Women on corporate boards around the world: Triggers and barriers

One of the institutions in which the gender gap remains a contestable issue is the board of directors, where the proportion of female directors is still low. While some countries have achieved higher proportions of female directors on their corporate boards, others have not registered even a single one. Drawing on social role theory, that places emphasis on traditional gender activities, this study starts by arguing that board directorship is an agentic role and more suitable for men. The study shows that key social institutions have the potential to alleviate such stereotypical attitudes or to maintain the status quo. Employing a robust statistical technique in two-stage least squares (2SLS), this study finds that the representation of women in other key national institutions, such as in politics, positively affects the appointment of female directors on boards. On the other hand, religiosity has a negative causal effect on female board appointments

Insecticide resistance and the future of malaria control in Zambia.

BACKGROUND: In line with the Global trend to improve malaria control efforts a major campaign of insecticide treated net distribution was initiated in 1999 and indoor residual spraying with DDT or pyrethroids was reintroduced in 2000 in Zambia. In 2006, these efforts were strengthened by the President's Malaria Initiative. This manuscript reports on the monitoring and evaluation of these activities and the potential impact of emerging insecticide resistance on disease transmission. METHODS: Mosquitoes were captured daily through a series of 108 window exit traps located at 18 sentinel sites. Specimens were identified to species and analyzed for sporozoites. Adult Anopheles mosquitoes were collected resting indoors and larva collected in breeding sites were reared to F1 and F0 generations in the lab and tested for insecticide resistance following the standard WHO susceptibility assay protocol. Annual cross sectional household parasite surveys were carried out to monitor the impact of the control programme on prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum in children aged 1 to 14 years. RESULTS: A total of 619 Anopheles gambiae s.l. and 228 Anopheles funestus s.l. were captured from window exit traps throughout the period, of which 203 were An. gambiae malaria vectors and 14 An. funestus s.s.. In 2010 resistance to DDT and the pyrethroids deltamethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin and permethrin was detected in both An. gambiae s.s. and An. funestus s.s.. No sporozoites were detected in either species. Prevalence of P. falciparum in the sentinel sites remained below 10% throughout the study period. CONCLUSION: Both An. gambiae s.s. and An. funestus s.s. were controlled effectively with the ITN and IRS programme in Zambia, maintaining a reduced disease transmission and burden. However, the discovery of DDT and pyrethroid resistance in the country threatens the sustainability of the vector control programme

State Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence From the Chinese Listed Firms

Based on a sample of Chinese listed firms, this paper seeks to understand the role of state ownership on firm performance (accounting-based returns) and firm value (market-based indicators). Results show that state ownership is positively associated with firm performance. In addition, state ownership has a moderating effect on the association between firm performance and firm value. At low levels of state ownership, firm performance is negatively associated with firm value. However, at high levels of state ownership, the association becomes positive. Drawing on signaling theory, the study helps to understand the role of state ownership in the association between firm performance and firm value, an area that has received minimum attention in research.Specifically, state ownership may be a strategic asset for Chinese listed firms boosting accounting returns but perceived differently by the market.Given the current levels of state ownership in many transitional economies, this study sheds light for policy makers on the effects of high or low levels of state ownership on firm performance and value. Moreover, the study may assist would-be investors who may contemplate investing in privatized SOEs, in China or other countries with similar institutional arrangements

Neo-institutional theory and institutional change : executive share options in Germany

This study focuses on one element of corporate governance, Executive Stock Options (ESOs) in Germany. The fact that ESOs are purely an Anglo-American innovation, and are now getting adopted in Germany; a country whose corporate governance system is so much different from that of the UKlUSA, makes this study more interesting. Several studies on executive compensation have used agency theory as a theoretical lens. On the contrary, this study employs neo-institutional theory, a theoretical lens that embraces socio-economic factors within the firm's institutional and market environment. In general, early institutional theory was associated with path dependence and inertia. In international corporate governance, it has been used as an explanation for the continued divergence of national systems in certain contexts. However, recent developments in neo-institutional theory, under a combination of the New Institutional Sociology strand and the Old Institutional Economics strand identify the circumstances in which change is likely to occur, and this theory is developed to produce hypotheses in relation to governance changes. The adoption in Germany of the US practice of rewarding executives with stock options is chosen as a governance institution suitable for empirical testing. Results show significant hypothesized associations between firms' ESO adoption and institutional variables such as the presence of US investors, declared shareholder value commitments, dispersed share ownership and large block-holdings. Profits seem to act as an enabling resource for ESO adoption, rather than low profits creating a crisis and a greater willingness to adopt ESO changes. This study adds theoretical development in the study of corporate governance, especially to the debate on governance convergence. Indeed, German corporate governance is far from converging on the American system, and as shown in this study, changes in the German system suggest a 'hybrid' of firm corporate governance. With a lot of institutional changes taking place in transition economies (e.g. China and Eastern Europe), the European Union, and developing countries, this study has great relevance for policy makers and firm-level strategy.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

R&D investments in emerging market firms:the role of institutional investors and board interlocks

Despite the increase in institutional investor shareholdings in emerging market firms, their impact on R&D investments has received scant attention in the literature. By integrating agency and resource dependence perspectives, we examine the role of different types of institutional investors and their interactions with board interlocks in shaping their preference for R&D investment in their portfolio firms. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 2,478 Indian firm‐year observations from 2005 to 2019, using various estimation techniques. Our results indicate that different categories of institutional investors have distinct preferences for R&D investment. Specifically, we find that ownership by both foreign institutional investors and mutual fund investors negatively impacts R&D investments in firms. While board interlocks positively moderate the impact of institutional investors such as banks and financial institutions and foreign institutional investors on R&D investments in firms, this moderation is negative in the case of mutual fund investors and R&D investments in firms. We contribute to the understanding of the determinants of R&D investments in emerging market firms, with a specific focus on institutional investor ownership and add to the nascent literature on the interaction between two forms of governance, i.e., ownership and board characteristics, in shaping this firm strategy

