A. (Atiqa) Rehman, PhD

Corporate social performance of family firms: An international analysis

We investigate the importance of both firm-level and country-level governance characteristics in explaining the differences in Corporate Social Performance (CSP) between family firms and non-family firms. Using Propensity Score Matching on a large international sample for the period 2002-2016, we show that family firms have lower and statistically significant CSP vis-à-vis non-family firms. This evidence supports behavioural agency problems relating to self-interest and the intention to keep control, which is explained by the concept of socioemotional wealth in family firms. We further analyse the effects of differences in country-specific governance characteristics between the country of the family firm and the country of the matched non-family firm on the difference in CSP between similar family and non-family firms. Our results support the view that country-level governance differences also play important role next to the firm-level attributes to corporate governance in explaining the differences in CSP between family and non-family firms

Carbon Disclosure, External Financing and Financial Development

Using resource dependence theory, this study focuses on firm-level external financing as a driver of voluntary disclosure of carbon emissions. We investigate the impact of the sum of net new equity and debt financing on the likelihood of disclosing carbon emissions. Using an international sample of 24,218 firm-year observations from 35 countries, we show that firms with net new external financing driven in the previous year are more likely to disclose carbon emission in the current year. Moreover, the likelihood of carbon disclosures increases with new external financing in countries with low financial development or weak efficient capital markets and decreases in countries with high financial development or strong efficient capital markets. We further analyse the consequences of carbon disclosures on the cost of capital. Our results support the view that firms with more net new external financing and disclosing carbon emissions have a lower cost of capital.