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This paper aims to examine the impact of announcements related to 77 interventions by 46 listed Indian pharmaceutical firms during COVID-19 on the abnormal returns of the firms. The study also finds the variables which explain cumulative abnormal returns (CARs).

This study uses standard event methodology to compute the abnormal returns of firms announcing pharmaceutical interventions in 2020 and 2021. Besides this, the multilayer perceptron technique is applied to identify the variables that influence the CARs of the sample firms.

The results show the presence of abnormal returns of 0.64% one day before the announcement, indicating information leakage. The multilayer perceptron approach identifies five variables that explain the CARs of the sample companies, which are licensing_age, licensing_size, size, commercialization_age and approval_age.

The study contributes to the efficient market literature by revealing how firm-specific nonfinancial disclosures affect stock prices, especially in times of crisis like pandemics. Prior research focused on determining the effect of COVID-19 variables on abnormal returns. This is the first research to use artificial neural networks to determine which firm-specific variables and pharmaceutical interventions can influence CARs.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the motives of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M & A) by Indian companies for the period 1998 through 2009. The study has also attempted to ascertain the post-merger paybacks realized by the sample acquirer companies. It also identifies the motives which help in improving the post-merger performance. The preference of the motives and post-merger paybacks realized across the development status of the host economy, age and industry of the company has also been found.

This paper uses a survey approach to collect the responses over the motives and post-merger paybacks. Statistical tools, namely, Likert scale, factor analysis, independent samples t-test and binary logistic regression have been used.

The study found that there are five motives of cross-border M & A – value creation, improvement in efficiency, market leadership, marketing and strategic motives and synergistic gains. The results also indicated that the acquirer firms expect cost and financial efficiency, stakeholders’ benefits and employee welfare post acquisition. The motive of value creation significantly improves the post-merger financial performance.

The study has only considered the cross-border M & A but not domestic M & A.

The research is an attempt to understand the dynamics which are responsible for motivating Indian companies to go abroad for acquisitions. Thus, it would help the prospective Indian acquirer companies to focus on the motives which help in improving the post-merger financial performance.

This research paper is original as it explores the motivation of Indian companies for entering into cross-border M & A. It adds to the extant literature of cross-border M & A by emerging economies multinational enterprises.

Introduction: The effect of environmental regulations or green policies on the financial health of businesses is still up for debate. The Prime Minister of India presented a bold plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070 at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow (UK). Following this announcement, numerous Indian companies voluntarily committed to becoming carbon neutral to support the ambitious emission reduction targets. A growing body of research examines the link between environmental standards compliance and businesses’ sustainability measures, and how they affect their overall performance (profitability, stock returns, or output generation).

Purpose: The research assesses the effect of these voluntary announcements on the stock performance of Indian companies in the context of voluntary commitments to reduce carbon emissions.

Methodology: Concentrating on the announcement impact of carbon neutrality commitments/carbon emissions reductions of 52 Indian companies, the study considers carbon neutrality pledges/carbon emissions reduction from 2018 to 2022. The sample companies list was taken from various indices on the National Stock Exchange. A standard event study methodology is applied to compute abnormal returns during the event window of (−10, 10).

Findings: The results show that companies announcing the carbon neutrality pledges/carbon emissions reduction received significantly negative abnormal returns of 0.49% on announcement day. The cumulative average abnormal returns for different windows are also negative. It signifies that investors don’t value the environmentally sustainable actions of firms. It may also be because of investors’ ignorance of carbon neutrality pledges and their importance, highlighting the need to educate investors about the significance of corporate sustainability initiatives.