Dr. San Martín-Mosqueira, Pablo

Purpose Despite global economic liberalization, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) banking sector remains uncompetitive and resistant to globalization. This study aims to extend corporate governance (CG) literature by examining the interplay between CG, national culture and bank performance, using data from listed banks in MENA countries. Design/methodology/approach This research analyzes 1,920 bank-year observations from 124 banks across 13 MENA countries from 2009 to 2023. National culture data was sourced from Hofstede’s index, and panel data techniques were used to account for individual heterogeneity and endogeneity issues. Findings Empirical results reveal that larger boards, well-structured committees with nonexecutive directors, fewer board meetings and limited involvement of independent directors significantly enhance bank performance. These governance structures align with key cultural traits such as high power distance, collectivism and uncertainty avoidance, which favor hierarchical decision-making, group consensus and stability. Practical implications This study provides practical insights for policymakers aiming to improve banking sector performance in MENA by aligning CG frameworks with cultural values. Recommendations include forming larger, well-structured boards and adapting decision-making processes to reflect the region’s preference for stability and collaboration. These insights can serve as a practical guide for improving governance systems in MENA and beyond. Originality/value While previous studies have explored the impact of CG and national culture on banking, this study is the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to integrate both factors within the MENA context, offering a comprehensive perspective on their combined impact on bank performance.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate how gender diversity and remuneration of boards of directors’ influence earnings quality for Spanish-listed firms. Design/methodology/approach: The sample includes 105 nonfinancial Spanish firms from 2013 to 2018, corresponding to an unbalanced panel of 491 firm-year observations. The primary empirical method uses a Tobit semiparametric estimator with firm- and industry-level fixed effects and an innovative set of measures for earnings quality developed by StarMine. Findings: Results exhibit a positive correlation between increased gender diversity and a firm’s earnings quality, suggesting that a gender-balanced board of directors is associated with more transparent financial reporting and informative earnings. We also find a nonmonotonic, concave relationship between board remuneration and earnings quality. This indicates that beyond a certain point, excessive board compensation leads to more opportunistic manipulation of financial reporting with subsequent degradation of earnings quality. Research limitations/implications: This study only covers nonfinancial Spanish listed firms and is silent about how alternative board features’ influence earnings quality and their informativeness. Originality/value: This study introduces measures of earnings quality developed by StarMine that have not been used in the empirical literature before as well as measures of board gender diversity applied to a suitable Tobit semiparametric estimator for fixed effects that improves the precision of results. In addition, while most of the literature focuses on Anglo-Saxon countries, this study discusses board gender diversity and board remuneration in the underexplored context of Spain. Moreover, the hand-collected data set comprising financial reports provides previously untested board features as well as a nonlinear relationship between remuneration and earnings quality that has not been thoroughly discussed before.

Capital structure theories are unable to properly explain the zero-debt puzzle, frequently observed in firms around the world. Our paper’s contribution is to identify the variables that measure either firm’s characteristics or environmental effects, in order to explain why firms have and eventually keep a debt-free policy. Our study includes a comprehensive sample of firms from 47 countries in the period 1996–2014. Our results indicate that all equity companies are small, with no growth opportunities, with a low level of tangible assets, high proportion of liquid assets, profitable, and with diluted insider ownership. Furthermore, it is more probable to find low levels of debt in countries with good governance indicators or when the economy is not growing.