Politically Connected Firms Research Articles

The association between institutional monitoring, political connections and audit report lag: evidence from the Malaysian capital market

PurposeThis study aims to examine the association between institutional investors’ ownership (IOW), politically connected firms (POCF) and audit report lag (AUDRL).Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a feasible generalised least squares (FGLS) model for panel data to examine the association between IOW, POCF and AUDRL for Malaysian publicly listed companies.FindingsThe findings reveal a statistically significant negative relationship between IOW and AUDRL, with this negative relationship being more pronounced amongst POCF. Additionally, the results demonstrate that the relationship between IOW and AUDRL varies depending on the domicile of IIs (local vs. foreign). Specifically, local institutional investors exhibit a negative and statistically significant relationship with AUDRL, whilst foreign institutional investors show a positive and statistically significant relationship with AUDRL.Originality/valueThe results of this study provide a new understanding of auditor responses to institutional investor monitoring and political connections (PCs) in an emerging economy.

Sustainability reporting quality in Malaysia: The intricacy of family controlled and politically connected firms

AbstractThe study contributes to the existing literature by examining the relationship between family‐controlled firms (FCFs), politically connected firms (PCFs), and sustainability reporting quality (SRQ) in Malaysia. The study utilizes panel regression techniques to test the hypotheses. The study's findings revealed that FCFs have a significant negative effect on SRQ. On the other hand, PCFs show a positive significant effect on SRQ. Moreover, the study uncovers a significant and positive interacting effect of PCFs in the relationship between FCFs and SRQ. The implication of this is that politically connected family‐controlled firms (PCFCFs) exhibit higher levels of sustainability performance and disclosure quality. The study offers valuable implications for regulators, scholars, and practitioners. Policymakers can use the insights from this paper to develop regulations and guidelines that encourage family‐controlled firms to improve the quality of their sustainability disclosures. Furthermore, the study provides a foundation for further research in this domain to confirm the result of the present investigation.

Diverse human resource slack and firm innovation: Evidence from politically connected firms

This study explores how political connections help firms promote innovation in emerging markets by facilitating the acquisition of required resources and knowledge and establishing collaborative relationships with external partners. Further, we emphasize that reconfiguration and acquisition of resources and knowledge are critical for firms to seize the opportunities by focusing on the role of human resource (HR) slack and state ownership in the innovation process. By specifying the HR slack based on the accumulated knowledge and experience of employees, we explain that the way firms integrate the resources and knowledge from political connections with an appropriate type of HR slack critically affects firm innovation. We also argue that state ownership strengthens the capabilities of politically connected firms to acquire resources and knowledge for firm innovation because political connections and state ownership enable firms to establish a dual pathway to access resources and knowledge. Based on data from 3229 Chinese listed firms over a decade, our findings show the importance of highly-skilled HR slack to adequately allocate and absorb the resources and knowledge from political connections to foster firm innovation. The results also highlight the significance of state ownership in promoting innovation within politically connected firms.

Does Bankruptcy Reforms Enhance Firm Performances for Politically Connected Firms? Evidence from India

Using a sample of 1,953 listed firms on the National Stock Exchange from 2009 to 2021, we investigate whether politically connected firms alter their cash holding patterns following the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) reforms introduced in 2016. We also examine the impact of changes in a firm’s cash holdings on its performance. Results show that politically connected firms reduced their cash holdings following the implementation of IBC in 2016, as new reforms better protected creditors through strict enforcement rights. We also find that politically connected firms with large amounts of cash perform poorly in the post-IBC period compared to their nonconnected peers. The results are robust after excluding the COVID-19 period and controlling for firm size, leverage, and business group affiliations. JEL Codes: G32; G34; G38

The moderating effect of political connection on the relationship between non-audit services and accounting quality: Evidence from an emerging market

