• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.59-69
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• 2019

The auditor, an important instrument of corporate governance, ensures the transparency and accountability of the firm to the stakeholders. The objective of this paper is to explore the impact of audit characteristics on firm performance. In this study, external audit quality (BIG4), frequencies of audit committee meetings, and audit committee size are used as the proxies of audit characteristics and firm performance is measured through ROA, profit margin and EPS. A total of 503 firm years are considered as sample size from the listed manufacturing firms of Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) during the period of 2013 to 2017 to find out the impact of audit characteristics on firm performance. In this study, multivariate regression analysis is conducted using the pooled OLS method. Moreover, time dummy and lag model of multivariate analysis are also analyzed as robust check. The multivariate regression results find that external audit quality (BIG4) and audit committee size are significantly positively associated with firm performance. This study also finds that there is a significant negative relationship between audit committee meeting and firm performance. This study recommends that the regulatory authority and audit committee should review the frequencies of audit committee meeting to make it more effective to ensure better firm performance.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.95-105
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• 2021

A prerequisite of a sound financial system is effective channeling of financial resources to efficient users; hence maximizing economic and societal welfare. To that end, the prevalence of bad loans in banks in emerging economies is a major policy concern. In an attempt to add to the growing body of literature explaining the interrelationship between macroeconomic and firm-specific factors, and non-performing loans (NPL), this paper examines data from 24 scheduled commercial banks in Bangladesh from 2008 to 2019. Macroeconomic factors as well as firm-specific factors related to profitability, capital strength, and efficiency are considered. Panel data regression analysis is performed to estimate pooled OLS, fixed effects, and random effects models. Following the necessary testing, it was found that the fixed effects model with robust standard error is appropriate. Results show that return on assets and inflation have a negative influence on NPL, but GDP growth has a favorable impact. The paper concludes by asserting that the evidence supports similar findings from studies both in Bangladesh and elsewhere and it is noted that a combination of these macroeconomic and firm-specific factors explains only a small portion of the total variation in NPL.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.785-793
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• 2021

The purpose of the research is to assess the factors affecting the liquidity of the commercial banks that are conducting mergers and acquisitions activities in Vietnam during the 2008-2018 period. This study employs samples based on 2-component data sets with cross-section and time-series data collected from the annual report of the State Bank and the audited acquisitions financial statements of nine commercial banks engaged in mergers and acquisitions activities. To carry out the research objectives, the authors conducted quantitative analysis through the Pooled OLS, REM, FEM and GMM models. The results shown that: (i) bank liquidity is positively affected by liquidity lagged, the return on equity (ROE) and economic growth; negatively affected by bank size, non-performing loan, short-run loan to deposit ratio; (ii) there is not enough evidence to conclude about the relationship between net profit margin, equity-to-assets ratio and inflation rate to bank liquidity; (iii) notably, we found evidence that, after the mergers and acquisitions, the liquidity of Vietnamese commercial banks decreased. The findings of this study suggest that bank managers take a more comprehensive view of the results of mergers and acquisitions and implications for banks to improve liquidity in the post-merger and acquisitions conditions.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.151-156
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• 2021

This paper empirically examines the relationship between one of the major corporate governance attributes; family ownership and the audit committee activity across a sample of 430 publicly traded firms on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the period 2012-2019. Using the Pooled OLS regression, this study finds that family ownership is negatively associated with audit committee activity. This study reported that family ownership is negatively associated with audit committee activity, giving support to the convergence-of-interest hypothesis. Therefore, the existence of family ownership as a monitoring corporate governance mechanism substitutes the audit committee activity as another monitoring mechanism. This study provides empirical evidence on the associations of two internal corporate governance mechanisms, namely; family ownership and audit committee activity in the Saudi context where there is a paucity of research in this area. The findings of this study provide a new understanding regarding the extent to which family ownership impacts the activity of audit committees in manufacturing companies. Similarly, the companies' management, external auditors, bankers, and companies would also benefit from understanding the influential factors of the audit committee activities.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.77-88
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• 2021

The stock markets in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries are the leading emerging markets globally. Therefore, it is pertinent to ascertain the critical drivers of stock market development in these economies. The currrent study empirically investigates to identify the linkages between stock market development, key macro-economic factors and institutional factors in the BRICS economies. The study covers the time period from 2000 to 2017. The dependent variable is the country's stock market development and the independent variables consist of six macroeconomic variables and five institutional variables. The study employs a panel cointegration test, Fully Modified OLS (FMOLS), a Pooled Mean Group (PMG) approach and a heterogeneous panel non-causality test.The findings of the study indicate co-integration among the selected variables across the BRICS stock markets. Long-run estimations reveal that five macroeconomic variables and four variables related to institutional quality are positive and statistically significant. Further, short-run causalities between stock market capitalization and selected variables are detected through the test of non-causality in a heterogeneous panel setting. The findings suggest that policymakers in the BRICS countries should enhance robust macroeconomic conditions to support their financial markets and should strengthen the institutional quality drivers to stimulate the pace of stock market development in their countries.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.733-739
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• 2021

