Purpose: This study examines the impact of two different types of foreign ownership—by Arab and non-Arab investors on firms' financial and social performance. It then goes on to investigate how the degree of board independence affects the aforementioned relationship between these two types of foreign investors on firm performance.Design/methodology/approach: The sample for the study is a panel of all listed firms in the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and the Abu Dhabi Securities exchange (ADX) from 2008 to 2012.Findings: Results indicate that while Arab foreign ownership affects firms' financial and social performance negatively, non-Arab foreign ownership does so, positively. Further tests indicate that board independence weakens the negative relationship between firm financial and social performance with foreign Arab ownership and deteriorate the relationship between firm financial and social performance and non-Arab foreign ownership.Research limitations/implications: Future studies may extend the coverage of the study by including other countries in the region and other identities of the foreign investors.Practical implications: This study may help policy makers in the UAE to improve the implementation and enforcement of existing regulations concerning corporate social responsibility (CSR) and board independence. It also highlights the need to look into the monitoring role of independent board members.Originality/value: This is the first study to examine the role of board independence on the relationship between foreign ownership and firm's financial and social performance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that attempts to enrich the understanding of foreign ownership by classifying it into Arab versus non-Arab.

Purpose: This paper examines the influence of investment opportunities on firm performance and evaluates corporate governance practices in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to determine whether corporate governance quality moderates that influence.Design/methodology/approach: A fixed-effects regression was employed to examine the influence of investment opportunities on firm performance and the role of corporate governance quality as a moderator for all listed firms on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX) and the Dubai Financial Market (DFM). We examined 501 firm-year observations for the period when the corporate governance code in the UAE was coming into force, from 2008 to 2012.Findings: The regression results indicate that investment opportunities have a negative influence on firm performance. The corporate governance index used here shows that the level of corporate governance practiced in the UAE is weak. We also find that strong corporate governance ameliorates the negative influence of investment opportunities, which supports our hypotheses. The sub-indices of corporate governance that matter the most for moderating investment opportunities are board functioning and ethics.Practical implications: The results of this paper reflect the need to examine corporate governance in the context of the external environment represented by investment opportunities in our study. The findings could raise awareness of the importance of strong corporate governance practices, not only to directly improve firm performance but also through its influence on external variables. Legislators, regulators and other interested parties could use these results to examine practices in the UAE following the implementation of the corporate governance code.Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature by evaluating the role that corporate governance quality and its components could play in firm performance and indirectly moderating other external factors (such as investment opportunities).

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) may use transfer pricing techniques and policies to reduce their tax base in higher-tax rate jurisdictions by shifting it to lower-tax rate countries or tax havens. These practices, enhanced by the globalization and dematerialization of the economy, have flourished and became a major issue for supranational organizations, tax authorities and even in the public opinion. This study analyses the impact of intangible assets, firm size, effective tax rate, and leverage on transfer pricing intensity. French publicly listed firms in the CAC-40 were examined during the period from 2012 to 2015. The regression results show that the firm size and leverage are positively associated while intangible assets and effective tax rate are negatively associated with transfer pricing intensity.

Using a large panel dataset of 861 listed Chinese firms, the present study investigates whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects firm-value. It examines the influence of five CSR dimensions on firm-value. Then, it pinpoints the moderating impact of industry-sensitivity and power concentration of the CEO. In contrast to developed economy’s evidence, the results show an overall negative impact of CSR on firm-value. Looking closer at the dimensions separately, we find a negative impact of most of the CSR dimensions and a positive impact of some other CSR dimensions on firm-value. However, we observe that CSR enhances the value of firms operating in sensitive industries. Similarly, we find that a powerful CEO can also create firm-value through CSR by aligning CSR practices with the firms’ objectives. Our results are sufficiently rigorous to alternate proxies of CSR.