Vol 18, No 3 (2024)

The paper explores a dual-class stock setting to examine the effect of separation of ownership and control on corporate disclosure. Our analysis is based on a unique panel dataset of publicly traded firms in Russia, where dual-class stock companies emerged exogenously during the privatization process. Applying conventional panel data analysis methods and using several robustness checks, we find that the separation of ownership and control through dual-class stock results in lower corporate disclosure. Disclosure is inversely related to the wedge between the control and ownership rights of the largest shareholder (specifically, it increases with her ownership rights but decreases with her control rights). There is also evidence that the effect of the wedge on disclosure depends on the type of controlling shareholder. The negative effect is most pronounced when the largest shareholder is a domestic private person and is virtually non-existent for foreign shareholders from non-offshore jurisdictions. The state and state-related companies as well as foreign entities from offshore jurisdictions occupy an intermediate position in this regard.

The article discusses the impact of corporate ESG activity on the cost of bond issues in the context of the growing interest in sustainable development in Russia. Using panel data models and the ESG rankings of the RAEX rating agency, we demonstrate the significant impact of sustainable performance indicators on credit yield spreads using a sample of 2,646 corporate bond issues of 328 manufacturing companies and 76 financial organizations between the second half of 2019 and the end of 2023. We employ unique data on the dynamics of ESG rankings for each of the components (E - environmental, S - social and G - governance) across a wide range of companies. The explanatory variables include characteristics of bonds and issuers as well as macroeconomic indicators. We show that companies moving up in the ESG ranking in both sectors of the economy reduce their cost of bond issues. ESG components have a uniform impact for manufacturing companies yet show a varying influence for financial organizations. High environmental and social indicators increase a required bond yield, while a high governance component reduces it. Investors value information transparency in both sectors. Real-sector companies place greater importance on environmental and social responsibility, despite the associated costs, while the financial sector often views it as unnecessary. Sustainable bonds enable the Russian economy to adopt the ESG agenda faster. Our findings assist bond issuers in calculating risk premiums more realistically and allow corporate bond investors to consider sustainable development when making investment decisions.

This paper investigates stock underpricing in the Russian capital market during initial public offerings in the present-day situation. The econometric study of initial public offerings in the Russian market for 2006–2024 shows that such factors as dividend policy, technological profile of the company, and the difference between the actual and expected offering price increase IPO underpricing. Additionally a positive correlation between the capital raised by the company and the reduction of the underpricing IPO effect is revealed: large companies have more stable financial indicators, which brings their valuation closer to the real value in the market.

India is a fascinating example of an emerging economy which adapts the concept of innovation-based growth to its own specific economic and cultural context. Innovation in India has attracted growing interest among researchers, with a steady increase in the number of published works on the subject and in the number of their citations. The present paper provides a meta-review of the literature on the financing and management of innovation and green innovation in India. The novelty of the analysis is severalfold. Firstly, we highlight the coexistence of universal and India-specific features in the types of innovation and the practices of financing and management of innovation in the country. Secondly, the paper not only summarizes a range of bibliometric surveys and a large number of methodological and empirical papers on innovation in India, but also reviews a unique series of papers associated with the World Management Survey, which compare and contrast managerial practices in India with those in a large number of developed and emerging economies. Our analysis shows that India follows a number of universal approaches to the financing and management of innovation, and that parallels can be established between innovative IT companies in India and Japan. However, India uses many practices that are deemed inefficient in developed countries: the government, not the private sector, is the major supplier of R&D expenditure and green investment; family ownership is a driver of (not an obstacle to) innovation; there is a focus on low-income consumers; and cost-cutting rather than quality competition is the primary innovation technique. In conclusion, we link the India-specific innovation path to various opportunities for fostering green growth in the country.