• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2019

This paper examines how corporate social responsibility is related to the degree of asymmetric information in the Korean financial market. Recent theory argues that there is a negative relationship between a firm's corporate social responsibility and its information asymmetry. To test this hypothesis, we use the environment, social and governance (ESG) score, published by the Korean Corporate Governance Service, to proxy a firm's management practices toward socially responsible activities. In the entire sample of the Korean firms, we find contrasting results; the ESG score shows negative relationships with the price impact measure but statistically insignificant relationships with the dispersion of analyst forecasts. However, the ESG score shows negative relationships with both measures when we exclude chaebol affiliates from the sample. These findings are robust when we examine environmental, social and corporate governance scores separately. This set of results argues for the extant theory, expecting a negative relationship between a firm's engagement in corporate social responsibility and asymmetric information. It further argues for the importance of firm characteristics in determining the influence of socially responsible activities.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.129-139
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• 2016

Purpose - This paper examines the explanatory power of the agency theory in the determination of cash holdings for Korean retail firms. If the agency theory holds, a firm with strong corporate governance structure tends to have low cash holdings. A strong governance structure makes the CEO of this firm to behave in the interests of shareholders and thus the CEO has low incentive to stockpile cash holdings, which can be easily diverted for the CEO's own managerial purposes. We investigate this relationship between corporate governance structure and cash holdings, by using corporate governance scores as a proxy variable that captures the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanism. Research design, data, and methodology - We adopt the sample of publicly listed retail firms in KOSPI market from 2005 to 2013. Financial and accounting statements are gathered from the WISEfn database. We also use the corporate governance scores published by Korean Corporate Governance Service. The relationship between the corporate governance scores and cash holdings is cross-sectionally estimated based on the ordinary least square method. This estimation method is widely accepted in the existing literature. The sample of large conglomerates, Chebol, and the remainder firms are separately examined as well, to account for the distinctive internal financing environment in these large conglomerates. Results - We mainly contribute to the extant literature by providing empirical evidence against the agency theory of cash policy. Unlike the prediction of agency theory, we confirm statistically insignificant or even positive correlations between the set of corporate governance scores and cash-asset ratios. Almost all the major corporate governance attributes including total score, shareholder rights, board structure, and the quality of information disclosure do not show negative correlations with cash holdings, which poses a strong challenge to the validity of the agency theory in the determination of retail firms' cash holdings. Conclusions - This study presents interesting empirical results with respect to the cash policy in Korean retail firms. Consistent to prior studies, I verify that the agency theory only limitedly explains the level of cash holdings. Future studies may obtain more robust results by examining a longer sample period.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.27-37
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• 2016

Purpose - Prior theories expect a lower marginal value of cash for weak governance firms. To test this hypothesis, we examine the relationship between corporate governance structures and marginal cash values in Korean retail firms. Research design, data, and methodology - We estimate marginal cash values based on the model of Faulkender & Wang (2006). The retail firms listed in Korean Stock Exchange from 2005 to 2013 are analyzed. Corporate governance scores are provided by Korean Corporate Governance Services. Results - We show a higher marginal value of cash for the weak governance retail firms in terms of total governance score. Our analysis on a detailed set of governance scores generally confirms this tendency. Yet, a higher marginal cash value is obtained for the firms with better board structures and dividend policies. Conclusions - Our findings argue against the agency view of cash policy predicting a negative relationship between corporate governance scores and marginal cash values. A low marginal value of cash, widely observed in the sample firms, also supports severe resource diversion problem in Korean corporations.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.12
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• pp.223-231
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• 2020

This research aims to examine (1) the effect of carbon emission disclosure on firm value, (2) the effect of good corporate governance on firm value, (3) the mediating role of financial performance between carbon emission disclosure and firm value, and (4) the mediating role of financial performance between good corporate governance and firm value. The research sample includes 43 mining, agro, and manufacturing firms listed in the Indonesian Stock Exchange over the 2015-2017 period. Carbon emission disclosure is measured by an indicator of the Global Reporting Initiative Series of Environmental Aspect. Good corporate governance is measured by the corporate governance score of shareholder rights, boards of directors, outside directors, audit committee and internal auditor, and disclosure to investors. Financial performance is measured by return on assets, while firm value is measured by Tobin's Q. Data analysis uses the structural equation modeling. The result shows carbon emission disclosure and good corporate governance have no direct effect on firm value. On the other hand, financial performance mediates the effect of carbon emission disclosure and good corporate governance on firm value. It shows that higher carbon emission disclosure and good corporate governance are meaningless for the investor if they do not give any financial performance improvement.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.105-113
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• 2015

If the watchdog role of good corporate governance, corporate executives and reduce agency costs and information asymmetries. Corporate governance score higher because enterprise internal control systems and financial reporting system is well equipped with the company management is enabled and corporate performance is higher because the high financial credit rating. Under these assumptions and hypotheses set up this study corporate governance (CGI) has been studied demonstrated how the financial impact on the credit rating (CFR). Findings,

relevant corporate governance (CGI) and financial credit rating was found to significantly affect the positive (+), Regression coefficient code is expected code of positive (+), the value

indicated by the value of all positive. The results of corporate governance (CGI) has showed excellent results, such as the more predictable will increase the credit score financial rating. The results of this study will have more CGI-credit financial rating the greater good. This study might be expected to provide a useful guide that corporate social responsibility, the company with a good governance and oversight systems enable to to get a higher credit rating in practice and research.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.60-72
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• 2022

