This paper examines the impact of institutional ownership on the bond yield spreads of publicly traded Chinese firms. Our research results show the presence of a U-shaped, non-linear relationship between the shareholdings of institutional investors and bond yield spreads. Heterogeneity tests reveal differences in the impact of institutional ownership on yield spreads among different types of institutional investors and for firms in which members of the central government stabilization fund, commonly referred to as “national team” institutions, hold shares. Further tests indicate that corporate governance levels and firm performance serve as channels through which institutional shareholders affect bond yield spreads.

We examine the impact of natural disasters at the county-level on trademark registrations (representing the commercialization of established technological innovations) in a large sample of U.S. public companies. Our results identify a reduction in trademark registrations following a disaster, which we find to be associated with (i) financial constraints on firms, (ii) reduced commitment to product development as evidenced by lower R&D and advertisement spending, and (iii) reduced human capital due to the tendency of marketing talents to avoid areas affected by disasters. Despite the reduction in trademark registrations, we find that firms significantly increase their innovation efficiency after a natural disaster, meaning that they convert a higher proportion of existing patents into trademarks than in non-disaster periods.

This study examines the impact of various measures of corporate governance on airline safety, addressing a significant gap in the literature that explores safety performance within the aviation industry. Using data from seventy countries spanning the period from 1990 to 2016, we investigate the relationship between corporate governance quality indicators and airline accident rates while controlling for airlines’ financial health. Our findings suggest that airlines with less qualified and busier directors, as well as those experiencing higher degrees of director succession, are more prone to accidents. Conversely, longer CEO tenure is associated with a lower accident rate. Furthermore, our findings highlight the importance of a well-developed regulatory environment and transportation infrastructure: airlines based in countries with more stringent legal regulations, robust law enforcement, and superior air transport infrastructure exhibit better safety performance. Our research underscores the critical role of corporate governance in ensuring airline safety and emphasizes the significance of regulatory frameworks and infrastructure investments in shaping safety outcomes in the aviation industry. These results carry significant policy implications for aviation safety regulators responsible for developing, overseeing, and implementing policies aimed at improving aviation safety.

We investigate the effect of bond covenants on the speed of corporate capital structure adjustment. Based on manually collected bond covenant information from publicly listed Chinese firms between 2007 and 2019, we construct an index that measures the intensity of corporate bond covenants. Our results show that the greater the covenant intensity index of a firm's debt covenants, the faster the capital structure adjustment. Option covenants, restrictive asset transfer covenants, restrictive investment covenants, and event-driven covenants all have a positive and significant association with the speed of capital structure adjustment, whereas no such effect is observed for financing covenants and repayment arrangement covenants. Furthermore, we examine the direction of adjustment and adjustment method, and demonstrate that bond covenants promote an upward adjustment in a firm's capital structure by increasing debt financing. An analysis of heterogeneity effects reveals that the positive relation between the intensity of bond covenants and speed of capital structure adjustment is more pronounced in state-owned companies and companies headquartered in areas with higher legal standards. Finally, we show that information transparency, internal control, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance are channels through which bond covenants affect the speed of capital structure adjustment.

The recent surge in artificial intelligence (AI) interest and investment, driven by advances in large language models, has led the market to reward adopters and penalize laggards. Yet, AI integration predates this "AI gold rush," with earlier adopters reaping significant benefits. Drawing on a 2005-2018 sample, a formative period before AI became mainstream, this paper examines how early AI adoption and its disclosure in corporate filings affect U.S. firms. Analyzing 10-K filings, we categorize AI-related mentions as actionable, speculative, or irrelevant. We establish causal links between these disclosures and firm value, with innovation and productivity as likely channels. Our findings indicate that markets distinguish between substantive AI initiatives and opportunistic signaling, swiftly pricing anticipated future gains. Actionable disclosures outlining clear implementation plans yield significant valuation benefits, particularly upon first introduction, whereas speculative or irrelevant disclosures have no impact. Moreover, firms with substantive AI disclosures subsequently increase innovation activities, evidenced by higher R&D spending and patent filings, which are a key step in a pathway to modest, lagged productivity gains and ultimately improved valuation. We further find that these innovation activities act as concurrent signals of strategic reorientation towards AI, reinforcing the market's swift positive valuation. We show that early adopters of actionable disclosures gain competitive advantages, while peers that either remain silent or offer only vague AI disclosures face market penalties. These findings highlight that the strategic communication of genuine technological initiatives can significantly impact a company's perceived value and competitive positioning in the market.

