{"title":"Generalist CEOs and operational efficiency","authors":"Hanyong Chung","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107823","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107823","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the relationship between CEO general managerial ability and firm operational efficiency. I find a robust negative association between a CEO’s General Ability Index (GAI) and firm efficiency. Additionally, the analysis shows that GAI influences operational efficiency through two mechanisms: capital intensity and SG&A cost efficiency. Cross-sectional analyses reveal that the negative effect is more pronounced in smaller firms and those with smaller boards, suggesting that limited structural support may amplify the operational challenges generalist CEOs face. This study underscores the importance of contextual CEO-firm alignment and provides practical implications for boards and investors when evaluating executive fit for operational effectiveness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 107823"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471216","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Research on the coupling and harmonization degree of new productive force and high-quality economic development","authors":"Hua Gang, Fuyi Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107684","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107684","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>New productive force and high-quality economic development are crucial elements of Xi Jinping’s economic thought and achievements of the Chineseization of Marxism. This paper analyzes their development levels and coupling-coordination relationships in 30 provinces from 2013–2022. Results show both are steadily improving, but coupling-coordination varies regionally. The industrial structure promotes new productive force. Regions should transform traditional industries and leverage local advantages to develop new productive force.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 107684"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Guan Yan , Fanglin Li , Zhidong Liu , Lu Jolly Zhou
{"title":"Climate risk concern and green premium in the stock market: Evidence from China","authors":"Guan Yan , Fanglin Li , Zhidong Liu , Lu Jolly Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107741","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107741","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Are the green premium and media coverage of climate risk related? We investigate the relationship between the daily green premium in China’s A-share market and the proportion of sentences on climate risk in <em>Xinwen Lianbo</em> (<em>News Simulcast</em>), produced by state broadcaster China Central Television, which is China’s most widely watched news program. We find that our proposed climate risk concern (CRC) and CRC shock indices, based on analysis of <em>Xinwen Lianbo</em>, are positively correlated with the green premium on the next trading day, even after controlling for market risk. We also construct the daily green premium in the A-share market from 2017 to 2023, where greenness is measured by ESG ratings. This research contributes to the understanding of green premiums in stock markets, providing new evidence on how climate risk reported in news media is priced in the Chinese context.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 107741"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144366092","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tell less, get more? News topic concentration and stock market reaction","authors":"Rui Huang, Chongfeng Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107740","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107740","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the effect of news topic concentration (TCR) on Chinese stocks. Our empirical findings reveal a U-shaped relationship between TCR and market reaction, which is mediated by investor attention. Information ambiguity complements attention’s role at low TCR. Moreover, TCR has a greater effect on stock prices when firms have lower institutional ownership, higher information uncertainty, and when the news originates from state-controlled media. Additionally, we observe that the U-shaped patterns differ across dominant meta-themes. Our results highlight the importance of the structure of the information present in its integration into asset prices and emphasize the role of journalists as key information intermediaries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 107740"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Minimum wage system and corporate tax burden stickiness","authors":"Mingfu Xue","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107819","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107819","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper, based on data from Chinese A-share listed companies spanning 2011–2023, conducts an empirical examination of the impact mechanisms and heterogeneous characteristics of minimum wage standard increases on corporate tax burden stickiness. The study yields three key findings: First, Chinese listed companies generally exhibit tax burden stickiness; second, minimum wage increases significantly alleviate tax burden stickiness by compelling enterprises to upgrade technology and optimize resource allocation; third, further heterogeneity analysis reveals that the tax burden stickiness-alleviating effect of minimum wage increases is more pronounced among state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which is closely related to their rigid institutional enforcement, excess employment practices, and operational constraints.