Purpose: This study aims to examine the extent to which information asymmetry affects investment efficiency and whether the presence of blockholders moderate this relationship.Design/methodology/approach: We employ the data of firms listed on the Malaysian stock exchange for the period 2010–2018, to compose our sample. Our final sample includes the 100 largest non-financial firms based on market capitalization. Collectively, these 100 companies contribute 84.2% to the total market capitalization (MYR 1,730bn) which is representative of the whole market. The ordinary least squares regressions were used as the main estimation technique. The system generalized method of moments, two-stage least squares and propensity score matching were also used, to address potential endogeneity concerns.Findings: We document a positively significant association of information asymmetry with investment inefficiency. These results imply that information asymmetry reduces investment efficiency and enhances sub-optimal investments. We also document that blockholders negatively moderate the relationship of information asymmetry with investment inefficiency. Further analyses show that investment inefficiency is higher in low-growth firms than in high-growth firms because of higher information asymmetry.Research limitations/implications: We focus on Malaysia, which is a predominantly common-law Anglo-Saxon country. Graff (2008) documented that the investors are treated differently across legal systems and there are differences between the continental European and Anglo-Saxon countries. La Porta et al. (1999) documented that investors tend to have more legal protection in Anglo-Saxon countries. Therefore, our results may not be generalized to countries with different legal systems.Practical implications: An important implication of our findings is that stakeholders may encourage the presence of blockholders and give them a voice to weaken the positive relationship between information asymmetry and investment inefficiency.Originality/value: This study contributes to the contingency literature by investigating the moderating effect of an important governance mechanism, i.e. the presence of blockholders on information asymmetry-investment efficiency nexus. Despite being important, this moderating effect has been largely overlooked in the literature. Our study contributes by providing an understanding of how blockholders can influence investment decisions, offering insights for academics, investors and policymakers focused on improving the efficacy of investment decisions and governance structure.

Using a unique sample of 13,412 firm-year observations from 19 countries of the emerging economies for the period of 2011 to 2019, we investigate the association between the firms’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and their value creation in the product market. Specifically, we first used the pooled OLS regression model for panel data as our baseline model and found that ESG performance (as well as its pillars) has a strong positive effect on the future value creation of the firms in the product market. We also conducted some additional analyses using various regression models, as well as adopting multiple tests for endogeneity, and the additional analyses revealed that the results are robust under different scenarios. Overall, the findings of this study highlight the importance of firm-level ESG performance for the value creation of firms in the product market in emerging economies and have theoretical and practical implications for academic researchers, market participants, and government entities in studying, evaluating, and governing firms’ ESG performance and reporting.

The accelerated aging of China’s population will inevitably increase the burden of social retirement and significantly impact the development of financial markets, which is not conducive to sustainable social development. A proper allocation of financial assets will enable households to earn more property income and facilitate the appropriate allocation of social capital. The aging of the population is an essential factor affecting the allocation of financial assets to households. This paper examines the impact of an aging population on household financial asset allocation based on data from the 2015, 2017, and 2019 China Household Finance Surveys (CHFS). The study finds that aging significantly negatively affects household risky financial asset participation, depth of participation, and diversity. The findings remain robust after robustness tests using a two-way fixed effects model. In addition, this paper examines the mechanisms of influence from the perspectives of both risk aversion and financial literacy. In terms of mediating variables, aging increases the risk aversion of household heads, and an increase in risk aversion discourages households from investing in risky financial assets. In terms of moderating variables, the dampening effect of aging on investment in risky financial assets diminishes as financial literacy increases. In addition, empirical findings based on heterogeneity find that aging has a stronger negative impact on risky financial asset participation, depth of participation, and diversity in rural areas. Aging has a stronger negative impact on risky financial asset participation for households with children.

The role of country governance quality between sustainable development performance and firm value in emerging economies is the fundamental objective of this study. The targeted firms are comprised on the firms that have initiated sustainable development practices for public welfare and the data was comprised of 2011–2022. The country level governance plays an indispensable role towards ESG initiatives and firm value in emerging economies. The efficient country governance develops the frameworks which are best suited for the firm in their environmental disclosures and it can increase their value. They can initiate the sustainable development practices for society wellbeing and can create the better image in the market. In this way, the sustainable performance and better firm value can be insured.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between sustainability reporting and corporate performance moderated by the internationalization level of the firms. The sample for this empirical study is collected from the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE)100 firms listed on Bursa Malaysia for a period of nine years from 2011 to 2019. We examine the sustainability reporting based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard with the G4 guideline, in which a content analysis method has been employed to obtain the Sustainability Reporting Index (SRI). The moderating variable for this study is the internationalization level, which is proxied by foreign sales generated. The findings demonstrate that sustainability reporting disclosure has no effect on corporate performance. However, internationalization improves corporate performance but serves no moderation role in the relationship between sustainability reporting and corporate performance. We conclude that there is no evidence to substantiate the claim that companies that disclose more in their sustainability reporting perform better, and this may be because Malaysian corporations are still new to non-financial reporting. We believe that although sustainability reporting is costly, sustainability reporting is able to enhance the reputation of firms in the international market. Sequentially, a highly internationalized firm with more sustainability reporting disclosures may bring wealth to the company in the long run.

A diversified board is increasingly essential for employee productivity and achievement. This study examines board diversity tax planning in Malaysian listed firms. The sample consists of 394 listed firms in Bursa Malaysia from 2014 to 2016. All the independent data, such as board gender, age, educational level, board size, board independence, and duality, are collected from annual reports. Effective tax rates (ETR), as a tax planning proxy, and control variables are collected from DataStream. The regression results show that board gender has a positive relationship with tax planning, while board independence has a negative one. Other independent variables such as age, educational level, board size, and duality have an insignificant relationship with tax planning. This study concludes that having females on the board encourages tax planning strategy within the firm and raises awareness towards minimising tax burdens. Less tax planning by independent directors could arise due to a lack of supervision and presence in deciding independent considerations in tax planning. The implementation of gender diversity in firms can affect tax management performance. For future research, this study recommends using actual data on tax planning expenditure that could give a more accurate effect of board diversity toward tax planning.