Influence Of Institutional Investors Research Articles

Institutional investors and dividend payments: evidence in the oil industry

Abstract The debate over the impacts of shareholder value orientation on corporate management has been more intense with the increasing participation of institutional investors in companies’ ownership structures. In this context, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of institutional investors’ shareholding on the payment of dividends in the oil industry. A regression model was used, estimated with the Generalized Method of Moments. The results indicated that the distribution of dividends is related to the profitability and the leverage of the companies, in addition to the history of distribution to shareholders. In general, the presence of institutional investors did not influence the dividend distribution. However, we observed a large participation of these investors in the ownership structure of companies in the oil and gas sector—the average control of these agents was around 25% in the companies of the sample. This study contributes to the literature regarding the influence of institutional investors on the corporate decisions of nonfinancial companies, being original in the context of the oil industry.

Institutional investor heterogeneity and green innovation in China: Does digital transformation matter?

This paper examines how different categories of institutional investors influence green innovation for Chinese-listed companies and investigates the impact of digital transformation on this relationship. Results show that pressure-insensitive investors significantly improve corporate green innovation, while pressure-sensitive institutions have no effect. Further evidence suggests this is due to the negative impact of long-term pressure-sensitive investors on green innovation. We further analyze whether digital transformation affects the relationship between institutional ownership heterogeneity and green innovation. Consistent with the view that digital transformation promotes timely information dissemination and alleviates information asymmetry, our findings demonstrate that both pressure-insensitive institutional investors and short-term pressure-sensitive institutional investors promote green innovation in firms with higher levels of digital transformation. Further analyses reveal that digital transformation at the city level amplifies the influence of institutional investors on green innovation, and the underlying technology architecture provides more value to the institutional ownership heterogeneity−green innovation nexus.

Does institutional investor influence information technology investment decisions and corporate performance?

Does institutional investor influence information technology investment decisions and corporate performance?

The Influence of Institutional Investors' Clustering Behavior on A-Share Stock

Institutional investors' "clustering" behavior can have significant implications for the stock market, especially concerning its stability and the efficiency of the price discovery mechanisms. Recognizing this, this research utilized regression models to rigorously analyze the effects of such clustering practices on the abnormal returns and volatility of stocks that are targeted by Equity-oriented funds. This research also implemented a T-test to differentiate the impacts of various variables in both bull and bear market scenarios. The findings underscore that within China's A-share market, equity-oriented fund tend to favor certain sectors, with a significant inclination towards the manufacturing and finance sectors. Furthermore, the clustering behavior exhibited by these investors has diverse effects on stock abnormal returns and volatility, contingent upon the time scales and prevailing market conditions. This discovery provides insights into institutional investment strategies and the overarching stability of the market. For individual investors, it's crucial to note that stocks with heavy institutional ownership might exhibit increased volatility, particularly in bear market conditions. Therefore, incorporating this understanding could be important in investment decision-making processes.

Climate change disclosure and evolving institutional investor salience: Roles of the Principles for Responsible Investment

AbstractThis study investigates the relationship between climate change disclosure and institutional investors. A particular focus of the present study is the question of if and how the relationship is affected by the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). A relevant context to the question is shareholder engagement, where institutional investors' legitimacy affects the outcomes. Thus, this study examines Japan, where shareholder engagement is the main pathway for institutional investors to convey their ESG‐related influence to investee companies. Using the stakeholder salience theory as a theoretical framework, the empirical results of analyzing 17,604 firm‐year eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) documents of listed Japanese companies provide evidence for the following. First, institutional stakeholders' holding ratio has positively influenced corporate climate change disclosure (power). Second, the positive influence of institutional investors is more significant when PRI‐signed institutional investors are present (legitimacy). Third, the aforementioned relations gained statistical significance gradually during the analysis period (urgency). Fundamentally, this study shows that the stakeholder salience theory contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship.

Institutional ownership, earnings management and earnings surprises: evidence from 39 years of U.S. data

PurposeAs the influence of institutional investors over managerial decision-making grows, so does the importance of understanding the effect of institutional investor ownership (IO) on firm outcomes. The authors take a comprehensive approach to studying the effect of IO on earnings management (EM).Design/methodology/approach The authors study the relation between IO and EM using a sample of 59,503 listed U.S. firm-year observations from 1981–2019. The authors proxy EM with earnings surprises and with accrual-based and real activity measures. The authors test for nonlinear relations and analyze changes resulting from the passage of the Sarbanes–Oxley Act.FindingsThe findings support a positive IO-EM relation overall, but show that the relation is dynamic and heavily context-dependent with evidence of nonlinearity. The authors also find evidence that IO positively affects accrual-based EM and real activities EM negatively.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of the IO-EM relation to consider evidence of nonlinearity in the U.S. context, measuring changes to the relation over time, and with the use of several measures of EM.

