Board Ethnicity Research Articles

Board ethnic diversity and goodwill impairment decisions: longitudinal analysis of energy firms in Malaysia

The present study investigates whether ethnic diversity among firms’ directors influences the decision to take goodwill write-offs, after considering the economic factors of impairment (measured in terms of the market capitalization indicator), reporting incentives, and firms’ internal governance. The analysis focuses on energy firms in Malaysia from 2006 to 2018. The regressions results based on binary logistics show that energy firms are less likely to take goodwill write-offs even when the market indicates the possibility for the write-offs. The results also show the absence of the direct relationship between goodwill impairment decisions and ethnic diversity of the board of directors. Nevertheless, the results reveal that board ethnicity moderates the relationship between firms’ goodwill impairment decisions and the market capitalization indicator, suggesting that as firms encounter increasing market indicator of impairment losses, the board with diverse ethnicity positively influences firms in taking goodwill write-offs. The results of the present study add to the literature on board diversity and firms’ decisions with regard to goodwill impairment by highlighting the beneficial roles of having ethnically diverse board of directors, in that they use the market indicator that goodwill may be impaired in their monitoring role on the goodwill impairment decisions. The results offer input to the policymakers by suggesting that to strengthen the monitoring roles of the board of directors, they need to be diverse and equipped with indicators that would assist them in their monitoring decisions. AcknowledgementThe author acknowledges’ the research funding (i.e., FRGS grant 13591 provided via Universiti Utara Malaysia) from the Ministry of Higher Education in Malaysia.

Exploring Factors Linked to the Mathematics Achievement of Ethnic Minority Students in China for Sustainable Development: A Multilevel Modeling Analysis

To improve the sustainable development of minority education and ensure equitable quality education, this study explored student- and school-related factors linked to the mathematics achievement of minority senior high school students in China. Based on the data obtained from 932 teachers and 1873 students, within 31 interior ethnic boarding schools in 14 provinces of China, multilevel analysis showed that gender, class organization, learning strategies, and learning self-efficacy were significant student-level predictors of mathematics achievement. Students were more likely to score highly if they were boys, were in mixed classes, had more self-efficacy in learning mathematics, and used more effective mathematics learning strategies. At the school level, teachers’ job satisfaction positively predicted students’ mathematics achievement. Additionally, there was a significant interaction between school location and expected class organization in relationship to students’ mathematics achievement. For schools located in the urban center, the effect of class organization on students’ mathematics achievement was greater than schools located in the suburbs. For the sustainable development of minority education, it is necessary to further promote mixed-class teaching, set such schools in the suburbs, and improve teachers’ job satisfaction through multiple measures.

Effect of audit committee independence, board ethnicity and family ownership on earnings management in Malaysia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of audit committee independence, board ethnicity and family ownership on earnings management in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachThe effect of audit committee independence, board ethnicity and family ownership on corporate governance is investigated via 1,206 firm-year observations between the fiscal years of 2004 and 2009 of Bursa Malaysia listed firms. Panel data regression analysis is used to analyze the relationship.FindingsThe findings of this study fail to associate the role of audit committee independence as proposed under RMCCG (2007) in curtailing earnings management activities, thus supporting the findings on power distance scores that power granted to the top management may result in less effective independent directors. Nonetheless, in support of the alignment effect theory, family ownership is found to reduce earnings management activities. The findings show that corporate governance is more effective in developing country family firms due to their long history of family reputation and the importance of institutional culture factors.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focuses on board ethnicity, family ownership and its influence on earnings management.Originality/valueThis study offers insights into the importance of family institutional structures on corporate governance reforms in Malaysia as Malaysian family firms are mostly traditional firms that have built their reputation and strength in the industry for many generations.

THE EFFECT OF BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ETHNIC, FAMILY OWNERSHIP AND THE AGE OF THE COMPANY TOWARDS THE PERFORMANCE OF THE COMPANY LQ45 COMPANY LISTED IN INDONESIA STOCK EXCHANGE

This study aims to examine how the ethnic influence of the board of commissioners (Chinese) on company performance, family ownership of company performance and company age on company performance. And the effect of all independent variables on dependent. The population of this study is the LQ45 company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2013-2017. The sampling technique in this study is Purposive Sampling. Based on observations from 2013-2017 the samples in this study were 23 companies from the LQ45 company. This study uses panel data and the method used is the Hausman Test using Random Effect Model.
 