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 107819"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Empirical investigation of health insurance's stimulatory effects on household tourism expenditure through the dual lens of economic and psychological resources","authors":"Lin Dong , Xin Li","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107821","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107821","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Utilizing multi-wave longitudinal data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) spanning 2017–2023, this study systematically investigates the mechanistic linkage between medical insurance enrollment and household tourism consumption behaviors. Key findings reveal that: Medical insurance participation demonstrably elevates household tourism expenditure levels; Economic capital exhibits a significant positive moderating effect in this relationship, with wealthier households deriving greater tourism consumption promotion from insurance coverage; Subjective well-being operates as a psychological capital factor that reinforces insured households' tourism spending decisions; The intensity of insurance impact on tourism expenditure manifests pronounced gender-based heterogeneity, as female-headed households exhibit more substantial consumption potential unleashed through medical insurance compared to their male-headed counterparts. This research elucidates the dual pathways through which healthcare security influences household consumption structures via risk mitigation and psychological expectation adjustments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 107821"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Missing Value Imputation in Environmental, Social, and Governance Data: An Impact on Emissions Scores","authors":"Nicholas Joseph Downing","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107818","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2025.107818","url":null,"abstract":"This paper addresses the challenge of missing value imputation in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data from The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and its impact on category scores. First, using simulations, I compare traditional and machine learning (ML) imputation methods and show that ML methods consistently outperform traditional imputation approaches. Applying these methods to real-world missing ESG data, I recalculate emissions scores and uncover notable discrepancies from LSEG-reported values, suggesting that LSEG’s methodology may unintentionally favor firms with more complete disclosures. Moreover, I identify a pattern that companies with larger market capitalization tend to have lower rates of missing data and receive higher emissions scores. These results show a potential missing data bias in ESG data that favors larger firms and the importance of imputing missing data with ML techniques to reach category scores that more closely capture actual sustainability performance.","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144337544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hong Yu , Jialiang Sun , Liqin Zhang , Jianguang Deng
{"title":"Network infrastructure and ESG performance: The role of environmental law enforcement","authors":"Hong Yu , Jialiang Sun , Liqin Zhang , Jianguang Deng","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107822","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107822","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study uses the “Broadband China” pilot as a quasi-natural experiment to empirically assess the impact of network infrastructure (NI) on enterprise environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. The results show that NI significantly enhances ESG performance, digital transformation and green innovation serve as mediating mechanisms, stronger environmental law enforcement amplifies NI’s positive effect on ESG outcomes, and NI has a more pronounced effect in enterprises with separated chief executive and board chairperson and in non-state-owned firms.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 107822"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144481125","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How does financial accessibility affect the resource allocation of enterprises? Micro-evidence from the financial geographical structure of investment-oriented enterprises","authors":"Wei Wang , Meilu Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107820","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107820","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>During the transition period, flaws in the financial system hinder the development of the real economy. Thus, improving financial service efficiency in the real economy is crucial. This study examines how the financial geographical structure affects resource allocation efficiency of investment-oriented enterprises. Empirical findings indicate that a closer proximity to financial institutions and sectors enhances resource allocation efficiency, particularly for non-state-owned enterprises, those grappling with severe financing constraints, and those in regions with advanced marketization level.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 107820"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144337542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of digital economy development on the performance of digital creative enterprises","authors":"Haiyan Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107761","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.frl.2025.107761","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The rapid expansion of the digital economy has increasingly highlighted its profound impact on various industries. However, academic research on the performance of digital creative enterprises remains insufficient. To address this gap, this study examines the mechanism through which the digital economy affects corporate performance among listed digital creative enterprises from 2014 to 2023, employing a panel two-way fixed-effects model. The findings indicate that the development of the digital economy significantly enhances the performance of digital creative enterprises. Further analysis reveals that higher levels of marketization substantially amplify this positive effect. Additionally, the digital economy exerts a more pronounced value-enhancing effect on digital creative enterprises participating in public–private partnership (PPP) projects, private enterprises, and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study provides support for government policy-making and corporate strategic development, holding significant theoretical and practical implications.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12167,"journal":{"name":"Finance Research Letters","volume":"84 ","pages":"Article 107761"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144337545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}