The world is constantly changing, and with an evolving global environmental crisis, there is a growing trend of Corporate Social Responsibility, and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure initiatives. The final report on the new E.U. taxonomy for sustainable activities was released in 2020, making ESG disclosure more relevant. This paper investigates the effects of ESG initiatives on the financial performance of Norwegian listed companies from 2010 to 2019. ESG is measured through the Thomson Reuters Eikon ESG disclosure score and financial performance through ROA and Tobin’s Q. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time this relationship has been investigated in Norway. Using panel data regression analysis and two proxies for the dependent variable (financial performance), the results of this study are mixed. In particular, findings suggest a strong significant relationship between ESG initiatives and financial performance. More specifically, the regression model, with ROA as the dependent variable, suggests that ESG initiatives have a clear negative impact. On the other hand, the variable Tobin’s Q increases when ESG increases. This could be explained by the different horizons of the measures and other factors affecting the business environment.

This study rigorously investigates the intricate dynamics between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), quantified through Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores, and financial performance (FP), measured via the return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE), within the UK banking sector. Our analysis is based on a comprehensive dataset from Bloomberg. This research encapsulates data from 32 banks publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange over a six-year span from 2017 to 2022. Employing panel data regression models while controlling leverage and bank size, we delve into the relationship between banks’ CSR engagements, as reflected in their ESG scores, and their financial outcomes. Our findings indicate a negative correlation between the ESG score and both the ROA and ROE, suggesting that elevated CSR commitments may inversely impact short-term financial returns. This finding not only challenges prevailing narratives within the sector but also fosters a crucial discourse on the balance between ethical banking practices and profitability. The implications of this research study are manifold, extending to policymakers, banking executives, and investors, suggesting a revaluation of CSR strategies in alignment with long-term value creation and sustainable banking. This study not only enriches academic discourse on CSR within the financial sector but also serves as a beacon for future inquiries into the evolving landscape of responsible banking, advocating for a nuanced understanding of CSR’s role in shaping the financial and ethical contours of the banking industry.

This study aims to investigate the effect of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) on shareholders’ wealth. Additionally, this study investigates the impact of the economic crisis during 2007–2008 on the shareholders’ perceptions of gaining additional value from mergers and acquisitions. In this paper, a sample of 84 M&As from 2006 to 2015 in Greece are studied to investigate the effect on shareholders of bidder companies. We find significantly negative abnormal returns just before the announcement of M&A, which negatively affects the bidder firms’ value. It is also observed that after 2009 M&A cases decreased, maybe because of the crisis in Greece that changed the investors’ perception of a value-destroying event. Companies that engage in M&A activities during economic downturns tend to experience a decline in shareholder value. This could be due to various factors, such as increased uncertainty and risk associated with such activities during economic uncertainty. By understanding the potential impact of such activities on shareholder value, companies can make more informed decisions about whether and when to pursue M&A opportunities.

This study examines the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and financial performance in the United Kingdom context, an area of increasing importance in both academic and practical domains. ESG is measured using the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) disclosure score. Using a dataset of firms in the FTSE 350 index over a 5-year period from 2020 to 2024, a panel regression model is employed to analyse the relationship between ESG and financial performance. The results of this study are mixed. When using ROA as a proxy for financial performance, the results suggest a statistically significant and positive relationship between ESG and financial performance, although the ESG coefficient indicates a relatively modest effect. However, when ROE is used as a proxy, the results are insignificant, suggesting that the impact of ESG may vary depending on the financial performance measure used. These findings contribute to the literature by providing evidence from the UK during a period of economic disruption, highlighting ESG’s role in operational performance rather than shareholder returns. However, the results should be interpreted with caution due to the use of disclosure-based ESG measures and a limited set of control variables.

This study examines whether U.S. monetary tightening cycles and market uncertainty are associated with initial public offering (IPO) underpricing. Using a sample of 1750 U.S. IPOs issued between 2003 and 2024, the analysis investigates three Federal Reserve monetary tightening cycles and employs multivariate regression models to examine the relationships between monetary-policy conditions, market uncertainty, proxied by the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), and first-day IPO returns. The findings provide no consistent evidence that monetary tightening cycles are associated with higher IPO underpricing. Although descriptive evidence indicates higher underpricing during the 2022–2023 tightening period, the tightening indicators are not statistically significant in the controlled multivariate regressions. In contrast, market uncertainty is negatively associated with IPO underpricing. This relationship is statistically significant in the equity-only sample for both contemporaneous and one-day lagged VIX measures, while the lagged VIX also remains statistically significant in the full sample. These findings contribute to the IPO literature by showing that monetary tightening and market-based uncertainty exhibit different relationships with IPO pricing. The study also provides practical implications for issuers, underwriters, investors, and policymakers seeking to understand IPO pricing behaviour under changing macro-financial conditions.