 The results of this study indicate that the Ethnic Board of Commissioners and family ownership do not affect the Company Performance while the Company Age has a positive effect on Company Performance. Taken together,it turns out that Ethnic Board of Commissioners, Family and Company Ownership have a negative influence on the Company's Performance in LQ45 Companies that are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2013-2017. Finally, the authors suggest that the performance of the company increases the company must increase the Age of the Company by continuing to carry out or run company activities so that they have more experience and the authors also suggest that further research add variable size companies to get better research results.

Sociocultural Adaptation Profiles of Ethnic Minority Senior High School Students in Mainland China: A Latent Class Analysis

This study aimed to quantitatively determine the sociocultural adaptation profiles of ethnic minority senior high school students in mainland China. A large-scale questionnaire survey of 1873 Grade 12 students from 31 interior ethnic boarding schools throughout China was conducted. Through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the underlying structure of the sociocultural adaptation questionnaire was uncovered as consisting of three domains and six factors: General adaptation (daily life and school management), academic adaption (learning strategies and learning self-efficacy), and interaction adaptation (interethnic contact and cultural identity). By performing latent class analysis, four distinct sociocultural adaptation profiles of students were distinguished: The well-adapted group (28.0%), the general adaptation group (31.0%), the interaction adaptation group (24.4%), and the maladaptation group (16.6%). The results of chi-squared and variance analyses showed that the sociocultural adaptation profiles of ethnic minority senior high school students were significantly related to sociodemographic variables, such as ethnicity, class organization, hometown location, and family socioeconomic status. These profiles can be used to evaluate changes in ethnic minority students’ sociocultural adaptation and will contribute to the perfection of the ethnic minority boarding school system and the ultimate realization of inclusive and equitable quality education in China.

P2737Changes of the amount of myocardial fibrosis after cardiac surgery in adult congenital heart disease patients: a cardiovascular magnetic resonance T1 mapping study

Abstract Background Myocardial fibrosis is not uncommon in patients with adult congenital heart disease (ACHD). Whether myocardial fibrosis can be resolved after cardiac surgery is questionable. Purpose We aimed to investigate the change of myocardial fibrosis after cardiac surgery in ACHD patients using T1 mapping CMR technique. The amount of myocardial fibrosis and cardiac function including myocardial strain were compared between non-ACHD and surgically-corrected ACHD patients. Methods All patients underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) on a 1.5T system before and after cardiac surgery. The protocol was approved by the local ethnic review board, and informed consent was obtained from each participant. Pre- and post-contrast T1 mapping were performed in the mid-cavity short-axis level with a 5(3)3 MOLLI scheme and ECG-gated acquisition. Myocardial fibrosis was expressed by the percentage of ECV. Ventricular and clinical parameters including 6-minute walk distance (6MWD), ejection fraction and myocardial strain were also analyzed. Mean ± standard deviation (SD) was reported. Paired t-test and independent sample t-test were used. Results Total 13 ACHD patients underwent CMR before and after surgery (34±16 years old, 9 female, 5 cyanotic, 5 underwent second operation). Median duration between CMR scanning and surgery was 308 days. Despite of increased 6 minutes-walk distance after surgery, the myocardial ECV did not significantly change (table 1). Compared with non-ACHD patients, the ECV in ACHD patients after surgery remained significantly higher (figure 1) although ventricular function including myocardial strain was not significantly different in both group (p=0.15 and 0.78 for ventricular function and strain rate respectively). Table 1. Comparison of clinical and imaging parameter before and after surgery in ACHD patients Before surgery After surgery p LVEDVi (ml/m2) 77.5±29.1 70.8±10.4 0.34 LVEF (%) 61.0±8.3 61.8±7.5 0.72 RVEDVi (ml/m2) 122.2±74.4 80.6±26.4 0.02 RVEF (%) 60.4±13.6 56.9±10.8 0.14 6 minutes walk distance (meter) 287.3±93.0 350.4±61.6 0.05 ECV (%) 27.2±5.7 26.2±4.3 0.59 Figure 1 Conclusions The amount of myocardial fibrosis, as expressed by percentage of the ECV, remained unchanged after surgery despite of clinical improvement. Compared with non-ACHD patients, the amount of fibrosis was significantly higher in ACHD patients after surgery.

