Independent Directors' Tenure, Expropriation, Related Party Transactions, and Firm Value

This chapter analyses the relationship between related party transactions (RPT) and firm value and whether independent directors' tenure (IDT) strengthens or weakens this relationship. Further, it examines ownership concentration's role on this moderating effect of IDT in Malaysian family and non-family corporations. It is found that that IDT weakens the relationship between RPT and firm value. However, ownership concentration strengthens this moderating effect of IDT. Interestingly, family corporations are more likely to show a stronger impact of ownership concentration which we allude to concerns of maintaining reputation. The research results remain after controlling for technology corporations. The findings' have important implications for policy makers, practitioners and regulators, especially in emerging economies globally.Keywords: Agency Conflict, Corporate Financial Valuation, Independent Directors' Term in the Office, Corporate Governance, Family Corporations, Emerging Markets

ESG Materiality

Sustainable finance proponents argue that integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into investment decisions should have a positive long-term material impact on financial performance and ultimately benefit wider society as a whole. This chapter is based on interviews and an ESG materiality survey that was run among 20 prominent South African asset managers. The results demonstrate that if there is a growing awareness of ESG factors among the respondents, there are some perceived tensions around how to practically embed ESG factors within investment processes. In addition, the results show that the integration of ESG factors into financial valuation are not yet mainstream and that more needs to be done to demonstrate how the integration of ESG factors within investment processes materially impacts financial performance and meanwhile contributes to the sustainable development of economies.

The Rhetorical Handling and Construction of Uncertainty in Tax Litigation Concerning Valuation of Financial Instruments

A tax litigation concerning the value of non-traded financial instruments is impregnated by uncertainty. The aim of this paper is to study how uncertainty inherent in financial valuation models is discursively and rhetorically handled and constructed by the litigating parties as well as the court. A discourse analysis guided by the notion of hedging is conducted on The Swedish Tax Agency v. PwC (2013, 2014). The analysis demonstrates a sparse use of hedging. Rather, certainty characterizes tax litigation. However, the analysis shows that the litigating parties as well as the court participates in the construction of claims as facts, distancing themselves from their own claims and decisions.

EXPRESS: The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Brand Sales: An Accountability Perspective

Consumers are increasingly mindful of CSR when making purchase and consumption decisions. While extant research suggests small, positive effects of CSR on measures of firm financial valuation, consumers' behavioral response to CSR initiatives in the form of actual purchase decisions remains undocumented. This paper introduces a framework categorizing firm-initiated CSR efforts as “Corrective,” “Compensating,” or “Cultivating goodwill” actions, and documents the influence of these different types of CSR on brand sales. Leveraging a database of CSR press releases and sales data from leading CPG brands, the authors examine the effect of CSR announcements on brand sales. The findings suggest that CSR initiatives that genuinely seek to reduce a brand's negative social or environmental impact (“Corrective” and “Compensating”) produce the greatest sales lift, while CSR actions consisting of purely philanthropic-type efforts (“Cultivating goodwill”) can actually hurt sales. The experimental results show that, conditional on CSR reputation, consumers perceive varying degrees of sincerity in the different CSR types, which mediate the effect of CSR type on purchase intentions. Overall, the results suggest that consumers are more inclined to reward firms that directly reduce the negative by-products of their own business practices than to be impressed by public goodwill gestures.

Circular Economy and Value Creation: Sustainable Finance with a Real Options Approach

This paper presents a methodological proposal that integrates the circular economy concept and financial valuation through real options analysis. The Value Hill model of a circular economy provides a representation of the course followed by the value of an asset. Specifically, after the primary use, the life of an asset may be extended by going through four phases: the 4R phases (Reuse, Refurbish, Remanufacture and Recycle). Financial valuation allows us to quantify value creation from firms’ asset circularity under uncertainty, modelled by binomial trees. Furthermore, the 4R phases are valued as real options by applying no-arbitrage opportunity arguments. The major contribution of this paper is to provide a quantitative approach to the value of circularity in a general context that is adaptable to firms’ specific situations. This approach is also useful for translating relevant information for stakeholders and policy makers into something with economic and financial value.

Valuation of a Company Producing and Trading Seaweed for Human Consumption: Classical Methods vs. Real Options

Aquaculture is an increasingly relevant sector in the exploitation of natural resources; therefore, it is appropriate to propose various models that include the fundamental variables for its economic-financial valuation from a business point of view. The objective of this paper is to analyze different models for the valuation of investment projects in a company in the aquaculture sector in order to conclude whether there is a model that represents a better valuation. Therefore, in this study, four valuation models have been applied, three classical models (net present value, internal rate of return, and payback) and a more recent model, real options (RO) for a company producing and marketing seaweed in Galicia (region located in the northwest of Spain). The results obtained, RO (€5,527,144.04) and net present value (€5,479,659.19), conclude that the RO model estimates a higher added value by taking into account in its calculations the flexibility given by the expansion option. Future lines of research include the application of valuation models that have been applied to companies belonging to the same sector in order to compare whether the results found are similar.

The Financial Valuation Risk in Pepper Production: The Use of Decoupled Net Present Value

Greenhouse peppers are one of the most important crops globally. However, as in any production activity, especially agricultural, they are subject to important risk factors such as price fluctuations, pests, or the use of bad quality water. This article aims to evaluate the viability of these types of crops by using discounted cash flows. Risk evaluation has been carried out through the analysis of pepper plantations for 2016 and 2017. The traditional application of this tool has significant limitations, such as the discount rate to be used or the estimation of future cash flows. However, by using discount functions that decrease over time in combination with decoupled net present value, these limitations are expected to improve. The use of decoupled net present value has permitted an increase in the accuracy and quantification of risks, isolating the main risks such as price drops (EUR 3720 ha−1 year−1) and structural risks (EUR 1622 € ha−1 year−1). The use of decreasing discount functions has permitted a more realistic investment estimation. Finally, the sensitivity analysis shows that decoupled net present value (DNPV) is little affected by changes in interest rates in contrast to traditional net present value (NPV).

The time that money requires: Use of the future and critique of the present in financial valuation

The future is persistently considered in the sociology of finance from two divergent, problematic angles. The first approach consists in supplementing financial reasoning with an acknowledgement of the expectations that are needed in order to cope with an uncertain future and justify the viability of investment decisions. The second approach, often labelled critical, sees on the contrary in the logic of finance a negation of the future and an exacerbation of the valuation of the present. This is an impasse the response to which resides, we suggest, in considering the language of future value, which is indeed inherent to a financial view on things, as a political technology. We develop this argument through an examination of significant episodes in the history of financial reasoning on future value. We explore a main philosophical implication which consists in suggesting that the medium of temporality, understood in the dominant sense of a temporal progression inside which projects and expectations unfold, is not a condition for but rather a consequence of the idea of financial valuation.