Vol 18, No 4 (2024)

As one of the key elements of corporate financial architecture, corporate governance significantly affects corporate performance. However, academic papers focusing on board characteristics rarely analyze the composition of board committees, while a specific Russian regulatory and corporate environment limit an applicability of results obtained for foreign samples. This study aims to bridge these gaps by analyzing the effects of composition of key board committees on market-based indicators of financial performance of the 100 largest Russian public non-financial companies over an 8-year period from 2014 to 2021. The results of panel data analysis indicate that the professional experience diversity of members of audit, strategy and sustainability committees significantly affects Tobin’s Q and total shareholder return (TSR); moreover, the effects of experience diversity are stronger than the effects of board committee size, independence, and educational diversity. I also find that powerful CEOs can weaken the positive effects of board committee composition on corporate performance or, vice versa, mitigate some negative effects, which is in line with some previous findings. In addition to academic contribution, this study offers valuable insights for practical application while analyzing changes in corporate governance structure of Russian companies, which is especially important in the context of the massive transformations taking place since February 2022.

In this paper we conduct a systematic bibliometric analysis to explore the correlation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate performance. Despite extensive research on CSR’s financial impact, this study aims to offer fresh insights by systematically examining trends and origins in the literature from 2012 to 2022. Additionally, by integrating theoretical foundations with bibliometric analysis, our study addresses a critical gap in the literature, advancing an understanding of CSR’s role in shaping sustainable business practices. Through the analysis of 283 articles using PRISMA, we observe a significant rise in publications on CSR’s impact, especially in Chinese and American contexts, which highlight themes like sustainable development and CSR reporting. By comparing these findings to existing literature, our study contributes to understanding CSR’s evolution. We emphasize the importance of future research that explores these interactions, particularly in African countries, to comprehend CSR’s development in diverse contexts. In conclusion, our research provides original insights into the evolving relationship between CSR practices and corporate performance, guiding future scholarly exploration. This study’s novelty lies in its comprehensive analysis of recent literature, revealing emerging themes and connections in CSR and corporate performance research, thereby enhancing both its practical and theoretical relevance.

This paper provides evidence of the effect of social norms, as measured by sin stock status, on the cost of equity capital. We consider Indonesian publicly traded sin stocks that produce alcohol and tobacco. While previous studies focused on whether sin and saint stocks have different financing preferences, we examine how these companies are charged differently in terms of their cost of equity capital. Our research sample consists of companies listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2020. Regression analysis proves that sin stock status has a significant influence on equity capital costs. There is an extra premium for sin stocks, as they are perceived to be riskier by investors in the market. Our results make a significant
contribution to the emerging literature on social norm-based investing, demonstrating a major impact on both corporate finance and investment management decisions. The study’s sample is restricted to publicly traded companies in Indonesia from 2016 to 2020, potentially limiting the generalizability of its findings to other countries or periods. Further research could broaden the scope of analysis and delve deeper into the factors that influence the cost of equity for sin stocks in various contexts.

The present research analyzes corporate growth against the background of competition and inflation, with a focus on the sustainable growth concept. The existing sustainable growth models are more suitable for solving the inverse problem when funding sources are defined at a predetermined growth rate, and less effective for solving the direct problem of sales volume planning when initial data is known. This is due to the fact that traditional models leave out external growth factors. Although inflation models of sustainable growth have remedied the situation, they are still dismissive of competition. The offered multifactor trend model of sustainable growth bridges this gap by taking into consideration the key growth drivers: investment ratio, asset turnover, return on sales, financial leverage and dynamics of product and resource prices. Differential and integral calculus methods were applied to develop the model, and financial ratios are considered as dynamic values described by the trends that are indicative of the external environment impact. The model potential is exemplified in various industries. It provides an opportunity to model the company’s entire life cycle, including a period of decline, and may be used as a strategic planning tool. The model describes natural, typical and logistics growth and may be used at the early stages of the life cycle when data is limited.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of access to capital in the impact of financial literacy and financial inclusion on SME sustainability. The object of the study is SMEs in Bali operating in the fashion sector. The total sample consisted of 277 SME leaders. Data was collected using a questionnaire tested with PLS-SEM. The results showed a significant and direct influence of financial literacy and financial inclusion on access to capital. Meanwhile, neither financial literacy nor financial inclusion by itself has a significant effect on SME sustainability. Only access to capital has a significant impact on SME sustainability. However, our findings show that access to capital can play a significant role in mediating the impact of financial literacy and financial inclusion on SME sustainability. In the context of SMEs, the results of the current study will be of particular interest to businesses focusing on fashion, showing that access to capital is an essential pillar in addition to financial literacy and inclusion. Access to capital is used as a mediating variable in the model for SME sustainability, whereas previous papers only focused on the influence of financial inclusion and financial literacy on SME sustainability. Including access to capital provides greater research insight. Our results show that, to develop, SMEs must foster financial management and instill technological knowledge to facilitate access to information on financial institution services.