This study investigates the relationships of energy firm-level characteristics, namely; firm size, firm leverage, and firm performance with board diligence among companies listed in Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the periods ranging from 2012 to 2019. The final sample of this study consists of 32 firm-year observations. A quantitative approach was adopted to test 3 specific hypotheses developed for the board diligence model. Using the Pooled OLS regression, this study finds that firm size and firm performance are negatively associated with board diligence. The results of this study indicate an insignificant association of firm leverage with board diligence. Besides, firm performance is related negatively to board diligence. This indicates that the board of companies with poor performance increases the number of its meetings because of the increased pressure on the board to improve its oversight operations and address the severe performance challenges. The increased number of board meetings observe the daily management of the company, increase the chances for discussions concerning the performance challenges, and come up with solutions faster. The directors are also likely to encounter heightened pressure to appear more engaged during a company's financial distress since lenders require a meeting of the board or with the board.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.841-850
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• 2021

This study aims to evaluate the relationship between bank capital, efficiency, and risk in Islamic banks. We use data from 129 Islamic banks in the world, retrieved from various data sources. We retrieved specific banking data from Moody's Analytics BankFocus and Thomson Reuters Eikon, while data at the country level was obtained from the World Bank website. This study uses various estimates both Pooled OLS (Ordinary Least Square) and Random Effect (RE). However, to overcome the issue of serial correlation which could cause bias in the results of the study, we used fixed-effect (FE) cluster estimates. The research results confirm the previous findings that bank capital positively affects bank stability (natural logarithm of Z-Score) and negatively affects credit risk (loan loss provision to total liabilities). The findings also show that efficiency has the same effect. The interaction test of bank capital and efficiency shows that efficiency encourages banks to reduce risk, including when bank capital is relatively lower. This finding is expected to have implications for the authorities to boost bank efficiency in addition to establishing several regulations related to capital. The efficiency implemented by the bank will encourage banks to act prudently so that the bank can maintain its performance through risk mitigation.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.263-276
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• 2021

This study examines the effect of international capital flows on corporate capital structures in Vietnam by analyzing panel data from all non-financial listed firms from 2005 to 2014 using pooled ordinary least square (OLS) with a variance estimator. The analysis includes a comparison of the signs and significance of the variable coefficients from the perking order and static trade-off theories to the empirical results to determine the optimum approach to the corporate capital structure given Vietnam's high-inflation environment. The results indicate that international capital flows have a positive relation to the debt ratio in the long term, and the relationship is more robust for 2005-2009 than for 2010-2014. Corporate capital structures adjusted to changes in the business environment in different sub-periods (2005-2009 and 2010-2014). When the economic environment became more favorable, the pecking order theory's predictive power increased, and that of trade-off theory lessened. Manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms required different capital structure decisions to fuel their operations and grow under foreign competition. The analysis demonstrates that firms should intensify their use of long-term debt relative to the availability of capital, which is an implication not only for firms in particular but also for industrial innovation overall.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.363-368
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• 2021

This study attempts to examine whether ownership of government-controlled corporations and audit committee effectiveness are related. The population of this study is 431 listed manufactured firms in the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the period 2012-2019 that published their financial and annual reports for the period 2012-2019. This population criterion is based on considerations that manufacturing companies listed on Tadawul have publicly accessible data and they have greater obligations to implement corporate governance code. Using the complementary hypothesis, this study predicts that there is a positive relationship between the ownership of government-controlled companies and audit committee effectiveness. The Pooled OLS regression shows that government-controlled companies' ownership is positively associated with audit committee effectiveness. Our study also indicates that ownership of government-controlled companies as a governance monitoring mechanism becomes more effective as it is combined with audit committee effectiveness which is another governance monitoring mechanism. The results of this study provide insightful evidence to policymakers at the company and country levels on the relationship of government-corporate ownership and audit committee effectiveness.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.179-185
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• 2021

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of board of directors' activity on the audit committee's effectiveness score among manufactured listed companies on Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the period 2015-2017. The final sample of this study consists of 195 firm-year observations that represent manufactured companies listed on Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the years 2015-2017. The data of this study in terms of board of directors' meetings, audit committee size and meetings, firm leverage, firm performance, and firm age were hand-collected from the annual reports of the considered companies. The Pooled OLS regression's result indicate that audit committee's effectiveness score is influenced by the board of directors' activity. This result gives support to the agency theory prediction. This result is also consistent with the complementary function of corporate governance mechanisms in which board of directors' activity complements the function of audit committee's effectiveness score. The result of this study should be useful for manufacturing companies, Saudi Stock Exchange, auditors, and regulators which relates to the association between board of directors' activity and audit committee's effectiveness score. This study provides a new empirical evidence on the impact of board activity on the audit committee's effectiveness score in an interesting context which is Saudi Arabia.