Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

On Sgx’S Voyage To Corporate Sustainability: Exploring Emerging Topics In Multi-Industry Corpora, Xinwen Ni, Min Bin Lin, Simon J.D. Schillebeeckx, Wolfgang Karl Hardle

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Topic modeling and LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) have proven valuable in various fields as an innovative approach to studying areas of interest and identifying topics in a dynamic content. The underlying assumption is that techniques like LDA can swiftly capture emerging topics in textual documents compared to other categorization tools. These unsupervised approaches have been used to identify new industries and technological domains. However, our study on the nascent topic of “sustainability” within the corpora of SGX-listed companies highlights clear limitations in employing techniques like LDA on sparse data. The dynamic LDA approach, also called DTM (Dynamic Topic Modelling),based on …

The Impact Of Stakeholder Orientation On Tax Avoidance: Evidence From A Natural Experiment, Gary Chen, Ani Manakyan Mathers, Bin Wang, Xiaohong Wang

Finance Faculty Research and Publications

We study the effect of stakeholder orientation on corporate tax avoidance. Using the staggered passage of constituency statutes across U.S. states between 1983 and 2006, we show that greater stakeholder orientation results in increased tax avoidance. We further find greater tax avoidance among firms with limited financial resources and that employees benefit from the change. Our results are consistent with stakeholder salience theory that resource-constrained managers prioritize the claims of salient stakeholders, such as employees, at the expense of secondary stakeholders, such as the government.

Green Banking Practices: The Impact Of Internet Banking On Bank Profitability In Egypt, Rania Pasha, Bassel Elbages

Business Administration

This is the first study to use a quantitative approach in examining the impact of internet banking implementation as a green banking practice on bank profitability in Egypt. Moreover, it is the first global study to differentiate the impact between basic and advanced transactional internet banking on bank profitability. A total of 20 banks operating in Egypt were sampled over two time periods: 2009–2018 and 2014–2018. Random effects generalized least squares (GLS) regression analysis and nonparametric analysis were used. Findings indicate that advanced transactional internet banking, as a green banking practice that contributes to the Egyptian sustainable development strategy (SDS), …

Climate Change And Sustainability In Asean Countries, David K. Ding, Sarah E. Beh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The ASEAN region is one of the most susceptible regions to climate change, with three of its countries—Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand—among those that have suffered the greatest fatalities and economic losses because of climate-related disasters. This paper reveals that the ASEAN’s environmental performance is sorely lagging other regions despite evidence of its cohesive and comprehensive efforts to mitigate emissions and build up adaptive capacity to climate-related disasters. Within the ASEAN, there exist gaps in environmental performance between each country. This suggests that increased cooperation between individual ASEAN countries is pertinent for the region to collectively combat climate change. In …

The Business Of Sustainability, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Price points, fundraising, and scaling are the unavoidable and necessary parts that turn sustainability dreams into reality. It helps to have investors that believe in both the mission and business

Creating Value In Sustainability, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

You can create value when you deliver what the market demands or if you can identify and remove costs from the system. But it does not take away ‘Oh sh*t!’ moments

The Global Sustainability Footprint Of Sovereign Wealth Funds, Hao Liang, Luc Renneboog

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

With the emergence of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) around the world managing equity of over $8 trillion, their impact on the corporate landscape and social welfare is being scrutinized. This study investigates whether and how SWFs incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in their investment decisions in publicly listed corporations, as well as the subsequent evolution of target firms' ESG performance. We find that SWF funds do consider the level of past ESG performance as well as recent ESG score improvement when taking ownership stakes in listed companies. These results are driven by the SWF funds that do have …

Scarcity In The Twenty-First Century: How The Resource Nexus Affects Management, Simon J. D. Schillebeeckx, Mark Workman, Charles Dean

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Since theadvent of the 21st century and especially since the food andfinancial crisis in 2008, concerns about natural resource availability haveresurfaced. While scarcity concerns date back hundreds of years and arefoundational to economics, how scarcity is interpreted or framed has evolved significantlyin the last two centuries. In this chapter, we recount the evolving scarcity discourseand specifically address the most recent iteration that centres on the idea ofa resource nexus. While significant attention to the nexus has been paid bypolicy-makers and scholars interested in especially water, management scholarshave so far remained absent from these debates. Given recent calls to address grand …