This study investigates whether the provision of non-audit services (NAS) is associated with accounting quality and whether political connection moderates the relationship between the NAS and accounting quality. The sample includes 2,245 firm-year observations from Malaysia during the period 2013–2017. This study uses the absolute value of discretionary accruals to measure accounting quality. We find that provision of high NAS leads to low accounting quality, exhibited by high discretionary accruals. We also find that politically connected (PCON) firms show higher discretionary accruals than non-PCON firms. However, the PCON firms weaken the positive relationship between NAS on discretionary accruals suggesting a substitutive role of political connections in determining the effect of NAS on accounting quality. We further document a non-linear association between NAS and discretionary accruals, whereby the provision of NAS would lead to low discretionary accruals after an optimal point. Therefore, regulators need to weigh the costs and benefits of regulating NAS and consider the moderating effects of PCON firms and the non-linear effect of NAS. This study adds to the limited, albeit substantial, evidence on the joint effect of PCON firms and NAS on accounting quality.

The effect of political connections on firms' auditor choice decisions and audit opinions: evidence from Egypt

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how different types of corporate political connections (PCs) affect auditor choice decisions (and, therefore, audit quality) and audit opinions following the 2013 Egyptian uprising.Design/methodology/approachThis paper utilizes a unique hand-collected dataset on the type of PCs of Egyptian listed companies from 2014 to 2019. Several analyses are employed to test the hypotheses, including logit regression, probit regression and generalized linear mixed models (GLMM). A number of additional analyses are conducted to ensure the robustness of the results, including the instrumental variables (IVs) probit models and propensity score matching (PSM).FindingsThe results show that firms' choice of auditor and audit opinion is heavily influenced by firms' PCs. Companies with PCs through boards of directors and major shareholders hire Big 4 audit firms to enhance corporate legitimacy; however, government-linked companies usually retain non-Big 4 audit firms to avoid increased transparency and to conceal improper activities, including tunneling and rent-seeking. Further, the results indicate that companies with PCs through boards of directors or major shareholders are more likely to receive favorable audit opinions, whereas government-owned businesses are less likely to receive such opinions.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides additional evidence to policymakers that binding regulations and guidelines are necessary to oversee politically connected firms (PCFs) and to enhance governance and investor protection.Originality/valueThis study provides the first empirical evidence on how corporate PCs influence the choice of auditors and the opinions of audit firms in Egypt. This paper also sheds light on the impact of different types of corporate PCs on the choice of auditors and audit opinions.

Political Connection Types and Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Malaysia

This study examines whether dissimilar types of politically connected firms (PCFs) are related to corporate tax avoidance. Additionally, it investigates whether this association is moderated by chief executive officer (CEO) shareholding and institutional ownership. Using the dataset of Malaysian public listed companies from 2002 till 2018, our findings suggest that PCFs are associated with higher corporate tax avoidance which is largely driven by older PCFs and government-linked companies (GLCs). Further analyses reveal that the association between older PCFs and GLCs and higher corporate tax avoidance is stronger in firms with higher CEO shareholding and institutional ownership.

The Exogenous Shock of General Elections: Politically Connected Firms and Stock Price Crash Risk

Malaysia experienced unusual political turmoil during the general elections in 2008 (GE 2008) and 2013 (GE 2013). This study examines how such exogenous political shocks affect the stock price crash risk of politically connected firms (PCFs) compared to non-PCFs in Malaysia. The data for this study covers from the year 2002 to 2017. A balanced panel of 529 firms from 2002-2017 is used for analysis. This study finds that PCFs display a significantly lower stock price crash risk after GE 2008 and GE 2013 but not before GE 2008. However, the results are only applicable to the PCFs through the politically connected board of directors and businessmen. Further analysis reveals that increasing foreign (government) strategic free float shareholdings result in lower stock price crash risk of PCFs through the politically connected board of directors (government direct shareholdings). Our results provide several perspectives on the connection between stock price crash risk and political stability.

