Table 2 Variable description
Variable name | Abbreviation | Definition | Prior Studies |
|---|---|---|---|
Dependent variables | |||
Return on Assets | ROA | Net income divided by average total assets | Ahmadi et al. (2018), Đặng et al. (2020), Frijns et al. (2016), Jiang et al. (2020), Liu et al. (2014), Ye et al. (2019) |
Price to Earnings Per Share | PER | Stock price divided by earnings per share | Fu et al. (2016), Letting’ et al. (2012) |
Independent variables | |||
Board gender diversity variables | |||
Number of Women on Board | NOWOMBRD | Number of women on board | Byoun et al. (2016), Liu et al. (2014), Maj and Bębenek (2017), Ye et al. (2019) |
Percentage of Women on Board | PERWOMBRD | Number of women on board divided by board seats | Ahmadi et al. (2018), Conyon and He (2017), Haque and Jones (2020), Low et al. (2015) |
Percentage of Female Executives | PERFEMEXE | Number of women executives divided by total executives | Liu et al. (2014), Low et al. (2015) |
Other specific corporate governance variables | |||
Size of the Board | SIZEBRD | Number of directors | Aggarwal et al. (2019), Frijns et al. (2016), Haque and Jones (2020), Rockey and Zakir (2020) |
Number of Board Meetings | BRDMEET | Number of board meetings | Aggarwal et al. (2019) |
Board Duration | BRDDUR | Number of years since board appointment | Byoun et al. (2016), Haque and Jones (2020) |
Age of the Youngest Directors | AGEYNGDIR | Age of the youngest directors | Eulerich et al. (2014), Song et al. (2020) |
Age of the Oldest Directors | AGEOLDDIR | Age of the oldest directors | Eulerich et al. (2014), Song et al. (2020) |
Number of Independent Directors | INDEPDIR | Number of independent directors | Chen et al. (2017), Jiang et al. (2020), Naciti (2019) |
Total Board Compensation Paid | BRDCOMP | Board members total compensation | Conyon and He (2004) |
Total Executive Compensation Paid | EXECOMP | Executives’ total compensation | Badertscher et al. (2013), Conyon and He (2004) |
Firm-level control variables | |||
Variables towards firm size | |||
Firm size | TA | Total assets | Badertscher et al. (2013), Byoun et al. (2016) |
Employees | EMP | Number of employees | Naciti (2019) |
Variables regarding cash-flow | |||
Free Cash Flow | FCF | Cash available to be distributed to owners | Ogbeide and Akanji (2017) |
Cash Flow from Operating Activities | CFFO | Cash inflows and outflows from main operations | Ogbeide and Akanji (2017) |
Cash Flow from Financing Activities | CFFF | Cash to raise capital or repay investors | Ogbeide and Akanji (2017) |
Variables regarding corporate liquidity | |||
Cash Ratio | CR | Cash and cash equivalent divided by current liabilities | Delen et al. (2013) |
Current Ratio | CURR | Current assets divided by current liabilities | Delen et al. (2013) |
Quick Ratio | QR | Current assets minus inventory divided by current liabilities | Delen et al. (2013) |
Variables concerning dividend policy | |||
Dividend Yield | DY | Annual dividend divided by current stock price | Chen et al. (2017) |
Dividends Per Share | DPS | Total dividends paid divided by number of outstanding shares | Chen et al. (2017) |
Dividend Payout Ratio | DPR | Dividend per share divided by earnings per share | Chen et al. (2017) |
Variables regarding firm leverage | |||
Total Debt to Total Assets | TDTA | Total debt to total assets | Park and Jang (2013), Wang (2010) |
Total Debt to Capital | TDC | Total debt to capital | Conyon and He (2017) |
Total Debt to Equity | TDE | Total debt to equity | Maj and Bębenek (2017) |
Variables concerning business efficiency | |||
Operating Margin | OM | Operating income divided by net income | Delen et al. (2013) |
Variables towards corporate taxation | |||
Effective Tax Rate | ETR | Paid taxes divided by taxable income | Badertscher et al. (2013) |
Variables regarding corporate innovation | |||
Research and Development | R&D | Research and development expenditures | Fu et al. (2016), Wang (2010) |