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The main objective of this study was to identify the specific characteristics of companies in Cameroon and to highlight the factors that explain their reluctance to be listed on the stock market. Thus, in order to build the state of the art appropriate to this objective, we had to follow three lines of investigation: the theories related to the listing of firms on the stock market, their specific characteristics, and the cross-fertilization of these two fields. On the basis of the literature, four explanatory hypotheses were deduced: they are related to the shareholding structure of firms, to the financial characteristics, to the size of the firm and to the socio-demographic characteristics of the managers. To test these hypotheses, a survey was conducted among 40 SAs in the city of Douala. The data was processed with the SPSS 20 software and we used flat sorting, cross-sorting, pearson correlation test as well as linear regression. This methodology allowed us to obtain the results according to which the family and filial character and the size of the company are mainly the factors of reluctance of the listing on the stock exchange on the one hand, and the behavioral factors of the company managers, in particular the level of education and the experience on the other hand.

We examine the security and firm characteristics of a sample of 2,027 non-convertible investment grade floating rate securities (bonds) issued by the US based firms between 1980 and 2018. These bonds pay a coupon based on short term reference rate, such as fed funds rate, plus a fixed quoted margin. Considerable number (81.6%) of these issues are between 1992 and 2007 signifying floating rate as an effective mechanism to mitigate firm’s interest rate risk when the rates are high and expected to fall. A positive and significant abnormal return (CAR = 0.27%), in the event window surrounding issue date, provides strong evidence that the floating rate is viewed as a less restrictive provision as compared to the call option. Majority of the issues (89.3%) are non-callable since the floating rate mitigates interest rate risk for the issuing firm. Lack of put provision in these bonds (in only 7.35% of the sample issues) signifies no significant investor concerns of falling bond prices. Regression analysis reveals that firms with growth options and with higher leverage experience positive CAR due to the financial flexibility these bonds provide. Firms with higher level of information asymmetry benefits less from issuing these securities since most of these bonds (90.13%) are issued at par therefore, the price is not likely to carry information content that mitigates information asymmetry between the firms and the investors.

This study aims to systematically review the key characteristics and issues of corporate governance and ownership (CGO) research and to offer directional suggestions concerning the future of CGO research. The Systematic Assessment Quantitative Technique (SQAT) was used to identify and analyze 65 peer-reviewed CGO articles from six high-quality academic databases. The study covered 2009 to 2019 and there is evidence of a growing number of CGO articles over the number of years covered. Most of the studies have taken place in Asia and Europe, while South America has the lowest number of studies.  98% of CGO research has been empirical in nature, which calls for more conceptual studies to give more understanding of the research area because knowledge is dynamic. The primary focus of the articles has been on firm performance and closely followed by regulatory policies. All the CGO articles adopted the quantitative research method, using mainly critical analysis. However, combining both quantitative and qualitative methods will make future studies more robust and give additional insight into various issues of CGO. Finally, the use of only six databases which although contains high quality, peer-reviewed articles, but not all peer-reviewed CGO articles were in the databases. Future systematic reviews can widen the scope of databases to gain further insight.

Using Q investment model to scrutinize investment-cash flow sensitivity, a measure of financial constraint, has been a subject of controversy in literature. By using an alternative model called Error Correction model, this study aims to check the sensitivity between firm’s internal finance and investment level for the case of lower middle income country. Literature has shown that firms’ specific characteristics affect the relation between investment and cash flow of the firms. By considering the unique characteristics of Pakistani corporate sector, this study further target to check whether the investment-cash flow sensitivity differs across size of the firms, group affiliation of the firms and dividend policy of the firms. Our findings indicate that Pakistani listed firms are financially constrained. We find a strong relationship between investment and cash flow for small and non-dividend-paying firms; whereas group-affiliation does not affect investment- cash flow sensitivity of firms.