The corporate risk-taking and performance of politically connected firms: evidence from Malaysia

PurposeOne of the significant components of a firm's overall sustainability is establishing and nurturing governance. This study attempts to understand how politically connected firms maintain sustainability measures in terms of risk-taking strategies. This paper has two purposes. The first purpose is to provide empirical evidence on the politically connected (PC) firms' corporate risk-taking and performance. The second purpose is to investigate the moderating impact of PC firms' risk on corporate performance.Design/methodology/approachTo conduct the analysis to test our hypothesis efficiently, data has been collected from Bloomberg and annual reports of all Malaysian PC and non-PC companies. The final sample comprises 561 firms over the investigation period 2010–2019. The methodology entails Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions of the impact of the PC firms on corporate risk-taking and performance. The authors also conduct t-tests of the equality of means of corporate risk-taking and performance between PC and non-PC companies.FindingsThe authors’ results show that politically connected firms undertake significant less corporate risk and relish higher financial performance than their counterparts. It implicatively insinuates that the presence of a politician on the board enables the management to mitigate the risk-taking, which makes the firms more profitable. The authors’ results corroborate network theory, suggesting that political ties alleviate the agency issue and safeguard the shareholders' interest.Research limitations/implicationsThe study's results were important as they highlighted the sustainable development of PC and non-PC companies, offering insights to researchers, policymakers, regulators, financial report users, investors, environmental unions, employees, clients and society.Originality/valueThis paper is novel since it is unique in evaluating sustainable practice in PC and non-PC firms.

Corporate social responsibility and future bankruptcy

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the cross-sectional differences on the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and future bankruptcy along the dimensions of political connection and corporate governance strength. This study intends to provide evidence on the tangible benefits for firms to invest in social capital of CSR activities and offer insights on what firms may benefit more from CSR expenditure.Design/methodology/approachRunning a logistic regression on the determinants of bankruptcy model after controlling for financial stress factors based on prior literature, this study examines the moderating effect of political connection and corporate governance on the association between corporate social responsibility and future bankruptcy.FindingsCurrent study documents that the negative association between corporate social responsibility and future bankruptcy is only significant for politically connected firms, but insignificant for non-politically connected firms. Specifically, the authors find that one standard deviation increase of CSR expenditure significantly reduces the propensity of future bankruptcy by 53.20% for politically-connected firms. Conversely, the negative relation between CSR only exits for firms with weak corporate governance but do not exit for firms with strong corporate governance.Research limitations/implicationsCurrent study provides evidence on the tangible benefits for firms to invest in social capital of CSR activities and offers additional insights on what firms may benefit more from CSR expenditure.Originality/valueCurrent study extends the research to examine the cross-sectional variations in the negative association between CSR performance and the propensity of bankruptcy. The positive moderating effect of political connection on CSR and bankruptcy suggests that political connection and CSR are complements in reducing the propensity of future bankruptcy. A more pronounced negative association between CSR and bankruptcy for firms with weaker governance suggests that firms with weak corporate governance benefits more in engaging CSR activities than firms with strong corporate governance.

Government power and the value of political connections: Evidence from Covid-19 economic lockdowns

The value of political connection is driven by economic power, rather than the political power of the government per se. We examine this with Malaysia's Covid-19 economic lockdowns where the government gained unprecedented economic power. Changes of 3 governments over 2020-2021 allow us to verify whether changes in political power per se creates value. Our event study shows politically connected (PCON) firms outperform non-PCON firms during total economic lockdowns. However, after the easing of restrictions, investors reallocate their investments to non-PCON firms. Lastly, changes in government do not affect the value of PCON firms because there is no election mandate.

Environmental legitimacy pressure, political connection and impression management of carbon information disclosure

Using sample firms from eight energy-intensive industries included in the State Council of China’s Notice on the Pilot Work of Carbon Emission Trading from 2015 to 2019, this study examines the relationship between environmental legitimacy pressure and impression management of carbon information disclosure, and explores the moderating effect of political connection on this relationship. The baseline results show that environmental legitimacy pressure is positively associated with impression management of carbon information disclosure, and political connection moderates this relationship, that is, the positive association between environmental legitimacy pressure and impression management of carbon information disclosure in politically-connected firms is stronger than that in non-politically-connected firms. The results are robust to various sensitivity tests. Further analyses show that (i) the positive association between environmental legitimacy pressure and impression management of carbon information disclosure in non-state owned enterprises (non-SOEs) is stronger than that in SOEs, (ii) firms facing higher negative environmental legitimacy pressure have stronger motivation to conduct impression management of carbon information disclosure, (iii) firms facing environmental legitimacy pressure conduct both selective disclosure and expressive manipulation but they have stronger motivation to conduct expressive manipulation. This study extends the literature on impression management of carbon information disclosure. The findings in this study provide policy implications not only for China but also for countries with large carbon emission.

