Browsing by Author "Alam A"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Climate change and geopolitical conflicts: The role of ESG readiness
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2024-02-27) Alam A; Banna H; Alam AW; Bhuiyan MBU; Mokhtar NB; Evans JM
    This study examines the relationship between climate change vulnerability and geopolitical risk using data on 42 countries from 1995 to 2021. Utilising two distinct indices, the climate vulnerability index (CVI) and the country-specific geopolitical risk (CGPR) indices, we find that countries with high vulnerability to climate change are more likely to experience geopolitical conflicts. Further analysis reveals that country-level overall economic, social, and governance (ESG) readiness significantly mitigates this detrimental effect. This moderation is mainly attributed to the social and governance readiness measures. Additional tests indicate that the mitigating role of ESG is more pronounced for countries with high institutional governance. These results remain resilient through a set of endogeneity tests using matched samples of countries generated through propensity score matching (PSM) estimation. Our findings suggest that addressing climate vulnerability is crucial to promoting global peace and geopolitical stability.
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    Does female director expertise on audit committees matter for carbon disclosures? Evidence from the United Kingdom
    (Elsevier Inc, 2024-06) Abbasi K; Alam A; Bhuiyan MBU; Islam MT
    We investigate whether accounting and non-accounting female financial experts on audit committees influence carbon disclosures. Based on a sample of listed firms from the United Kingdom for 2009–2015, our findings show that non-accounting female experts on audit committees increase carbon disclosures. Our results support the view that non-accounting female experts possess greater business knowledge and are skilled in foreseeing the impact of management’s decisions, thus, enhancing carbon disclosures. Furthermore, our results are robust to alternative estimation techniques and endogenous concerns. We also find that firms in less carbon-intensive industries benefit from higher carbon disclosure in the presence of female non-accounting experts on audit committees. This study contributes to the recent research on corporate governance and carbon disclosures. Further, it extends recent studies identifying the specific characteristics of female directors that enhance environmental disclosures. Moreover, we respond to the calls for research on the personal attributes of directors and carbon disclosures by examining whether the accounting and non-accounting expertise of female directors on audit committees affects carbon disclosures.
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    Problem Directors and Corporate Risk-Taking
    (John Wiley and Sons Ltd on behalf of British Academy of Management, 2023-10-20) Bhuiyan MBU; Liu J; Alam A; Johan S
    This study investigates the impact of a ‘problem director’ on the risk-taking propensity of a firm and its consequences for firm value. Analysing a sample of US companies, we find that corporate risk-taking propensity increases when a firm appoints a problem director. Our results are of economic significance, indicating that a one standard deviation increase in problem director's score leads to a 2.33% to 4.17% increase in corporate risk-taking. Mediation analysis reveals that a problem director increases firm risk-taking through reducing financial reporting quality. Further, a firm's risk-taking increases when a new problem director joins the board, and the damaging effect persists even after the problem director has left. Moreover, if a chief executive officer (CEO) is a problem director, s/he displays a greater predisposition for risk-taking. Moreover, when a problem director also sits on a board led by a problem CEO, we determine that the former will have an even greater propensity to take risks. Further analysis determines that the presence of problem directors damages long-term firm value in the aftermath of risk-taking behaviour. Overall, this study provides fresh evidence revealing a web of connections between a problem director, ineffective corporate governance and a decline in firm value.