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Shiv Nadar University

Finance, Accounting and Control

Purpose: Firms are increasingly making customers key stakeholders in their greening processes, requiring them to voluntarily use their resources to benefit the firm. In this context, this paper develops a new construct – tangible customer citizenship behaviour (CCB), i.e. voluntary participation of customer in operational processes of the company beyond normal requirements of exchange. This requires more involvement than the already documented intangible CCB. The purpose of the paper is to then explore whether service quality (SQ) (online and offline) influences such voluntary customer reciprocity in greening. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a virtual survey among 400 customers of e-commerce firms that have adopted greening practices requiring customer engagement and regressions were used to test the hypotheses. Findings: The authors find that both online and offline SQ positively impact intangible CCB but have no impact on customer greening reciprocity (tangible CCB). Additionally, the authors find that offline SQ positively impacts customer greening awareness. However, in spite of the presence of greening awareness and display of intangible CCB, SQ does not have any impact on greening reciprocity. Originality/value: This study introduces to literature a more tangible form of voluntary behaviour on the part of the customer, i.e. tangible CCB or reciprocity. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is also one of the first to study the customer as an important stakeholder and participant in a business-to-consumer firm’s operating processes, particularly in greening which has no direct impact on the firm’s core offering. The focus on greening in the Indian context is also novel given the greening costs and requirements and the price competition are very different in emerging market contexts where e-commerce firms are experiencing the maximum growth. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

World University root node

(SME) School of Management and Entrepreneurship

Economics

(SoHSS) School of Humanities and Social Sciences

International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences

Customer reciprocity in greening: the role of service quality

We examine how regulatory nudges mandating only disclosure of ownership information and no structural change impact a firm's access to capital based on its organizational form. As a first of its kind, Clause 35 in India (characterized by weak enforcement and concentrated ownership) only required classifying shareholders into insiders and outsiders. Pre-regulation, group-affiliated firms exhibited lesser financial constraints than standalone firms. This reverses post-regulation, especially for group firms with higher insider ownership. More so for those with weaker compensating mechanisms or poorer future performance. In essence, regulation exclusively requiring information disclosure has been effective in reallocating capital more efficiently to firms with fewer agency problems. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics

Organizational form and access to capital: The role of regulatory interventions

Purpose: The study explores extant knowledge on the nature of the relationship between internal and external corporate governance mechanisms, particularly board characteristics and audit quality, respectively, while also investigating how the relationship varies across geographies. Design/methodology/approach: The extant knowledge is synthesized using a meta-analysis, which is conducted using a sample of 56 empirical studies from publications of varying grades. The studies span over 25 years (1996–2021) and cover 147 empirical samples (343,787 firm-year observations) across more than 20 countries. The dependent variable is audit fees, and the independent variable captures 12 different measures of board characteristics. Findings: Overall, the results reveal a positive association between board characteristics and audit fees, indicating complementarity between governance mechanisms. Effect size analysis shows board characteristics, like size and independence, are positively associated with audit fees. However, heterogeneity is noted for some characteristics, and further analysis by geography (developed vs emerging countries) explains the heterogeneity. Practical implications: This study helps multiple stakeholders like firms, shareholders, boards, regulators and policymakers in designing and strengthening governance frameworks. Social implications: Both governance and auditing literature benefit from identifying specific board characteristics that drive audit quality consistently across different institutional settings and samples. Heterogeneity analysis helps improve the understanding of contradictions documented in prior literature. Originality/value: This meta-analysis is the first to explore the interplay between internal and external corporate governance mechanisms, with a focus on board characteristics and audit quality. The study provides valuable insights on how different governance mechanisms influence each other while highlighting, for the first time, how the interaction between governance mechanisms varies by a country's level of development. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Asian Review of Accounting

Board characteristics and demand for audit quality: a meta-analysis

Despite large-scale financial development and banks being the most important credit source globally, banking continues to be plagued by asymmetric information. This uncertainty makes credit risk assessment decisions complex and expensive. In this context, we show how discretionary borrower characteristics, such as the borrower’s network (which can co-insure), help mitigate risk and reduce costs by altering lending decisions. The literature on loan pricing remains focused on objective credit scoring models, while the network literature remains empirical, and borrower based. We fill this void by being the first to theoretically model the lender’s internal decision-making problem when borrowers display discretionary default risk-mitigating attributes such as network strength. We find that the interest rate reduces as the network strength increases. As constraints set in and borrowing becomes more competitive, banks rely even more on network information to parse out better borrowers. Finally, banks substitute monitoring effort with network strength for a more feasible interest rate. This will increase lending, even to borrowers outside the banks’ purview earlier. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Applied Economics

Mitigating credit risk: modelling and optimizing co-insurance in loan pricing

Purpose: Limited previous studies about Vietnamese returned migrant workers reviewed that a relatively high rate of migrants returned home before their contract ended. This paper aims to explore how the decisions to return were made under social lenses. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyses data obtained through in-depth interviews of contract workers who had worked in Taiwan with a focus on Phu Tho province in Vietnam. Findings: The authors followed O’Reilly’s (2012) adaption of Practice theory in migration research to examine a group of Vietnamese labour migrants returning from Taiwan. Under this theory, external and internal structures are the two divisions of the social environment. The authors identified external structures that might enable or constraint migrant’s mobility. When negotiating internal structures, Vietnamese women might end their contract early in response to family obligations. Originality/value: The findings provide insights into how women make their decisions when to return, which may contribute to a better understanding of how to assist women engaged in transnational labour migration. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy

