• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제8권1호
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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.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제7권11호
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• pp.291-301
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• 2020

This paper aims to investigate the impact of chief executive officer's (CEO) attributes on firms' performance. Specifically, it examines the influence of CEOs' education, professional experience, and tenure on Saudi firms' performance. We look at a sample of 120 listed firms on Tadawul stock exchange from 2014 to 2017. Data on financial and accounting variables are obtained from the annual reports of the selected companies. We follow the existing empirical literature and use a panel model and formulate three different equations using the GMM estimator. Findings prove that CEO educational background does matter. In particular, companies employing CEOs with business administration, economics, finance, or accounting degree will perform outstandingly better. Similarly, stock performance gets improved when the CEO has a postgraduate qualification, i.e., when the CEO holds an MBA, a master, or a PhD degree. Besides, results reveal that executives who have an experience in a related field will positively affect the firm's performance. Finally, evidence shows that high CEOs tenure improves corporate performance. Overall, these findings demonstrate that executives' attributes are key factors that would explain differences in Saudi firms' performance. These results would help shareholders to make the right decision in selecting CEOs to manage the company.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제8권4호
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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.

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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• 제22권8호
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• pp.420-424
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• 2022

The Arab Automotive Company was the first corporation in Saudi Arabia and was founded in 1928. Since then, the number of Saudi corporations had increased. In 1985, Tadawul (The Saudi Stock Exchange ) was instituted under the supervision of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and the base value of the index was 1000. This decision came as a response to accelerated growth in the number of Saudi corporations which had increased during the 1970s as the Saudi's economy developed.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.143-152
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• 2022

This paper examines the relationship between investor sentiment and the risk of a stock price crash at the firm level. Our dataset includes 131 firms listed on the Saudi stock exchange (Tadawul) from 2011 to 2019, as well as 953 firm-year observations. To evaluate crash risk, we employ two distinct proxies and propose an index for measuring firm-level sentiment which we use for the first time in our study. The average turnover rate, price-earnings ratio, and overnight return are the three sentiment proxies we utilize in our index. Our findings show that high levels of investor emotion increase managers' proclivity to withhold unfavorable news from investors, which aggravates the risk of a stock price crash. We undertake cross-sectional regressions by sector to ensure the robustness of our findings, and our findings are confirmed. After accounting for any endogeneity issues with the GMM technique, the results remain the same. Furthermore, we analyze the liquidity effect by dividing our sample into subsamples with better and worse liquidity and find that firms with worse liquidity have a considerably greater positive impact of investor mood. Overall, our findings help investors and regulators recognize the significance of this downside risk and how to manage it in the stock market.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제7권8호
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• pp.61-67
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• 2020

This paper examines whether the combination of risk management and audit committee functions are associated with audit report lag. Audit report lag is considered an important aspect of the financial reporting. The financial reports are the main source of information for shareholders through which they make their decisions and it assists in reducing the information asymmetry. As the internal control mechanisms substitute the external ones, the internal board committees formed by the board of directors can reduce the audit work and, consequently, reduces the audit report lag. A key committee is the risk management committee. This paper examines whether the combination of risk management and audit committee functions are associated with audit report lag. We posit that a combination of such functions in one committee refereed as audit committee affects the audit report delay. Data were obtained from 198 manufacturing companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) for the years 2016-2018. A pooled OLS regression analysis shows that a combination of risk management and audit committee functions in a stand-alone committee named "audit committee" is associated with longer audit report lag. The outcomes suggest companies should prioritize the establishment of standalone risk management committee with activities separated from those of audit committees.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제8권5호
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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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• 제8권1호
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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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• 제8권7호
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• pp.323-331
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• 2021

This paper examines the relationship between ownership structure and level cash holdings in an emerging country, namely, Saudi Arabia, by constructing a corporate governance mechanism (foreign ownership, family ownership, institutional and managerial ownership). This paper uses data from 100 listed firms at Saudi Stock Exchange (TADAWUL) from 2011 to 2019. The firm's decision to hold cash has come to the fore in the last two or three years as a result of the recent global financial crisis, and the impact that this has had on the firms' ability to raise funds from external sources. Using the random-effect generalized least square (GLS) regression model, the findings reveal that foreign and family ownership negatively influences cash holdings, while managerial ownership has a positive association with cash holdings. Further, institutional ownership did not have a direct effect on cash holdings in Saudi Arabia. Our results suggest that ownership structure include foreign ownership, family and managerial ownership is an essential vehicle to promote the performance of cash holding of all the 100 public-listed non-financial firms in Saudi Arabia. We recommend that sound policies should be targeted toward foreign ownership, family, and managerial ownership since they are essential to improve cash holding in Saudi Arabian firms.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• 제9권6호
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• pp.297-302
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• 2022

The current study examines the relationship between inventory management efficiency and financial performance in Saudi Arabian companies. The study collected data from the companies listed on Tadawul (a Saudi Arabian stock exchange) during the period starting from 2016 and ending in 2020. The study uses pooled regression model by incorporating Return on Assets (ROA) and Inventory Turnover Ratio (ITR) as a performance measurement variable and inventory conversion period as an inventory management variable to report the results. The results show a positive and significant association between inventory management and firms' financial growth measured in terms of Return on Assets (ROA). Further, the study reports a positive and significant association between the inventory conversion period and inventory turnover (ITR). This shows that managing inventory efficiently shall positively impact the firm's performance. The other variables, such as debt ratio and gross profit, are positively related to ROA and negatively correlated with ITR. The firm growth is positively associated with both the dependent variables. The results suggest that the management of inventory in Saudi Arabian firms is efficient. Further, the firm size is positively associated with ROA and ITR. This shows a nexus between inventory management efficiency and firms' financial growth in Saudi Arabian companies.