Examining the influence of institutional investors on the readability of environmental disclosure in CSR reports of Chinese listed firms

AbstractEnvironmental disclosure conveys non‐financial information primarily through narrative descriptions. The readability of such narratives affects the effectiveness of environmental communication and shapes information content. Prior research on the influence of institutional ownership on corporate disclosure strategy remains inconclusive due to the heterogeneity of institutional investors. In this study, we analyze a comprehensive sample of A‐share Chinese companies that issued corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports to examine the impact of institutional investors on the overall readability of environmental disclosure. Our findings indicate that long‐term institutional investors have a positive influence on the readability of environmental disclosure, while short‐term institutional investors do not show significant correlation with readability. Furthermore, corporate governance acts as a mediating factor in the relationship between long‐term institutional investors and readability. We also find that long‐term institutional investors can enhance firm value by improving the readability of environmental disclosures.

The Influence of Institutional Investors' Position on Stock Momentum Phenomenon

Momentum phenomenon is one of the most classic anomalies in the field of securities investment. This paper investigates the influence of institutional investors' opening behavior on stock return momentum phenomenon by using the annual investor shareholding data publicly disclosed by listed companies. The findings are as follows: First, there is a positive correlation between institutional investors' opening behavior and stock excess return in one year; Second, if there is an obvious momentum phenomenon in the stock return in the first two years, then the stock return in the next year still depends on the institutional investor's position behavior, and has nothing to do with the investor's momentum strategy. Under the condition that other conditions remain unchanged, for the positive momentum group, if institutional investors buy portfolios substantially in the next year, the stock momentum phenomenon will continue; On the contrary, stock reversal occurs. A similar conclusion was found for the negative momentum group. In addition, the study also found that the momentum phenomenon is statistically significant, but because stock returns cannot be predicted in advance, it is not meaningful in the actual investment process. Therefore, this paper supports and complements the efficient market hypothesis to some extent.

The effects of institutional investors and their contestability on firm innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed firms

We investigate the effects of institutional investors and their contestability with controlling shareholders on firm innovation. Using a large sample of Chinese listed firms from 2003 to 2017, we find that when the ownership of domestic mutual funds is comparatively larger, their contestability with controlling shareholders is strengthened, which enhances business innovation. However, Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors do not have such significant contestability effects on firm innovation. These results are robust after correction for potential endogeneity issues. Furthermore, the effects of domestic mutual funds' contestability are weaker for short-term mutual funds and quasi-indexers, and for firms where the controlling ownership is higher. The effects of domestic mutual fund contestability are stronger in firms with less analyst coverage. Overall, our findings suggest that the influence of institutional investors is subject to their identities as well as their contestability with controlling shareholders.

Institutional investors' corporate site visits and aggressive financial reporting

AbstractThis paper investigates the impact of institutional investors' corporate site visits on financial reporting aggressiveness. While prior research has shed light on the monitoring impact of institutional shareholding on firms' financial reporting practices, institutional investors' preference regarding financial reporting remains unclear. Using a sample of Chinese firms listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2012 to 2019, we find that institutional investors' on‐site visits significantly increase financial reporting aggressiveness of hosting firms. The on‐site visit effect is more salient in firms that are more sensitive to the influence of institutional investors, for example, firms with a less powerful chief executive officer, financially constrained firms, and firms operating in competitive industries. Our study highlights that under a setting of weak minority shareholder protection such as in China, managers are likely to recognize revenue aggressively to please powerful shareholders who paid intensive attention to them.

Impact of Institutional Investors and Board Independence on Corporate Short-Termism: Longitudinal Evidence from Zimbabwe

This study examines the effects of institutional investors and board independence on corporate short-termism, using panel data for 36 listed companies in Zimbabwe from 2010 to 2018. By using the Arellano-Bover/Blundell-Bond system Generalised Methods of Moments (Sys-GMM) dynamic estimator, this study effectively addresses autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity and endogeneity in panel data analysis. The empirical results of this study revealed that institutional investors significantly influence managers to make myopic investment decisions, whereas independent non-executive directors reduce managers’ myopic tendencies. Additional analyses of the results confirms that INEDs mitigate managers’ myopic behaviour, whereas institutional investors increase the managers’ myopic behaviour. More so, this study found a significant and positive relation between dedicated institutional ownership and capital expenditures, which suggests that dedicated institutional investors help to reduce short-termism. Given that the results show that past short-termism begets more short-termism, the results of this study can help shareholders, policymakers, regulators and executives to understand the influence of institutional investors and board independence on long-term corporate investment decisions, which is an unexplored issue from the Zimbabwean context.

