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Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of corporate culture, measured by corporate social responsibility (CSR), on the likelihood and severity of corporate fraud. CSR literature indicates that corporate managers are moral actors and are obliged to exercise their discretionary decisions according to their moral standards. Based on the moral development theory, this study argues that higher managers' ethical values reflected by higher CSR activities are less likely to commit fraud and have lower severity of fraud.


Design/methodology/approach
This study argues that at the firm level, corporate culture can be measured by firms' CSR activities. Using probit, match-pair, propensity matching and Heckman regressions on a sample of 152 criminal corporate fraud cases in the USA from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) during 2000 and 2010, this study empirically examines the impact of CSR, CSR strengths and concerns scores on the likelihood and the severity of corporate fraud.


Findings
Firms with higher CSR and CSR strengths (concerns) scores have lower (higher) likelihood and lower (higher) severity of corporate fraud. This study finds that firms with higher community, employee, environment and product-related CSR have lower likelihood of fraud, and firms with higher diversity, employee, environment and product-related CSR have lower fraud severity.


Practical implications
Establishing a positive corporate ethical culture is essential to curb the outbreak of corporate fraud that threatens our societal norms. The findings also shed some light for investors, corporate board of directors and regulators to consider CSR as a reflection of top managers' moral values that is negatively related to the occurrence and severity of corporate fraud.


Social implications
Strengthening moral values among top executives and employees in corporations by encouraging CSR activities aid our society to alleviate future outbreak of epidemic problem for corporate fraud.


Originality/value
This study brings a new perspective that there is a relationship between corporate ethical culture within an organization, measured by CSR activities, and corporate fraud based on the cognitive moral development theory in organization.

Purpose
This study aims to examine the relationship between the duration (in days) of states' shelter-in-place orders; state demographic characteristics; and the rates of spread (cases), death (mortality), and recovery of COVID-19 in the USA.


Design/methodology/approach
State-level data across 50 states and Washington D.C. from January 23, 2020, to June 11, 2020, and a multivariate regression analysis were used to empirically investigate the impacts of the duration of shelter-in-place orders and state demographic characteristics on the rates of cases, mortality and recovery per capita of COVID-19.


Findings
This study finds that a longer duration of a shelter-in-place order is associated with lower cases and deaths per capita from COVID-19. This study also finds that demographic characteristics, such as the percentage of people who are unsheltered homeless, family size, percentage of individuals with health insurance, income inequality, unemployment rate, gender and race, are related to cases, mortality and recovery rates of COVID-19.


Social implications
This study offers policy implications for state and locality (e.g., city, region and country) lockdown decisions and salient demographics to consider curbing the spread and mortality rate of the COVID-19 pandemic. Study results are important to consider as the world braces for the anticipated resurgence of COVID-19.


Originality/value
This study reveals that the duration of shelter-in-place orders and demographics in states are related to the rates of spread, mortality, and recovery of COVID-19.

Purpose
This study aims to examine the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure and the moderating role of board network centrality and political connections on the nexus between EPU and ESG.


Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of the UK Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 350 firms during 2007 to 2018, this study examines the relationship between EPU and the ESG disclosure and the moderating effects of board centrality and board political connections using multivariate regression analysis.


Findings
The results show that firms tend to increase their ESG disclosure when EPU rises. The results also reveal that EPU is negatively associated with firms' financial performance and ESG performance is less evident for firms with higher ESG disclosure scores and is observed only when board centrality is relatively low and the political connections are absent. The study finds further evidence to support the hypotheses during periods of heightened conflicts (i.e. global financial crisis and the Brexit referendum).


Practical implications
This study offers practical insights for corporate managers who attempt to preserve and enhance their firms' competitive advantages via maintaining its stakeholders support through greater ESG disclosure during heightened EPU periods.


Originality/value
By integrating the resource-based view (RBV) and the signaling theory, this study extends the signaling theory and RBV by examining the relationship between EPU and ESG disclosure as a signal to its stakeholders and information advantages that board centrality and political connections bring to the company to reduce information asymmetry between the firms and its stakeholders during EPU.

PurposeDrawing from social capital, social network theory of stakeholder influence and stakeholder management, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between board network centrality and firms' environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance.Design/methodology/approachUsing social network analysis, the authors construct five board network centrality, namely, degree centrality (the number of connections), closeness centrality (distance among firms), eigenvector centrality (the quality of connections), betweenness centrality (how often a firm sits between two other firms) and the information centrality (the speed and reliability of information), as measures of board access for social capital and timely information.FindingsUsing a sample of non-financial firms listed in the UK FTSE 350 index from 2007 to 2018, the authors find that board networks, measured by degree, closeness, eigenvector, betweenness and information centrality, has positive influence on firms' ESG performance. Furthermore, the findings show that there is a non-linear relationship between board networks and ESG performance, and this relationship is stronger in the sectors where firms that have high product market concentration and high percentage of women board members.Originality/valueThis study unveils that strong board network centrality brings higher social (reputational) capital and information advantages to the firm to effectively, timely and accurately deal with the pressures from stakeholders (stakeholder management), which leads to better ESG performance.

AbstractWe examine the compensation strategies of commercial bank holding companies (BHCs) during 1992–2000. In particular, we analyze whether CEO compensation is more closely tied to the presence of growth options and to risk than is revealed in earlier research. We also examine whether BHC entry into investment banking has influenced compensation policies. Our evidence shows a stronger link between growth options and CEO compensation in the 1990s than observed in earlier studies and that pay‐for‐performance sensitivities are substantially larger for BHCs that have entered the underwriting business. We also find that BHC leverage and variability in returns have positive effects on CEO incentive pay. Finally, we find some evidence supporting the hypothesis that pay‐for‐performance sensitivities decline generally at BHCs as return variability increases, as agency theory predicts.

Purpose
This study identifies the factors that influence companies to obtain the B corporation certification. Drawing from institutional isomorphism, gender socialization theory, the ethics of care and social identity theory, the authors examine the impact of geographic locality, product market competitions and owners' demographic characteristics on a firm's decision to be a certified B Corporation.


Design/methodology/approach
Using two sets of data, a hand-collected sample of 743 small businesses receiving a B Corporation certification between 2007 and 2014 and a sample of 902 firms participating in a B Lab survey from 2011 to 2013, the authors examine factors that influence firms' decision to obtain the B Corporation and their environment, social and governance (ESG) performance.


Findings
Firms in states that are democratic-leaning, have a lower hourly wage rate or have a greater religious population are more likely to be early adopters and leaders of the B Corporation movement than those in other states. On average, states with a higher unemployment rate and more democratic-leaning voters have more B Corporation certified firms in each year and over the years. Additionally, product market competition is positively associated with firms' likelihood of obtaining B Corporation certification and their ESG scores.


Practical implications
This study brings new insights to the understanding of purpose-driven enterprises and factors that influence firms' decision to go through the B Corporation verification and certification process.


Originality/value
This study establishes a theoretical foundation that becoming a B Corporation is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) action and shows that existing theories explaining the factors motivating companies to engage in CSR can also be applied to explain firms' motivation to become B Corporations.