Researchers and regulatory authorities are paying growing attention to the protection of creditors' interests against potential infringement by major shareholders in the Chinese bond market. In particular, family firms have come under increased scrutiny given the typically large, concentrated ownership position of the controlling family members. While family firms have been well-examined in most Western countries, there is little research to date on family firms in China - a research gap that is concerning given the growing importance of China's debt markets on a global stage and the recent bankruptcy wave surrounding Chinese bond issues. This study aims to close this gap by examining the impact of family control on the number of restrictive covenants in corporate bond contracts issued by Chinese companies. Based on a sample of over 1100 bonds issued between 2009 and 2021, we find that corporate bonds issued by Chinese family firms contain a larger number of restrictive covenants than those issued by non-family firms - a result that is in contrast with previous findings for the United States. Furthermore, the impact of family control on the number of restrictive covenants is more pronounced in bonds issued by companies with higher social capital control, lower investment efficiency, and higher financing constraints. A mechanism analysis reveals that relative to non-family firms, the shareholders and managers of family companies are more prone to collusion and exhibit a higher degree of separation of rights; this increases the risk to creditors' financial interests and raises their requirement for restrictive covenants. Finally, we present evidence to suggest that improving the level of internal governance and external supervision of firms can help to reduce the impact of family control on the number of restrictive covenants.

In this article, we contribute to the theoretical and empirical literature on green finance in China by investigating the impact of green bond issuance on firm value, and exploring the moderating effect of green bond financing costs, as well as various other factors. We find that green bond issuance increases firm value from both a market performance and financial performance perspective. This effect varies with respect to regional green finance policies. Additionally, green bond issuance promotes institutional investor ownership. Finally, we observe that green bond financing cost plays a moderating role - mitigating the positive effect of green bond issuance on firm value.

We propose CTREND, a new trend factor for cryptocurrency returns, which aggregates price and volume information across different time horizons. Using data on more than 3,000 coins, we employ machine learning methods to exploit information from various technical indicators. The resulting signal reliably predicts cryptocurrency returns. The effect cannot be subsumed by known factors and remains robust across different subperiods, market states, and alternative research designs. Moreover, it survives the impact of transaction costs and persists in big and liquid coins. Finally, an asset pricing model that incorporates CTREND outperforms competing factor models, providing a superior explanation of cryptocurrency returns.

We examine the impact of financial report comment letters on corporate bond pricing. Using 2015-2023 bond trading data for Chinese listed companies, we find that the receipt of comment letters significantly adversely affects bond pricing. The effect is more pronounced in firms with greater information transparency and more pronounced shareholder-creditor conflicts, where bondholders may be more sensitive to disclosure-related signals. Our findings highlight the role of comment letters as an important regulatory tool influencing debt markets in developing economies.

As the effects of climate change continue to impact society, fossil fuel sector organisations are seen as principal contributors to the climate crisis. In the hopes of mitigating climate change at the source, we gain access to one of the largest fossil fuel organisations in Norway and conduct an exploratory case study investigation into their business practices, green ambitions, and notable results. Our analysis of executive interviews, confidential in-house documentation, media releases, corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, and grey papers suggests that a strong sustainability-oriented organisational culture can contribute to reversing 'business as usual' practices towards seeking strategic greener solutions. Such results are partly achieved by strong responsible leaders at the organisational helm in combination with a sustainability-oriented national culture. Additionally, we critically question the secrecy surrounding the case organisation's 'choice' and 'format' of promotion and support for their operational status quo (e.g. greenwashing), to challenge the insider perspective unearthed herein. In sum, the study contributes to the newer and under-investigated field of green human resource management by better identifying the role of organisational culture as a critical lever in bringing about much-needed greener organisational policies, and offering a critical analysis less seen in green human resource management (HRM).

We examine the evolution of lead venture capital firm (VC) ownership after their portfolio companies (PCs) are publicly listed. We find that, on average, lead VCs retain their shares for three years post-IPO. Higher liquidity pressure and better stock market performance lead to faster VC exits, while higher VC reputation, better VC monitoring, and higher quality PCs lead to slower exits. VCs mostly use sales in the open market, share distributions, and mergers and acquisitions to divest their shares. Higher liquidity pressure incentivizes VCs to use majority share distributions, while better stock market performance increases their preference for continuous sales.

This paper investigates pricing and ordering decisions in a supply chain comprised of two competing manufacturers, a dominant retailer, and a third-party logistics (3PL) provider. Product distribution functions may be implemented by the 3PL provider and the two competing manufacturers. The advantages of logistics outsourcing lie in the lower cost and the professional logistics service, which affect the decision-making of the supply chain members. This paper adopts a novel approach to logistics outsourcing, in which it is regarded as an endogenous variable when supply chain members make decisions. We obtain the equilibrium decisions of supply chain members with the aid of a Stackelberg game. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of various parameters, such as market size, price sensitivity, product differentiation, and production costs on equilibrium decisions, thereby gaining valuable managerial insights. Finally, we present numerical analyses with respect to the above parameters in order to examine our theoretical results and to study their effects on channel performance.

This study explores the relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors and investor behavior during the COVID-19 crisis, utilizing a sample of S&P 500 companies. Findings suggest that these factors may not have had a significant influence on investment decisions during this period. Despite a notable overall market response to major COVID-19 related events, our findings reveal that ESG factors provide minimal explanatory power for individual stock price returns. This observation invites further investigation into the conditions under which ESG considerations are prioritized by investors.