Institutional Ownership Types and ESG Reporting: The Case of Saudi Listed Firms

The main aim of this study is to investigate the influence of institutional investors’ ownership (INOW) on firms’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting in Saudi Arabia. Using data on ESG reporting from the Bloomberg database for 206 Saudi-listed firms spanning the period from 2010 to 2019 and employing ordinary least squares regression (OLS), the results show a significant and positive association between INOW and ESG reporting. When institutional investors are classified into government and privately managed institutions, the research findings clearly show that only government-managed institutional investors (Govt_IO) are linked to ESG reporting in a positive and significant way, whereas there is no significant association between privately managed institutions (Prvt_IO) and ESG reporting. In addition, when the ESG score is disaggregated by individual pillars, we find Govt_IO is positively associated with environmental score and social score. These results suggest that the association between INOW and ESG varies depending on the types of INOW, as well as the ESG components. Even after several additional analyses, including tests for endogeneity, the main results of this study still hold.

How do institutional investors influence accounting conservatism in China?

AbstractUsing a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2003 to 2015, we find that domestic mutual funds have negative effects while qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs) have positive effects on firm accounting conservatism. These effects become stronger when their ownerships are closer to that of the controlling shareholder, respectively. Furthermore, these results are more pronounced when institutional investors are more able to monitor managers and compete with controlling shareholders. Our findings suggest that the influence of institutional investors on accounting conservatism in China is subject to their identities as well as the control contestability against the controlling shareholders.

Monitoring or Colluding? Institutional Investors' Heterogeneity and Environmental Information Disclosure Behavior.

High-quality environmental information disclosure is not only an effective way for the firm to fulfill its environmental responsibility and promote green development, but also an important governance mechanism to reduce the degree of information asymmetry between the firm's management and shareholders and alleviate the agency conflict. As an important shareholder of a firm, there are two different hypotheses about the influence of institutional investors on firm decision-making and behavior: monitor and collusion. Institutional investors are not homogeneous, and there are significant differences in the impact of different types of institutional investors on firm decision-making and behavior. We divide institutional investors into the stable institutional investors and the unstable institutional investors, using the data of listed firms in China's A-share heavy pollution industry between 2008 and 2020, and this study explores the effect of institutional investors' heterogeneity on environmental information disclosure behavior from the perspective of environmental information disclosure quality. Empirical evidence shows that institutional investors as a whole have a positively significant impact on environmental information disclosure quality. Further analysis shows that the stable institutional investors have positive impact on environmental information disclosure quality compared with the unstable institutional investors. After a series of robustness tests, the conclusion is still valid. The results of this paper show that institutional investors, especially the stable institutional investors, can effectively reduce the degree of information asymmetry, alleviate the agency conflict of the firm, play an active role in corporate governance, strengthen the main responsibility of firm ecological environment protection, and promote the green development of firm. The conclusion of this paper has important reference significance for the regulators to formulate policies to improve environmental information disclosure quality and promote green development according to the heterogeneity of institutional investors.

Weather, institutional investors and earnings news

We examine how pre-announcement weather conditions near a firm's major institutional investors affect stock market reactions to firms' earnings announcements. We find that unpleasant weather experienced by institutional investors leads to more delayed market responses to subsequent earnings news. Moreover, unpleasant weather of institutional investors is associated with higher earnings announcement premia. The influence of institutional investors' weather is robust after controlling for New York City weather, extreme weather conditions, and firm local weather. Additional cross-sectional evidence suggests that the strength of this weather effect is related to institutional investors' trading behavior.

Institutional Investors Ownership and Firm Value: Evidence from Malaysia

Institutional investors play a significant role as an external watchdog to promote good governance to uphold firm value. The existence of institutional investors as shareholders is able to reduce the agency problem and the costs that arise from shareholder-manager relationship. This study aimed to examine the influence of institutional investors’ shareholdings and firm value among public listed firms in Malaysia. Specifically, it is argued that only pressure-insensitive institutional investors play an active monitoring role to increase a firm’s value, while pressure-sensitive investors, do not. This study employed 595 public listed firms from the main market in Bursa Malaysia for the period 2013 to 2017 (2795 firm-year observations). The results show that the pressure-sensitive and pressure-insensitive investors are positively significant to a firm’s value. These findings revealed that institutional investors in Malaysia play a significant role in increasing a firm’s value. This study will have a significant contribution to firms and the academic literature which states that all types of institutional investors in Malaysia are effectively monitoring their roles as an external corporate governance watchdog. The existence of these investors will be able to promote better governance and increase a firm’s value. Keywords: institutional ownership, pressure-insensitive and pressure sensitive institutional investors, firm’s value

Institutional investors and cost of capital: The moderating effect of ownership structure.

