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The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to investigate the dynamic impact of board composition (board size, board independence and board diversity) on independent corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices (marketplace, environment, community and workplace). Second, it tends to examine the mutual effect of board composition and CSR practices on organizational returns (return on assets and Tobin’s Q) of 631 Malaysian PLCs listed on Bursa Malaysia during 2006-2017.

The dynamic model (system GMM) provided by Arellano and Bond (1991) and Arellano and Bover (1995) is used for estimations that control for potential dynamic endogeneity, reverse causality, unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity problems.

Findings reveal weak linkage between board composition and CSR practices where only board diversity is found to be positively linked to marketplace practices of CSR. Further, the mutual impact of board composition and CSR practices on organizational returns suggests board size be positive and board independence to be negative with Tobin’s Q. Board diversity is negative with ROA and positive with Tobin’s Q. Conversely, CSR practices indicate marketplace practices are positive and community practices are negative with Tobin’s Q, environment practices are insignificant with performance, whereas workplace practices are positive with ROA and negative with Tobin’s Q.

This research is practically considerable for Bursa Malaysia, Securities Commission Malaysia, policymakers, stakeholders, investors and managers. For academia, the theoretical linkages between agency theory, resource dependence theory, resource-based view and stakeholder theory are highlighted. Moreover, methodological underpinnings are also novel for academicians as well as for practitioners.

The paper uncovers multiple aspects: first, it elaborates the dynamic relationship between board composition and CSR practices; second, it examines the combined effect of board composition and CSR practices on company’s accounting and market gains; finally, the study controls for dynamic endogeneity that is the main econometric problem for CG-CSR-performance relationships.

This study serves two objectives; first, it examined the impact of ownership structure and board characteristics on firm value; second, the moderating effects of board gender diversity (women appearance on board) and board ethnic diversity (Chinese, Indian, and Foreign ethnicities) have been examined on the relationship between ownership structure, board characteristics, and firm value.

The dynamic model, system generalized method of moments (S-GMM hereafter), is employed to control potential dynamic endogeneity, reverse causality, simultaneity and unobserved heterogeneity persistent in corporate governance-performance relationships during 2006–2017 of 483 Malaysian listed companies.

Findings pertaining to objective one reveal that there is a weak linkage between ownership structure and firm value, whereas board characteristics significantly affect firm performance based on resource dependence theory. While considering the results of objective two, there is mixed evidence of moderating impact of board gender and ethnic diversity on ownership structure, board characteristics and performance nexus.

The findings of the study are practically significant for regulatory bodies, namely, Bursa Malaysia, Securities Commission (SC) Malaysia, and policymakers to develop guidelines for ownership structure variables. Moreover, Malaysian firms need to disperse their concentrated ownership structure for enhanced firm value. In addition, board characteristics significantly affect firm performance in Malaysian listed companies.

The paper contributes to multiple aspects: first, it examined the impact of ownership structure and board characteristics on firm performance. Second, the moderating effect of board gender and board ethnic diversity contributes to research significant and valuable for the researchers and practitioners. Finally, the study employed S-GMM, controlling for dynamic endogeneity considered a main econometric problem for CG-performance relationships.

Momentum returns are considered an anomaly in the finance literature as their existence cannot be fully explained under the asset pricing paradigm. This study attempts to shed more light on this anomaly by investigating the determinants of momentum returns.

The panel data technique is applied to the sample of 40 countries worldwide from 1996 to 2018. The authors use the panel-corrected standard error (PCSE) model to estimate the coefficient of World Governance Indicators (WGI), whereas the fixed effect model is used to determine the coefficient for corporate governance indicators (CGIs). The choice of PCSE estimation methods is guided by the fact that WGI variables are subjected to serial correlation, heteroskedasticity and cross-sectional dependence problems while CGI variables are not. Furthermore, a composite WGI index is constructed using principal component analysis (PCA).

Regression analysis shows a negative and significant relationship between WGI index and momentum returns. The negative coefficient value of WGI supports the prediction of the overreaction hypothesis, which postulates a lower behavioral bias in the market with high governance quality. Breaking down of the WGI by their six indicators reveals that four of the indicators (control over corruption, government effectiveness, stability and avoidance of violence) are negative statistically significant with momentum returns while two indicators are not significant. As for CGIs, only one (strength of investor protection) of the four tested indicators is negative and significantly related to momentum returns.

The study fills the gap in economic literature by highlighting the association between governance quality at the country (WGI) and firm level (CGI) on stock momentum returns.