Corporate governance, board ethnicity and financial statement fraud: evidence from Malaysia

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationship between the presence of a Malay director on the board and financial statement fraud in Malaysia. Further, the authors investigate whether financial statement fraud firms improve their governance mechanisms compared to non-fraud firms subsequent to the fraud year.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use hand-collected data comprising 76 financial statement fraud and 76 non-fraud firms over a period of eight years from 2001 to 2008.FindingsUsing a univariate and logistic regression model, the results demonstrate a significant positive relationship between the proportion of Malay directors on the board and the financial statement fraud. The authors also find that fraud firms significantly increase the proportion of independent directors on their boards, increase the frequency of board and audit committee meetings and reduce duality subsequent to the detection of financial statement fraud compared to the non-fraud firms.Originality/valueThe findings of the study are useful to policy-makers, regulators, firms and investors.

Political connections, the cost of debt and board attributes: evidence from Malaysia

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine whether the relationship between politically connected firms (PCFs) and the cost of debt is moderated by board attributes such as audit committee independence, ethnic board diversity, gender board diversity and family controlling ownership.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs ordinary least squares model to examine the moderating effect of audit committee independence on the association between PCFs and the cost of debt; moderating effect of ethnic board diversity on the association between PCFs and the cost of debt; moderating effect of gender board diversity on the association between PCFs and the cost of debt; and moderating effect of family-controlled boards on the association between PCFs and the cost of debt.FindingsThe results show that PCFs are associated with lower cost of debt, consistent with crony capitalism theory. Furthermore, board attributes are shown to have significant moderating effect on the association between PCFs and the cost of debt. Specifically, the cost of debt in PCFs can be further reduced, provided the boards have higher audit committee independence, are ethnically diverse, have higher proportion of female directors in the board and audit committee and are controlled by family shareholders.Originality/valueThis study reveals evidence on the impact of board attributes on the cost of debt in PCFs. All findings suggest that concerns on PCFs’ severe agency problems can be alleviated through effective monitoring. The significant board attributes that facilitate effective monitoring are audit committee independence, ethnic board diversity, gender board diversity and family ownership.

Board Diversity, Composition and Firm Performance: Do Gender and Ethnic Diversity influence Firm Performance?

This paper studies the topic of board diversity, board composition and firm performance. It specifically examines the relationship between gender and ethnic diversity of corporate boards and firm performance as measured by ROA. It accounts for the issue of endogeneity by conducting fixed effects regressions to examine this relationship. The paper further explores the influence of CEO diversity on firm performance. The results of this study provide evidence for a positive relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance as well as CEO diversity and firm performance. On the other hand, the results in relation to diverse ethnic board members and firm performance are inconclusive.

Ethnic board diversity, earnings quality and institutional investors: evidence from Malaysian corporate boards

AbstractMotivated by calls to examine the issue of board diversity in emerging economies, this study explores the association between ethnic board diversity and earnings quality; and the moderating effect of institutional investors’ ownership. In a sample of Malaysian firms, we find that boards with higher ethnic diversity are associated with higher earnings quality. Consequently, our findings suggest that institutional investors prefer boards to be ethnically diverse. Consistent with geographical proximity theory, this effect is primarily driven by domestic institutional investors. Finally, we find that political connection attenuates the association between ethnic board diversity and higher earnings quality.

Corporate board diversity, corporate social responsibility and financial performance: the case of Malaysian public listed companies

This study attempts to examine the relationship between board diversity and financial performance with the mediating effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A total of 101 companies from different sectors, excluding the financial sector are listed in the main market of Bursa Malaysia was selected as a sample. This study used secondary data which was extracted from the annual report of the financial year ending in 2016. The results showed that board diversity is significantly related to CSR, followed by financial performance. In particular, board education diversity is found to have a positive and significant relationship with CSR. Meanwhile, board ethnicity diversity is found to be significant but negatively related to CSR. This study can bring awareness of the important and positive roles of CSR towards financial performance as a mediator to firms in Malaysia.