Female directors’ monitoring and earnings quality: the moderating effect of political connections and family ownership

PurposeThis study aims to examine whether the monitoring effectiveness of female directors in corporate boards is moderated by political connections and family ownership.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs a Malaysian dataset of listed firms from 2005 to 2015. The ordinary least squares model (OLS) is used to test all the research questions.FindingsThe authors find that female directors' monitoring is associated with higher earnings quality. This implies effective monitoring by female board directors. However, the monitoring effectiveness by female directors is attenuated by political connections; consistent with the argument that politically connected firms (PCFs) are plagued by severe agency problems. On the other hand, the association between female directors and higher earnings quality is strengthened by family ownership, indicating less severe type 1 agency problem.Originality/valueThis study is the first to show that the monitoring capability of female board directors is significantly influenced by a country's institutional setting. Although prior studies find that higher proportion of female directors is associated with higher earnings quality; the findings suggest that institutional setting such as political connections (family ownership) attenuate (strengthen) the monitoring effectiveness of female directors in the corporate board.

Are politically connected firms in Brazil worried about anti-corruption disclosure?

PurposeDue to the mixed evidence regarding politically connected (PCON) firms and voluntary disclosure, the authors seek to investigate the direction of the association between Brazilian PCON firms and their level of information disclosed in the fight against corruption. This study is conducted in a developing country with a weak judicial system where board members or directors with political connections can operate without any oversights.Design/methodology/approachThe authors empirically test our hypothesis that voluntary anti-corruption disclosure is negatively associated with political connections. Content analysis, Wilcoxon Rank and Pearson Correlation were employed in a sample of 30 companies that belong to sectors with the highest risk of corruption, between 2014 and 2016, the period of Brazilian elections. A sample of 90 observations is used with data collected from annual reports of companies listed on the São Paulo Stock Exchange in Brazil.FindingsThe study’s results indicate a positive and significant association between the level of voluntary anti-corruption disclosure and corporate political connection, confirming our second hypothesis. PCON firms could seek to improve their legitimacy after recent corporate corruption scandals discovered in Brazil where government members participated in the schemes of bribe and money laundering and embezzlement. Although our sample is composed of firms in industries of high corruption risk, which could increase bias, the results improve the literature with empirical contribution that has given little attention to the issue.Originality/valueThe latest corruption scandals in Brazil showed that companies were involved with government officials, corruption is one of the country's biggest issues for diverting public resources to basic needs such as education and health. The relationship between political connections and voluntary disclosure is an open empirical question, particularly dealing with anti-corruption. The study’s findings bring light on the subject, which deserves greater attention not only from researchers but from the society that is most affected by corruption.

Types of politically connected firms and analysts' earnings forecast

PurposeThis study examined the effect of different types of politically connected (PCON) Malaysian firms on analysts' forecast accuracy and dispersion.Design/methodology/approachThe study identified different types of PCON firms according to Wong and Hooy's (2018) classification, which divided political connections into government-linked companies (GLCs), boards of directors, business owners and family members of government leaders. The sample covered the period 2007–2016, for which earnings forecast data were obtained from the Institutional Brokers' Estimate System (IBES) database and financial data were extracted from Thomson Reuters Fundamentals. We deleted any market consensus estimates made by less than three analysts and/or firms with less than three years of analyst forecast information to control for the impact of individual analysts' personal attributes.FindingsThe study found that PCON firms were associated with lower analyst forecast accuracy and higher forecast dispersion. The effect was more salient in GLCs than in other PCON firms, either through families, business ties or boards of directors. Further analyses showed that PCON firms—in particular GLCs—were associated with more aggressive reporting of earnings and poorer quality of accruals, hence providing inadequate information for analysts to produce accurate and less dispersed earnings forecasts. The results were robust even after addressing endogeneity issues.Research limitations/implicationsThis study found new evidence of the impact of different types of PCON firms in exacerbating information asymmetry, which was not addressed in prior studies.Practical implicationsThis study has a significant practical implication for investors that they should be mindful of high information asymmetry in politically connected firms, particularly government-linked companies.Originality/valueThis is the first study to provide evidence of the impact of different types of PCON firms on analysts' earnings forecasts.