Top executive compensation, regional institutions and Chinese OFDI

Integrating agency and institutional theories, this paper examines the impact of top-executive compensation and regional institutions on the outward FDI(OFDI) of a sample of Chinese-listed firms. The results show that top-executive cash pay and equity ownership have a positive association with OFDI. Differing from previous studies focusing on cross-country institutional variances, we take variations in within-country institutions into account and find that regional institutions in terms of product markets, factor markets and legal systems play an important role in OFDI and positively moderate the governance role of managerial equity ownership

Declining Burden of Malaria Over two Decades in a Rural Community of Muheza District, North-Eastern Tanzania.

The recently reported declining burden of malaria in some African countries has been attributed to scaling-up of different interventions although in some areas, these changes started before implementation of major interventions. This study assessed the long-term trends of malaria burden for 20 years (1992--2012) in Magoda and for 15 years in Mpapayu village of Muheza district, north-eastern Tanzania, in relation to different interventions as well as changing national malaria control policies.\ud Repeated cross-sectional surveys recruited individuals aged 0 -- 19 years from the two villages whereby blood smears were collected for detection of malaria parasites by microscopy. Prevalence of Plasmodium falciparum infections and other indices of malaria burden (prevalence of anaemia, splenomegaly and gametocytes) were compared across the years and between the study villages. Major interventions deployed including mobile clinic, bed nets and other research activities, and changes in national malaria control policies were also marked. In Magoda, the prevalence of P. falciparum infections initially decreased between 1992 and 1996 (from 83.5 to 62.0%), stabilized between 1996 and 1997, and further declined to 34.4% in 2004. A temporary increase between 2004 and 2008 was followed by a progressive decline to 7.2% in 2012, which is more than 10-fold decrease since 1992. In Mpapayu (from 1998), the highest prevalence was 81.5% in 1999 and it decreased to 25% in 2004. After a slight increase in 2008, a steady decline followed, reaching <5% from 2011 onwards. Bed net usage was high in both villages from 1999 to 2004 (>=88%) but it decreased between 2008 and 2012 (range, 28% - 68%). After adjusting for the effects of bed nets, age, fever and year of study, the risk of P. falciparum infections decreased significantly by >=97% in both villages between 1999 and 2012 (p < 0.001). The prevalence of splenomegaly (>40% to <1%) and gametocytes (23% to <1%) also decreased in both villages.Discussion and conclusionsA remarkable decline in the burden of malaria occurred between 1992 and 2012 and the initial decline (1992 -- 2004) was most likely due to deployment of interventions, such as bed nets, and better services through research activities. Apart from changes of drug policies, the steady decline observed from 2008 occurred when bed net coverage was low suggesting that other factors contributed to the most recent pattern. These results suggest that continued monitoring is required to determine causes of the changing malaria epidemiology and also to monitor the progress towards maintaining low malaria transmission and reaching related millennium development goals

Mutual funds, tunneling and firm performance:evidence from China

© 2019, The Author(s). In contrast to US companies, Chinese firms have concentrated ownership with the effect that the central agency problem emanates from controlling shareholders expropriating minority shareholders, a phenomenon referred to as ‘tunneling’. This study examines the monitoring effect of mutual funds on the tunneling behavior of controlling shareholders. Due to the distinctive institutional settings in China, including a high level of ownership concentration, underdeveloped legal system in the stock markets and weak governance mechanisms in the mutual fund industry, we find that an increase in mutual fund ownership effectively mitigates the tunneling behavior of controlling shareholders thus improving firm performance. Nonetheless, after the mutual fund ownership reaches a certain threshold, an increase in concentrated mutual fund ownership is associated with heavier tunneling and lower firm performance. This may suggest that concentrated mutual funds collude with controlling shareholders in order to preserve their private interests. Moreover, the above effects are found to be more pronounced for firms with heavier tunneling activities. Our finding of the non-monotonic monitoring role of mutual funds brings attention to the private interest theory for mutual funds, an aspect that has been largely ignored in previous studies on mutual funds

Narrative Theology in an African Context

The African Shona have yet to find a religion that accepts and cherishes their spiritual and cultural heritage. A theology that accommodates their social and cultural progress while allowing them to express their cultural evolution and practices is needed. As Zimbabwe was colonized by the British from Britain or the United Kingdom in Western Europe, this research will investigate if British colonial periods impacted traditional Shona perspectives about God, beliefs, humanity, and their role in the context of globalization. Christian Shona Africans are still undergoing an identity crisis due to the unfavorable concepts and actions of British colonialism as well as the actions of some missionaries. Because Africans are no longer an afterthought when it comes to Bible study and attempts to establish theology on the continent, the research will strive to suggest that there be an endeavor to create a theology that correctly recognizes the Shona African people’s spiritual and cultural history. That is, Shona African people should communicate their Christian philosophy and theology in culturally relevant ways. If the gospel is to be authentically proclaimed in Africa, Africans must have the freedom to read and reinterpret the Bible in light of their culture and worldview within the confines of the scriptures. This includes seeing significant individuals and events in the Bible from an African perspective while combining narratives or storytelling, African customs, and traditions that have been altered to fit within their cultural framework and given access to their African narrative worldview