Influence of social structures on transnational migration duration: the case of Vietnamese contract workers returning from Taiwan

Learning outcomes: The primary teaching objective is to discuss the capital raising efforts of a firm under financial distress. It also provides supporting data to calculate cost of capital, DuPont/modified DuPont values and Altman’s Z-Score that can appropriately be incorporated into the discussion. Case-B provides information and data of the company’s recent performance and to changes in bankruptcy law in India. Overall, this case study provides ample scope to discuss, understand and provide the solution to the following key corporate finance themes as follows: 1. Analyzing accounting statements and examine potential earnings quality issue. 2. Predicting default and bankruptcy using qualitative analysis, financial ratios, traditional and modified DuPont models and Altman’s Z score model. 3. Examining the capital raising efforts of a distressed firm, which has already defaulted on borrowings. 4. To explore the impact of changes in regulation on the turnaround efforts of the firm as well as on the promoters of the firm. Case overview/synopsis: Since 2005, Amtek Auto moved at a breathtaking speed with the goal of reaching $10bn in sales, from the current level of about $1.2bn. The group had acquired more than a dozen companies spending about Rs.5,000cr. ($850m) during this period primarily through borrowed funds. However, the market and business expansion was not happening as expected. The company’s capacity utilization was just about 40% (approx.) during much of this period. The mounting fixed costs of operation and debt servicing grew to the level of unsustainability, led the firm to default on its borrowing. Now the company had to quickly recapitalize itself to run its operations and retain the premier position in auto component industry. The company and its promoters were considering various methods of debt restructuring, asset sale and further equity infusion. Complexity academic level: Introductory and elective level corporate finance. Supplementary materials: Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code: CSS 1: Accounting and Finance. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies

Amtek Auto – financing under distress

Public family firms in India represent an interesting case of relatively high ownership concentration combined with high growth opportunities, less competitive product markets and less developed capital markets. Investigating the relationship between ownership concentration and stock market performance, our initial analysis indicates insignificant average abnormal stock returns at low levels of family holdings but weak positive performance at high levels of ownership in the full sample of family and non-family firms and the family subsample. These aggregate results appear robust to alternative metrics of abnormal performance, controls for founder, descendant, and outside CEOs. Further analysis of subsamples of less and more competitive product markets indicates that while the vast majority of family firms enjoying high growth opportunities in less competitive market environments exhibit poor performance at lower ownership levels, those firms with higher family holdings are associated with significantly positive abnormal returns. However, the relation between family ownership and firm valuation under high growth prospects becomes insignificant for a much smaller fraction of firms facing high product market competition. Overall, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that positive alignment of interest effects offset family entrenchment effects on firm performance at high levels of ownership concentration common in India where most firms face high growth opportunities and less product market competition. These results challenge the evidence in western developed economies marked by relatively weaker growth rates and stronger product market rivalry that the performance of family firms tends to decline at high ownership concentration due to entrenchment. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.

Pacific Basin Finance Journal

Ownership concentration and stock returns: Evidence from family firms in India

We study bidding by anchor investors in a two-stage initial public offering (IPO) process and document a negative, causal relation between allocation to anchor investors and underpricing. We find that anchor investors are likely to invest in hard-to-place offerings characterized by valuation uncertainty. We also document a positive relation between allocation to reputed anchor investors and returns up to lock-up expiration. Our evidence provides support for information revelation and targeting specific investors’ theories of book building. Anchor-backed IPOs earn superior returns mainly due to monitoring. Who bids in an IPO seems to matter just as particular types of bids do. © 2018 Financial Management Association International

Fulltext

Financial Management

Allocation to Anchor Investors, Underpricing, and the After-Market Performance of IPOs

Reliance Communications Ltd., a large, Indian telecom company has experienced severe financial difficulties brought on by poor management practices, an ill-conceived capital expenditure of more than $6 billion, a debt load of $5.8 billion, and changing industry dynamics. Interestingly, two analysts at a Canadian Investment Research firm gave a "sell" recommendation on the stock with a target price of INR 15 when the stock was trading at INR 93. The analysts also pointed out a possible rip-off of minority shareholders by the firm's founders. The company's stock price fell from a high of INR 844 in 2008 to INR 46 in 2012. The company is in the process of restructuring its assets and liabilities. The case considers the economics of the business from the perspective of shareholders. Students are required to assess the company's performance and decide whether they would invest in the company's shares. The first half of the case describes the company's constituent businesses and the strategy followed by the wireless division. This gives students an opportunity to critique RCL's marketing strategy and pricing of its services. The second half describes the company's financial strategy, the instruments it issued and its restructuring initiatives. The case allows students to examine problems associated with high leverage and the challenges to restructuring in emerging markets. © 2017 World Scientific Publishing Company.

Asian Case Research Journal

Reliance Communications Ltd.: A House of Cards?

In November 2012, Wipro Ltd., a NYSE listed IT Services company, announced its plan to demerge the non-IT businesses into an unlisted entity - Wipro Enterprises. The case highlights the governance, valuation, and ethical issues surrounding the demerger. Shareholders were given three options to choose from. But, in reality, they had no choice but to exchange Wipro Enterprises shares that they would receive after the demerger with Wipro Ltd shares because Wipro Enterprises would remain unlisted. The case asks the student to analyze the restructuring from an investor's perspective. The case is especially interesting in that it provides a platform to discuss governance issues in the context of a familyowned public firm. It demonstrates how the preferences of majority shareholders can affect the wealth of minority shareholders. © 2017 World Scientific Publishing Company.