Guiding institutional investors to actively participate in corporate governance is a hot issue to improve the internal governance of China’s listed companies. This study seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of the mechanism that underlies the governance effects of the heterogeneity of institutional investors on the cost of capital, and the influence of ownership structure on the relationship between them. Using an unbalanced panel data on A-share listed companies of Shanghai and Shenzhen in China’s capital market during the 2014–2019 period, this study reveals how institutional investors with longer holding period and higher shareholding ratio are negatively associated with the cost of capital in China’s capital market. Furthermore, this study successfully confirms the moderating effect of ownership structure in the relationship between institutional investors and the cost of capital. China’s state-owned enterprises are more likely to introduce improvements at the corporate governance level, and ownership concentration weakens the negative influence of institutional investors on the cost of capital. The research contributes to a deeper understanding of the impacts of institutional investor’s heterogeneity and ownership structure on the cost of capital in China. In the process, the study yields useful implications for the theory and practice of corporate governance.

ESG Reporting: Empirical Analysis of the Influence of Board Heterogeneity from an Emerging Market

Firms are facing pressure to convincingly communicate to stakeholders their environment, society, and corporate governance (ESG) disclosure. In developing countries, where frictions among controlling and non-controlling shareholders are pervasive, the possible dissensus inside boards regarding ESG disclosure remains understudied. We investigate the ways in which boards’ heterogeneity between the interests of controlling groups and the interests of institutional investors influences ESG disclosure of firms in the Latin American context. Using social networks and logit panel data models, we analyze for 2015-17 the probability of ESG disclosure by 124 Chilean listed firms. Our evidence suggests that the influence of controlling shareholders through directorate interlocking has a negative relation with ESG disclosure. Additionally, we observe that the influence of institutional investors on ESG disclosure is not yet critical. Moreover, we find partial evidence of the presence of tension within the boards regarding ESG reporting between the directors that represent controlling shareholders and institutional investors. Considering the importance of institutional investors and the ubiquity directorate interlocking among Latin American’ firms, our results are relevant for regulators involved in advancing the rules of ESG disclosure practices, institutional investors focused on enhancing their ESG investment strategies, and firms engaged in improving the ESG decision-making within their boards.

Institutional Investor, Economic Policy Uncertainty, and Innovation Investment: Evidence from China

As a participator in corporate investment decision-making, the institutional investor is directly related to the corporate innovation investment. However, the economic policy uncertainty is aggravated by problems, such as economic slump and trade friction. Thus, institutional investors are not optimistic about the prospects of innovation investment. To explore the influence of institutional investors on corporate innovation investment from the perspective of economic policy uncertainty, using the 2010–2018 panel data in China and the fixed effect model, the influences of institutional investors on innovation investment and the moderating effects of the economic policy uncertainty were analyzed. Results show that institutional investors facilitate corporate innovation investment. Moreover, the increasing economic policy uncertainties repress the promoting effect of institutional investors on innovation investment. Furthermore, the institutional investors boost the corporate innovation investment by improving the internal control and relieving the financing constraints. For private companies, new and high-tech companies, the promoting effect of institutional investors on the corporate innovation investment is inhibited by the economic policy uncertainty to a small extent. For the listed companies located in areas with a high level of investor protection and intellectual property protection, the economic policy uncertainty has a minimal influence on the institutional investors and corporate innovation investment. The conclusions obtained from this study provide empirical evidence for giving full play to the role played by institutional investors in corporate innovative development. The conclusions also reveal, from the macroscopic level, that the consistency and stability of governmental economic policies have important effects on corporate development.

Antecedents of IFRS Compliance: The Moderating Effect of Audit Quality

Despite the significant non-compliance with IFRS, most audit reports provide unqualified opinion which brings into question the audit quality in enforcing IFRS compliance. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to examine the antecedents of compliance with IFRS by focusing on the moderating effect of audit quality on the association of firm characteristics and IFRS compliance. The collection of data was done through quantitative content analysis of annual reports of 20 Zambian listed companies and Zambia Institute of chartered Accountants covering the years 2012 to 2018. Being a longitudinal study requiring panel data analysis, a Hausman test was done to choose the model to employ. The Hausman test showed that the random effect model was suitable. Results indicate that audit quality moderates the association of firm characteristics and IFRS compliance. Also, there was a positive association between firm size and compliance with IFRS. There was a negative association between firm profitability and compliance with IFRS. However, there was a statistically insignificant positive association between foreign investors, institutional investors, audit quality and IFRS compliance. The study suggests that large companies are expected to comply more with IFRSs and profitable firms withhold financial information. Audit quality was not impaired probably due to the size of the audit firms and international affiliation. Meanwhile, the influence of institutional investors and foreign investors on IFRS compliance was insignificant probably because both institutional and foreign investors in Zambian listed companies are transient investors without significant incentives to demand financial disclosures and they may have other means to access financial information. The financial reporting regulators should focus on enhancing audit quality for listed companies in Zambia and even in other African countries. Future research can focus on the relevance of IFRS disclosures to the domestic investors in Africa considering the cultural differences both at firm and national-level.