Using Formal Concept Analysis To Examine Water Disclosure In Corporate Social Responsibility Reports, Gary Kleinman, Chu Hua Kuei, Picheng Lee

Department of Accounting and Finance Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) water disclosures vary in content, leading to concern about the quality and extent of such disclosures. This paper employs formal concept analysis (FCA) to examine water reporting of selected companies in the US food and beverage industry that have followed the water guidelines set forth by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and in the disclosure guidelines of the CEO Water Mandate. Assessments of water consumption and water withdrawal were cited more often in our sample firms' CSR reports. FCA results also identify the major focus of our sample firms as setting sustainable water management goals and …

Fossil Fuel Asset Risk Analysis: Clark University Endowment, Travis A. Dodge, B. Maiwand Akbari

Student Works

The environmental and social risks of climate change are well known and perhaps inevitable. The economic and financial risks are less so. The many financial risks associated with climate change embedded in endowment portfolio fossil fuel holdings are leading many institutional stakeholders to enter into dialogue and take action. Divestment is emerging as an effective strategy for limiting portfolio exposure and tackling climate change itself.

Our team’s goals were to assess whether the Clark University endowment portfolio faces any of these risks and evaluate the impacts on asset values. Our findings show that the Clark endowment does face these same …

Leviathan Inc. And Corporate Environmental Engagement, Po-Hsuan Hsu, Hao Liang, Pedro Matos

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In a special report in 2010, The Economist called the resurgence of state-owned mega-enterprises, especially those in emerging economies, “Leviathan Inc.”, and warned about the dangers of the state capitalism model. Traditionally, state-owned firms have been criticized for poor governance and questionable efficiency. In fact, they may be better positioned to deal with market failures and externalities. Our findings based on publicly-listed firms in 45 countries suggest that government-controlled companies engage more in environmental issues, and this engagement does not come at a cost to shareholder value. The effect is more pronounced among firms in emerging market economies and in …

Sustainable Architecture Design: Environmental And Economic Benefits, Michael Babcock

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis examines the movement of environmentalism, and its impact on architecture and construction. During an interview with a professional architect, a basis for research of sustainable design was devised, when he explained that “good” architecture attempts to holistically integrate the external and built environment. Presently, the main measurement for sustainability is energy efficiency. Therefore, architects constantly implement new technology in an attempt to unify both the external and built environment in an energy efficient manner. Furthermore, this thesis provides an environmental and financial cost analysis of implementing sustainable design and build. Research shows that the life cycle and up-front …

The Myth Of Endless Accumulation: A Feminist Inquiry Into Globalization, Growth, And Social Change, Martha Freymann Miser

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This theoretical dissertation examines the concept of growth and its core assumption—that the continual accumulation of wealth is both socially wise and ecologically sustainable. The study challenges and offers alternatives to the myth of endless accumulation, suggesting new directions for leadership and social change. The central question posed in this inquiry: Can we craft a more ethical form of capitalism? To answer this question, the study examines conventional and critical globalization studies; feminist scholarship on standpoint, political economy, and power; and the Enlightenment notions of progress and modernism, drawing on a number of works, including Aristotle on the three intelligences, …

Frameworks For Systemic And Structural Analysis Of Financial Innovations In Infrastructure, Ali Mostafavi, Dulcy M. Abraham

Infrastructure System-of-Systems (I-SoS ) Research Group

Financial innovations have emerged globally to close the gap between the rising global demand for infrastructures and the availability of financing sources offered by traditional financing mechanisms such as fuel taxation, tax-exempt bonds, and federal and state funds. The key to sustainable innovative financing mechanisms is effective policymaking. This paper discusses the theoretical framework of a research study whose objective is to structurally and systemically assess financial innovations in global infrastructures. The research aims to create analysis frameworks, taxonomies and constructs, and simulation models pertaining to the dynamics of the innovation process to be used in policy analysis. Structural assessment …