The paper explores some mechanisms of corporate governance (ownership and board characteristics) in Spanish listed companies and their impact on the likelihood of financial distress. An empirical study was conducted between 2007 and 2012 using a matched-pairs research design with 308 observations, with half of them classified as distressed and non-distressed. Based on the previous study by Pindado, Rodrigues, and De la Torre (2008), a broader concept of bankruptcy is used to define business failure. Employing several conditional logistic models, as well as to other previous studies on bankruptcy, the results confirm that in difficult situations prior to bankruptcy, the impact of board ownership and proportion of independent directors on business failure likelihood are similar to those exerted in more extreme situations. These results go one step further, to offer a negative relationship between board size and the likelihood of financial distress. This result is interpreted as a form of creating diversity and to improve the access to the information and resources, especially in contexts where the ownership is highly concentrated and large shareholders have a great power to influence the board structure. However, the results confirm that ownership concentration does not have a significant impact on financial distress likelihood in the Spanish context. It is argued that large shareholders are passive as regards an enhanced monitoring of management and, alternatively, they do not have enough incentives to hold back the financial distress. These findings have important implications in the Spanish context, where several changes in the regulatory listing requirements have been carried out with respect to corporate governance, and where there is no empirical evidence regarding this respect

The impact of crises on the long-term sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been attracting growing interest in the literature and from governments due to the significance of such companies with respect to economic growth, innovation, and employment. Although failure prediction models have been proposed based on accounting and other qualitative information, little is known regarding the influence of stakeholders on the failure process of SMEs. From the perspective of long-term sustainability, this article analyzes the role of the financial influence of stakeholders on the likelihood of business failure. An empirical study was carried out on a sample of 2352 Spanish SMEs, examining the differences between failed and non-failed SMEs and using a classification tree methodology to investigate the role played by each type of stakeholder in overcoming crisis events. The study provides empirical evidence regarding the relative importance of stakeholders to SMEs under conditions of financial distress, and proposes their categorization on the basis of their control over firms’ financial resources. Specifically, the analysis reveals that the capacity of the firm to generate sustainable wealth over time and to overcome critical situations is dependent on the most critical stakeholders. Workers, customers, and suppliers are the most important in ensuring the long-term sustainability of SMEs during the first stages of a crisis. Following the initial operational problems, other creditors (financial institutions) become relevant. In this sense, the results of this study encourage firms and governments to develop cooperation strategies with stakeholders (co-responsibility) in line with the proposed conceptual models of business sustainability.

Intellectual capital approaches become critical at universities mainly due to the fact that knowledge is the main output as well as input in these institutions. Although some attempts to measure intellectual capital have been made so far, there is still a long way to go. The purpose of the present article is to provide a model for the measurement of intellectual capital in higher education institutions. The results of a study done at Spanish public universities are used to indicate which intangible elements need to be measured, and a new framework for the measurement and management of intellectual capital is presented. Points for practitioners: The main contribution of this article is the validation of the consensus on the key intangible elements and indicators that should comprise a university intellectual capital model. Our proposed intellectual capital model helps universities on the path to presenting information that is useful to their stakeholders, contributing to greater transparency, accountability and comparability in the higher education sector. This article offers useful and specific guidelines for intellectual capital reporting practice in universities. The creation of a framework of intellectual capital reporting facilitates benchmarking analysis and comparative studies in order to help decision-making processes, improve the articulation of public policies and increase transparency in the whole system.

The publication of Directive 2014/95/EU represents an important milestone related to the disclosure of non-financial information. This fact together with the role of the corporate governance guide firms towards achieving of an ethical, transparent, and responsible behavior. To contribute towards the understanding of this issue, this study investigates the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and corporate social responsibility disclosure, namely, in corruption aspects relating to Directive 2014/95/EU. In so doing, a multiple regression analysis was carried out on a panel data sample of 198 European listed firms that are part of the EuroStoxx 200 index, in a studied period from 2014 to 2017. The findings reveal that outside directors and CEO duality impact positively and significantly on corruption disclosure. Therefore, this paper contributes to the existing research on corporate social responsibility disclosure, specifically, to the corruption disclosure literature by studying the corporate governance mechanisms that enhance these practices.