Table 7 Testing mediating effect of capital structure on the association between managerial ability and firm performance
|  | Y = TBQ, X = MA1, mediator = MLR | Y = ROA, X = MA1, mediator = MLR | Y = TBQ, X = MA1, mediator = BLR | Y = TBQ, X = MA2, mediator = MLR | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Coefficient | t − statistics | Coefficient | t − statistics | Coefficient | t-statistics | Coefficient | t-statistics | |
Step 1: Total effect of X on Y (path c) | ||||||||
MA1 | 0.2456*** | 21.0042 | 0.0398*** | 25.9137 | 0.2514*** | 21.4262 | 0.2376*** | 6.2049 |
Step 2: X to mediator (path a) and mediator to Y (path b) | ||||||||
MA1 (path a) |  − 0.0433*** |  − 16.3773 |  − 0.0433*** |  − 16.3773 |  − 0.0225*** |  − 10.1108 |  − 0.0625*** |  − 7.5006 |
MLR (path b) |  − 1.1333*** |  − 12.6412 |  − 0.1611*** |  − 13.7811 |  − 0.7064*** |  − 6.4362 |  − 1.5693*** |  − 17.3061 |
Step 3: Direct effect of X on Y (path c′) | ||||||||
MA1 or MA2 | 0.1965*** | 16.4382 | 0.0328*** | 21.0269 | 0.2355*** | 19.8095 | 0.1396*** | 3.8291 |
Partial effect of control variables on Y | ||||||||
TANG |  − 0.2465** |  − 2.3156 |  − 0.0562*** |  − 4.0520 |  − 0.4553*** |  − 4.1173 | 0.0593 | 0.5349 |
FAGE |  − 0.4300*** |  − 11.3061 |  − 0.0597*** |  − 12.0352 |  − 0.5313*** |  − 12.2928 |  − 0.3106*** |  − 7.0904 |
Vol | 7.1353 | 1.3529 | 3.3795*** | 4.9135 |  − 10.0919*** |  − 5.4970 |  − 14.0303*** |  − 7.5950 |
MedMLR or MedBLR |  − 3.4421*** |  − 3.5441 |  − 0.4450*** |  − 3.5137 |  − 5.1447*** |  − 4.3999 |  − 2.0173* |  − 1.6762 |
BIND |  − 0.0114 |  − 0.1001 |  − 0.0096 |  − 0.6426 |  − 0.0655 |  − 0.5493 | 0.0951 | 0.7753 |
BShares | 0.0224 | 0.1337 | 0.0828*** | 3.7968 | 0.0976 | 0.5693 |  − 0.3922** |  − 2.2413 |
INSTOWN | 0.0055 | 0.0478 |  − 0.0121 |  − 0.8016 | 0.0142 | 0.1194 | 0.0663 | 0.5418 |
R-squared | 0.3124 | 0.3332 | 0.2788 | 0.2331 | ||||
F-statistic | 114.5946*** | 126.0327*** | 97.4856*** | 76.6421*** | ||||