This study examined the long-run effect of financial leverage on firm value with evidence from a sample of 62 firms quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, over the five-year period between 2014-2018. The level of financial leverage as measured by the Debt-Equity ratio while firm value was represented by Tobin’s Q Market-Book Value Ratio. The study contributes to the literature by appraising the dynamic dimensions of the causal relationship between firm value and financial leverage, an investigation that has remained elusive in indigenous studies. The study determined the degree of long-term causality by employing an auto-regressive model estimated by the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) technique. The regression results show that financial leverage has a significant positive effect on the firm value both in the short and long run, while the result of the correlation analysis carried out reveals that there is a significantly positive and strong linear relationship between the time series of firm value and its lagged version implying that firm value does not demonstrate traits of Mean reversion. The Management of these companies was advised to optimize firm value by undertaking quality projects and relying more on debts for funding.

Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) continue to be major players in the economic growth of Uganda as well as many of the emerging economies. The Uganda Investment Authority had projected 5.5% economic growth by 2030 in anticipation of stable market conditions necessary for the sustained financial performance of SMEs. However, the business failure rate of SMEs in Uganda had persistently revolved around 70% in 2018 from 50% in 2004. This problem had been linked to the turbulent market conditions characterized by intensive competition as well as volatile consumption behavior of the customers. Empirical literature indicates that competitive intensity, as well as volatile customer demand, presents a negative impact on financial performance. Hence, the study sought to determine the moderating effect of market conditions on the capital structure-financial performance relationship of SMEs in Uganda. From a population of 218,561 SMEs, a sample of 453 respondents was selected out of which, 423 responded to the questionnaire. Primary data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression techniques. The hypothesis was tested at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings indicated that Market conditions had a positive and significant moderating effect on the capital structure-financial performance relationship (?= 0.175 and p = -0.027). We conclude that market conditions can strengthen/ weaken the effect of capital structure on the financial performance of SMEs. We recommend that SMEs should evaluate the market conditions during the process of deciding the financing mix for their operations to optimize the impact of capital structure on financial performance

The upper Echelons Theory reiterates the importance of top management in an organization and recognizes that the mangers make decisions that grow the entity. Before the establishment of this theory, the premise was that larger firms which drive high amounts of income, are capable of running themselves without failure. Although Organizations that command large amounts of income are deemed to be successful the upper echelons theory holds that these entities cannot be successful without proper management and guidance by top management where the board of directors in this case is considered as top management organ for SACCOs. Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) have evolved over time from mobilizing savings and granting loans to become established entities that provide banking services to their customers. They require good governance to avoid the experience of financial distress. The current research was therefore aimed at establishing the influence of firm revenue on the relationship between board characteristics and financial distress of deposit taking SACCOs in Nairobi County. Large entities command more revenue as compared to small firms. Board Characteristics is of importance to this study because it influences Corporate Governance which according to previous research has shown that the practice helps revolutionize performance of various institutions. The study is guided by upper echelons theory which reiterates the importance of top management. Descriptive research design was adopted while Nairobi County was purposively chosen and a census was carried out on deposit taking SACCOs in the county. Secondary data was collected from SASRA using a data collection sheet and a panel data analysis performed using STATA software and findings were presented using tables. The study concluded that firm revenue does not mediate the relationship between board characteristics and financial distress of Deposit Taking SACCOs. Though firm revenue should be enhanced, governance should be improved since it remains a critical success factor in alleviation of financial distress.

The presence of contradictory theories and unpredictable empirics calls for this paper to survey the outcome of board traits on financial operation of Nigeria banks. Financial performance of a firm is as important as the firm. Yet, very few studies have examined its impact by the board of directors in Nigeria. Data were obtained and perused using descriptive and inferential figures. Findings show that size of board has significant and constructive bearing on business piece. However, board composition takes undesirable significance. Meetings of board and gender failed to show significance. But, board member nationality and firm size show negative and significant effects. We added by exploring impacts of boards on financial performance. We asked firms to increase the size of the board and engage more independent directors and reduce the number of board diligence and size of the firm. The strong plus impact of board size and firm size on financial operations is an interesting result allowing for additional interrogation of why these behaviours.