Does Board Ethnic Diversity Impact Board Monitoring Outcomes?

AbstractThis study investigates whether board ethnic diversity is associated with stronger board monitoring outcomes. We explore a range of outcomes – CEO compensation, accounting misstatements, CEO turnover–performance sensitivity and acquisition performance – but find no evidence to support this. We also find no evidence that board ethnic diversity improves overall firm performance, even for those firms with higher agency problems. Our results are robust across different methodologies and have important practical implications, by informing the current public policy debate on board ethnic diversity.

Corporate board diversity, corporate social responsibility and financial performance: the case of Malaysian public listed companies

This study attempts to examine the relationship between board diversity and financial performance with the mediating effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A total of 101 companies from different sectors, excluding the financial sector are listed in the main market of Bursa Malaysia was selected as a sample. This study used secondary data which was extracted from the annual report of the financial year ending in 2016. The results showed that board diversity is significantly related to CSR, followed by financial performance. In particular, board education diversity is found to have a positive and significant relationship with CSR. Meanwhile, board ethnicity diversity is found to be significant but negatively related to CSR. This study can bring awareness of the important and positive roles of CSR towards financial performance as a mediator to firms in Malaysia.

The Daily Politics of Inter-ethnic Mingling in the Xinjiangban

ABSTRACT Since 2000, the Chinese government has implemented an ethnic boarding school policy called the Xinjiang Interior Class (Xinjiangban) system in order to promote social mobility and inter-ethnic mingling among the various ethnic groups of Xinjiang. The literature on this topic has focused primarily on the implementation of Han-centric education and Uyghur students’ responses, with little attention paid to the diverse inter-ethnic interactions that constitute everyday politics in the Xinjiangban. In response, this article explores inter-ethnic politics in the Xinjiangban, by interrogating relations between Han school administrators, Uyghur students and non-Uyghur students in these schools. Based on four years of intensive ethnographic fieldwork inside a Xinjiangban in Southern China, the article finds that the program creates secure spaces in which students from various ethnic backgrounds can interact and communicate in meaningful ways, which in turn substantially enhances ethnic mingling but also generates new and unforeseen hierarchies of power as Uyghur students play vital roles in shaping the norms of the student network. The inter-ethnic politics of the Xinjiangban are an ongoing social construction, which are shaped by the power dynamic that exists between Han administrators and ethnic minority students, as well as the majority Uyghur students and those from other ethnic backgrounds.

Pengaruh struktur modal, etnis dewan komisaris dan kebijakan dividen dengan profitabilitas sebagai variabel kontrol terhadap nilai perusahaan

This study aims to determine the effect of capital structure, ethnic board of commissioners and dividend policy on Company Value in manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. By taking secondary data that has been published in the 2015-2017 period. Population of 164 in manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange 2015-2017 and 112 samples of companies using purposive sampling with a total of 336 company annual data observations. The results of this study concluded that the Capital Structure and Ethnicity of the Board of Commissioners had no effect and were not significant to the Company's Value. Dividend Policy has a positive and significant effect on Company Value. Profitability has no effect and is not significant on Company Value. This means that with the capital structure, ethnic board of commissioners and dividend policy will encourage a more optimal level of supervision of the quality of the company. The company's objectives are achieved if the company's performance is able to optimize the company's value. Especially by better managing the dividend policy because it is considered capable of increasing the value of the company which has a direct impact on the company's sustainability in the future.Keywords: Institutional ownership; tax planning; foreign board of commissioners; leverage; the company value.