The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) score is gaining recognition as important nonfinancial investment criteria. With climate change emerging as a global issue, energy companies must pay attention to the ESG impact on corporate performance. In this study, the ESG impact on the performance of energy companies was analyzed based on 23 companies selected from the S&P 500. The panel corrected standard error methodology was used. The Refinitiv ESG score was the independent variable, and financial performance metrics, such as Tobin's Q, return on assets, and return on equity, were the dependent variables. It was found that the ESG score is positively associated with long-term corporate value but not with short-term profitability in the electricity utility industry. Among the subcategories of ESG, the environmental and social scores also showed positive correlations with long-term corporate value. A direct incentive policy is recommended that can offset expenses for ESG activities to reduce carbon emission in the energy sector.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.191-201
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• 2021

The objective of this research is to investigate how the board of directors' characteristics influence sustainability disclosures with the mediating effect of corporate governance. The independent variables are the characteristics of the board of directors, which consist of the presence of women on the boards, presence of directors aged over 50 years old, education level, education field, board tenure, and compensation. The dependent variable is sustainability disclosures, which is measured by the GRI standard disclosure, whereas the mediator variable is the CG score. Research samples are 460 companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). Path Analysis is used to examine the correlation between the board of directors' characteristics, CG score, and GRI standard disclosure. The research findings show that senior boards, the education field, and compensation motivation have an effect on sustainability disclosures, whereas corporate governance is a mediator of the effect of the education field of boards on sustainability disclosures. This finding should help shareholders to choose individuals with suitable characteristics to serve on the board of directors, and, as a result, shareholders should anticipate a profitable result to be generated, while the business of the company is conducted in a sustainable way.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.31-43
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• 2018

Purpose - We examine how a Korean retail firm's social responsibility is related to its financial performances. The traditional view of corporation expects a negative relationship, while the stakeholder theory expects a positive one. Research design, data, and methodology - We adopt the ESG score, published by Korean Corporate Governance Service to measure the level of socially responsible activity for the Korean retail firms. The ordinary least square method is adopted to investigate this relationship. The publicly traded retail firms are examined from 2011 to 2016. Results - We find that the total ESG score is negatively related to ROE but shows no statistically significant relationship with ROA and Tobin's Q value. However, a firm's environmental score is negatively related with both of ROE and ROA. Its social score is no conclusive relationship with the performance measures. The governance score is negatively related to the value of Tobin's Q. Conclusions - This paper generally supports the traditional view of corporate theory, especially in terms of ROE. This evidence is not well aligned with the existing study for Korean corporations generally documenting positive relationships. We find almost no empirical evidence supporting the stakeholder theory of corporation in the Korean retail industry.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1117-1126
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• 2022

This study analyzed the effect of Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) score on information asymmetry from the perspective of investors, who are important stakeholders of the company. For KOSPI-listed companies from 2017 to 2020, the effect of ESG overall score and each item score (E, S, G) on the bid-ask spread, which is a proxy for information asymmetry, was confirmed. The results are as follows. First, the increase in corporate CSR activities resulted in lowering information asymmetry of investors. It was found that the higher the ESG score, an indicator of CSR activity, the lower the bid-ask spread, which is a proxy variable for information asymmetry. Second, as a result of analysis using ESG scores for each section, information asymmetry decreased as companies with higher scores in the environmental (E) and social (S) aspects, while the governance (G) score did not have a statistically significant effect. The analysis confirmed that corporate CSR activities can contribute to improving market efficiency by resolving information asymmetry of investors and convergence of the stock market into a state of equilibrium. This means that the company's CSR activities are reflected in the investment decision-making, which suggests that the company should consider the investor as a stakeholder in decision-making related to CSR activities.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.5-16
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• 2016

Prior literature expects a lower marginal cash value for weaker governance firms. We test this empirical hypothesis by using the sample of publicly traded Korean firms from 2005 to 2013. To measure the quality of governance structures, we employ the corporate governance scores provided by Korean Corporate Governance Services. The empirical model of Faulkender and Wang (2006) is adopted to estimate the marginal value of cash. Our empirical analysis shows a higher marginal value of cash for the good governance firms in the examination of the total governance score. This finding is consistent to the agency view of cash policy predicting a larger marginal value of cash for the firms with higher governance scores. However, this positive relationship is not robust for a subset of detailed governance scores; a lower marginal cash value is observed for the firms with better qualities of board structure, auditing, dividend policies. Moreover, our empirical analysis verifies a quite low level of marginal cash value for Korean firms, which supports the existence of severe agency conflicts in Korean corporations. Our results verify the significant role of agency conflicts between a manager and shareholders in the determination of marginal cash values in the Korean firms.