Political Connections, Family Ownership, and Firm Performance: An Emerging Economy

Emerging economies are characterised by a high proportion of family-owned businesses, significant political corruption, and a weak legal system which creates a more favourable environment for politically-connected family firms. Hence, we investigate the effect of political connections on firm performance in family and non-family-owned firms through advanced panel estimation techniques. Our result is based on a sample of publicly listed 150 non-financial firms from Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) over the period 2013–2018. We demonstrate that politically connected family-owned firms perform better than non-family owned connected firms. These findings have important policy implications for countries such as Pakistan which have experienced recent increases in the number of family-owned firms.

The Determinants of External Auditors’ Independence for Politically Connected Firms in Malaysia

The auditing profession is a major concern for stakeholders and has been in a quagmire for the past years. To overcome the concern, client firms must take the initiative to assure that the management does not put pressure on the external auditors. Therefore, firms need to take part in positively influencing external auditors‟ independence to reduce the complexity of audit procedures, and consequently, improve external auditors‟ independence. Thus, the determinants of factors are needed to assure and maintain the independence of the external auditors at any time to perform their audit work. Hence, the main objective of this study is to examine the determinants of external auditors‟ independence among politically connected firms in Malaysia. The determinants are classified into two which are, first, auditor attributes namely, audit tenure and non-audit fee, and second, audit committee characteristics which consist of audit committee‟s independence and audit committee‟s diligence. Four hypotheses were developed and tested using a total of 46 sample firms from 2014 to 2018 with 230 firm-year observations. This study used secondary data from which the information was obtained from annual reports and DataStream. The results reveal that non-audit fee and audit committee‟s diligence influenced external auditors‟ independence, whereas audit tenure and audit committee‟s independence did not. Altogether, this study has provided useful information and implications for the professional bodies and Bursa Malaysia to help strengthen the principles of auditors‟ independence in politically connected firms.
 Keywords: Auditor Attributes, Audit Committee, Auditor Independence, Political Connection

Political connections, government ownership, and earnings management: evidence from Jordan

This study examines the impact of political connections and government ownership on accrual and real earnings management. Based on a Jordanian sample of 310 firm-year observations, the study finds evidence that politically-connected firms exhibit a higher level of real earnings management, compared to non-politically-connected firms. This evidence suggests that politically-connected firms in Jordan opportunistically manipulate reported income to obtain a private gain through the use of real activities-based manipulation, at the expense of other minority shareholders. This may be caused by real earnings management activities being less subject to the risk of detection and monitoring. Further, the study finds evidence that government-connected firms engage in a lower level of accrual and real earnings management compared to non-government-connected firms, suggesting a positive effect for government ownership on the quality of financial reporting.

Dividend payout policies of politically connected firms: Evidence from Malaysia

This study expounds on the debate regarding dividend payouts for different types of politically tied firms in Malaysia. We recognize the heterogeneity of political ties of politically connected firms (PCFs) by government-linked companies (GLCs) and non-GLC PCFs. The results show that PCFs are positively related to dividend payouts and that PCFs, specifically GLCs, pay higher dividends than their counterparts. Additionally, our results demonstrate that high- and low-levered GLCs consistently pay higher dividends than non-GLC PCFs and non-PCFs. These findings imply that GLCs implement special dividend policies, and therefore, a high GLC payout might not be indicative of actual performance. In brief, shareholders and potential investors should be cautious in interpreting firm payout signals.

Political Connections Reduce Job Creation: Firm-level Evidence from Lebanon

Using firm-level data, we document that politically connected firms (PCFs) create more jobs than unconnected firms in Lebanon. We observe, however, that the presence of PCFs in a sector is correlated with lower job creation. Although causality is difficult to establish due to endogeneity issues, we find that PCFs expand, and non-PCFs retract, more around elections. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that unfair competition by PCFs hurts unconnected competitors so much that aggregate employment growth in the sector is affected negatively.