Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the Digital Age on e-finance in five key areas: payment systems, cloud computing in financial services, valuation metrics for multisided platforms, quantum trading, cyber security – costs, benefits and protection. Design/methodology/approach: It is an exhaustive review of technical developments and corporate practices in the area of electronic finance. Findings: Electronic finance is a dominating force changing business models and systems in financial services. New developments are creating newer valuation metrics, and reinforcing the costs and benefits of security systems. Research limitations/implications: This review concludes by pointing out potential areas of advancement in the coming decades and the possible evolution of newer e-finance models based on developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) and its implications for managerial finance. Originality/value: This is a review of the impact of electronic finance over the past two decades. Looking back electronic finance has significantly transformed the activities of corporations. Looking forward, financial managers have to watch for two important technical developments of AI and IoT and its potential impact on finance.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is the development of an integrated framework between corporate governance and sustainability, based on the advancements within the field of contemporary governance leading to a renewed focus on sustainable development.Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the authors provide succinct summary of the evolution of corporate governance over the past century from an historical perspective: starting with the early work of Berle and Means – which focuses on the legal separation of ownership and control – and the subsequent challenges within this framework – all the way to analyzing the major impact of Nobel Laureate Milton Freidman’s work on corporate goals and governance. The authors' approach identifies the key transformation of corporate goals and corporate goals' paradigm shift in progression and focus within corporate houses over time, including how these are approached in the present day by integrating the concept of primacy of all stakeholders. The authors relate this to contemporary developments in the Business Round table and the United Nations’ adoption of the2030 Agenda for Sustainable DevelopmentGoals.The authors also identify specific corporate governance themes within global economic forums, as well as the critical interlinkages needed by all global corporations to achieve sustainable growth.Findings: The primary objectives of the corporate governance themes adopted by global economic forums this decade are in the best interest of all stakeholders – including customers, employees, regulators, local communities, and shareholders. This applies both during periods of relative stability and during crises. A review of the good corporate governance relies on internal mechanisms such as the structure of a board and incentives for management, and on external mechanisms such as institutions that demand accountability. All these mechanisms are important as the mechanisms form the core of how (and for whom) corporations generate value. Ultimately, optimal corporate governance can help deliver both economic gains and societies that value all.Practical implications: With globalization, the public has higher expectations from corporate CEOs than in the past. Corporate leaders have the ultimate responsibility for creating an organizational culture that supports trust and ensures that corporate leaders' management and employees embody and act on the stated values and mission of their organization. Areas of increased social expectations that require the attention of boards of directors include diversity, transparency, equal opportunity, and eliminating all forms of harassment.Originality/value: This study identifies a viable agenda for global corporations based on concurrent developments to achieve sustainable development and growth. The recent related research work is also presented.

The authors use data on a large sample of investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds of non-financial firms to investigate the stability of the relationship between yield spreads and both Treasury term structure and market risk variables. The sample spans before, during, and after the recent financial crisis. Regression model estimates reveal a negative relationship between credit spread changes and changes in the term structure variables, as well as a significant effect of stock market conditions, bond volatility, and aggregate liquidity on spreads. Results from a Markov switching-regime model confirm the presence of two regimes and show different effects of certain spread determinants undereach regime.

Purpose: The organizational form of financial institutions is related to their level of risk, leverage, liquidity and capitalization. High level of risk and leverage and lower levels of liquidity and capitalization are considered to be the root causes of the 2008 financial crisis. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if banks affiliated to holding company structure contributed more to the root causes of crisis than unaffiliated banks. Design/methodology/approach: The paper isolates the effect of holding company association by restricting the sample to one-bank holding companies and individual banks. A comparative analysis of independent and holding company-affiliated banks is performed. Univariate analysis and multivariate regressions are used to compare the risk, leverage, liquidity and capitalization of affiliated and independent banks. Findings: The paper finds that holding company affiliation is linked to several root causes of the 2008 financial crisis. Specifically, holding company affiliation results in higher levels of home mortgage loans underwritten and underperforming, higher leverage, lower liquidity and lower capitalization for the subsidiary bank. Practical implications: The paper demonstrates that affiliated banks use their higher leveraged positions to engage in riskier home mortgage lending, sacrificing both liquidity and capital adequacy. These findings can help policy makers to focus on the group of banks that are part of holding company affiliation and implement such policies and regulations so as to avoid any re-occurrence of financial crisis. Originality/value: This paper is the first to link the structural differences in banks to the root causes of financial crisis and to isolate the effect of holding company affiliation through sample selection. The paper will be valued to other researchers who try to isolate the effect of holding company affiliation and those studying the causes of the financial crisis of 2008.

This paper examines the relationship between a firm’s working capital policy and the volatility of its stock returns. We find that a firm with an aggressive working capital policy tends to exhibit a higher level of return volatility. This finding is robust across years and industries after controlling for factors such as financial stability and sales growth. Our results further indicate that aggressively managed working capital policy affects return volatility through idiosyncratic risk. A decrease in working capital results in the contemporaneous and subsequent increases of return volatility. Our evidence is consistent with the conjecture that there is an important link between a firm’s working capital policy and its stock return volatility. Thus, firm managers must incorporate the potential costs associated with higher stock return volatility into their working capital decision-making when adopting a tightened working capital policy.