Board involvement in corporate sustainability reporting: evidence from Sri Lanka

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role played by the board of directors in corporate sustainability (CS) disclosure within the Asian context in which sustainability reporting (SR) is an emerging phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach Data are collected from a sample of 100 listed Sri Lankan companies over a period of four years (2012-2016), representing practically all the business sectors. This study draws on both agency and resource dependence theories, while binary logistic regression is performed for the data analysis. Findings The results point out that firms that follow a sustainability disclosure policy have larger boards, a higher proportion of independent directors and more female directors. Contrary to certain common assumptions, firms that practice sustainability disclosure are not influenced by dual leadership, board ethnicity and board ownership. This study helps firms to understand whether their boards can influence the sustainability disclosure choice or not and further, to validate the appropriateness of the agency theory and the resource dependence theory for examining issues of this nature. Originality/value This study contributes significantly to the extant literature on this subject by broadening the geographical coverage, which has generally been limited to the West in corporate disclosure studies.

The Impact of Board Ethnic Diversity on Firm Performance: Evidence from Public Listed Firms in Malaysia

This paper examines the impact of board ethnic diversity on firm performance (FP) as well as the interacting effects of board independence and board meeting attendance. Unlike prior local research which mainly studied Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera (Malays and non-Malays) directors, this paper views the board from the perspective of diversity. We hand-collected the directors' details and identified them as Malay, Chinese, Indian or other ethnics directors. Using panel data analysis of public listed firms in Malaysia, this paper reveals that diverse ethnic directors in the board increase FP only if more than half of the board consists of independent directors. The finding suggests that when the board is independent, this effectively functioning board allows the diverse ethnic directors to participate in the board activities and make decision that ensure the benefits of all stakeholders, which ultimately increase FP.

Board characteristics and the amount of capital raised in the Malaysian IPO market

This study examines the impact of board characteristics on the amount of capital raised through an IPO for a sample of 220 Malaysian IPOs over the period of 2005–2015, applying both ordinary least squares (OLS) and quantile regression (QR) techniques. The OLS results show that board with ethnic Malay directors has a significant and positive association with the amount of capital raised, while a weak significance is found for board size. However, the QR results reveal that other than board ethnicity, other board characteristics namely board size, board independence and CEO duality are significantly associated with the amount of capital raised. The additional results suggest that QR provides a more insightful and full picture into the association than does OLS. The overall empirical evidence lends support to the resource dependence role of the board of directors at the time of an IPO.

Board and audit committee effectiveness, ethnic diversification and earnings management: a study of the Malaysian manufacturing sector

PurposeThis purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of the Revised Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (2007) toward the effectiveness of the board and audit committees in Malaysian manufacturing companies. Since the manufacturing firms are dominantly held by Chinese firms, this paper is extended to incorporate the implication of ethnicity on board and audit committees’ effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of 201 firms from fiscal year 2004-2009, the data set consists of a total of 1,206 firm-year observations. Analysis is carried out using correlation analysis, multiple and logistic regression analyses.FindingsThe findings reveal that board and audit committees’ effectiveness is positively associated with earnings management pre- and post-Revised Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (2007). A higher number of ethnic members in the board are also positively associated with earnings management.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to some industries in the manufacturing sector due to the special characteristics of this sector and covers mostly large firms. The results may not therefore be applicable to small firms. Finally, the study does not consider possible interaction between the board and audit characteristics which may be significant in influencing earnings management.Practical implicationsThe findings show that the corporate governance mechanism in Malaysian firms is currently inadequate in preventing earnings management and extra effort is needed to improve board governance.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the current literature on the issues of corporate governance effectiveness and board ethnicity in the current economic and political structure in Malaysia.

Is there a positive link between corporate governance and board diversity? Lessons from Asia

One of the long term research questions for the multi-disciplinary study of corporate governance, has been the link between good governance and share price or other measures of value. This has been quite difficult to establish in either the legal or finance or management disciplines, but there appears to be clear evidence of corporate sustainability where quality governance practices are applied consistently. Isolating out individual factors, such as board structures, specific cultures and corporate policies, has been particularly difficult as there are so many permutations. There currently exists a significant volume of global research on the role of gender, as a part of the board composition and there are positive returns, with some caveats. This paper begins to examine and question as to whether there are positive links to a broader concept of board diversity, including gender, age and ethnicity. There have been a number of developments across Asia, including Japan, China, Singapore and Hong Kong, which provide a different paradigm from the traditional Australian comparisons with United Kingdom, America and even Europe. The hardest question is whether we should have targets or mandatory quotas.