are robust and this has been confirmed by applying the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM).