{"title":"Will fintech enhance financial regulation?","authors":"Yuliang Zhao, Furong Ma","doi":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Financial technology (fintech) can create significant uncertainty in financial regulations. This study examines the impact of fintech on financial regulation in Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2021. The results show that fintech development improves financial regulation. To address potential endogeneity issues, we employed multiple methods including instrumental variables, PSM-DiD, and placebo tests. The results remained consistent with our main findings, indicating that our conclusions are robust after mitigating some endogeneity problems. However, certain sources of endogeneity may not be fully resolved. We further demonstrate that local government debt and bank competition mediate the relationship between fintech and financial regulation. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of financial regulation is more significant in western China and in provinces with lower levels of technological innovation. Our findings complement the literature on the impact mechanism between fintech and financial regulation and provide more targeted and feasible recommendations for enterprises.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51430,"journal":{"name":"Research in International Business and Finance","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 103005"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144178810","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":"Stock illiquidity and economic policy uncertainty in Chinese security market","authors":"Linyin Xie","doi":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103021","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103021","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines the effect of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on stock illiquidity and identifies its endogenous and exogenous determinants for the sensitivity of stock illiquidity to EPU. The findings demonstrate that EPU increases stock illiquidity. However, the impact of stock and firm attributes on EPU’s effect on stock illiquidity differs notably from patterns observed in other countries. Additionally, higher investor sentiment reduces EPU’s impact on stock illiquidity. Notably, EPU’s effect on stock illiquidity significantly decreases as stock market returns rise. Mechanisms such as delisting risk warnings and the registration-based IPO regime help mitigate EPU’s effects on stock illiquidity. Conversely, the margin trading and short selling mechanism does not consistently change the impact of EPU on stock illiquidity. All empirical results have been rigorously tested for robustness. This study contributes to both empirical and theoretical research on systematic risk, as well as on endogenous and exogenous determinants of risk contagion from EPU to stock illiquidity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51430,"journal":{"name":"Research in International Business and Finance","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 103021"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144335728","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}
Francesca Pampurini , Anna Grazia Quaranta , Grazia Onorato
{"title":"Does efficiency matter in M&A of FinTech firms?","authors":"Francesca Pampurini , Anna Grazia Quaranta , Grazia Onorato","doi":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103027","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103027","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The increasing presence of FinTech firms is reshaping the structure, behaviour and business models of the different players operating within the financial sector. The aim of this study is to understand whether there is any relationship between the achievement of specific efficiency levels by FinTech firms and their greater/minor involvement in M&A transactions. Since such a relationship could be in the opposite direction, the topic is important for a wide range of financial stakeholders, from individual investors to key market players and regulators. We measured efficiency via two different Stochastic Data Envelopment Analysis (SDEA) models. The results, obtained starting from a hand-collected data set made up of Italian FinTechs operating in the period 2021–2023, show that M&A transactions essentially involved firms characterised by both quite high or quite low levels of efficiency.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51430,"journal":{"name":"Research in International Business and Finance","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 103027"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471384","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":"Can big data inhibit earnings management in corporations? — An analysis based on national big data comprehensive pilot zones","authors":"Yiran Chen , Jiaye Li , Yan Tong , Laiqun Jin","doi":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103020","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103020","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The issue of financial information distortion caused by earnings management may mislead investors and reduce the decision-making efficiency of the capital market. This study, based on the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2022, examines the impact and mechanism of the \"National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone\" policy on corporate earnings management. The findings reveal that the establishment of big data pilot zones significantly reduced corporate earnings management behavior, and this conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness tests. Further mechanism analysis indicates that big data inhibits earnings management by alleviating information asymmetry, enhancing the transparency of corporate financial information, and strengthening the level of internal control. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the inhibitory effect of big data policy on earnings management is more pronounced in labor-intensive industries and growth-stage corporations, while relatively weaker in technology-intensive industries and mature corporations. Additionally, the big data pilot zone has also enhanced the risk-taking ability of corporations. This study provides empirical insights for assessing the effectiveness of policy implementation and its role in the governance of earnings management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51430,"journal":{"name":"Research in International Business and Finance","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 103020"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144329628","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 do firms react to ESG news-based sentiment? A corporate risk-taking perspective","authors":"Pengtao Zhuang, Qing He, Wangjing Ju, Qin Xia","doi":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103031","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103031","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates how firms respond to ESG news-based sentiment from the perspective of corporate risk-taking. Our findings reveal a significant negative relationship between ESG news sentiment and corporate risk-taking. Mechanism analyses reveal two primary transmission channels—reputational pressure and information obfuscation—through which heightened sentiment intensifies managerial risk aversion. Among the three ESG dimensions, governance-related sentiment has the strongest dampening effect on risk-taking. Heterogeneity analyses show that this negative impact is more pronounced in firms with lower third-party ESG ratings, weaker managerial ownership, and limited analyst coverage. These findings highlight the role of both external ESG information intermediaries and strong internal governance in moderating the influence of ESG news sentiment. However, the dampening effect of ESG news sentiment on risk-taking poses significant challenges to the long-term growth of corporate value.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51430,"journal":{"name":"Research in International Business and Finance","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 103031"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144501929","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 liquidity regulation influence the effect of monetary policy transmission? A structural analysis based on the classified assets of chinese commercial banks","authors":"Hongfeng Peng, Zhichao Zhang , Zimin Liang","doi":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102978","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102978","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The coordination between liquidity regulation and monetary policy is of great significance for the stability of financial markets. This study subdivides the credit assets of commercial banks, modifies the research framework based on the banks’ balance sheet, and uses theoretical modeling to depict the changes in the effect of monetary policy transmission to various classified assets of banks after introducing the Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR) constraint. Subsequently, using semi-annual data samples of Chinese commercial banks from 2015 to 2022, the paper empirically analyzes the impact of liquidity regulation on the asset structure and credit scale of commercial banks and the effect of monetary policy credit transmission. The research results show that: Firstly, liquidity regulation has a strong constraining effect on the expansion of the proportion of classified loans and the scale of credit, and it also affects the effect of monetary policy transmission. This effect gradually weakens and eventually becomes ineffective as the NSFR increases. Secondly, in order to meet liquidity regulation requirements, commercial banks generally adopt the approach of lowering the proportion of high-risk loans and increasing the holdings of securities, which is not only an important channel for regulatory policy to affect the overall effect of monetary policy transmission but also the main reason for the weakening of the aforementioned transmission effect. Finally, the impact of liquidity regulation on the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission is highly heterogeneous across bank ownership types, liquidity levels, and economic environments. When banks can effectively control the risk of certain credit assets, the effect of monetary policy transmission to such loans is enhanced, and liquidity regulation and monetary policy can achieve better coordination at this time.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51430,"journal":{"name":"Research in International Business and Finance","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 102978"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144184557","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":"Firm-level investor sentiment and corporate announcement Effect: evidence from China","authors":"Xiao Li, Ming Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103026","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103026","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Existing literature primarily associates corporate announcement effect with market-level investor sentiment, overlooking the cross-sectional variation in investor sentiment. This paper investigates the impact of firm- and market-level investor sentiment on corporate announcement effect in Chinese stock market. We find that firm-level investor sentiment is positively related to corporate announcement returns and turnover. On the other hand, there is a negative relationship between firm-level investor sentiment and the long-run post-announcement returns. We also empirically illustrate that firm-level investor sentiment has marginal explanatory power beyond market-level investor sentiment for corporate announcement effect. Our research offers theoretical guidance for the selection of appropriate investor sentiment metrics in future studies exploring the impact of investor sentiment on firm-level issues.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51430,"journal":{"name":"Research in International Business and Finance","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 103026"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144365259","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":"Oil price uncertainty shock and Korean sectoral stock market: The role of common factor and asymmetry","authors":"Geon Hee Lee, Young Min Kim","doi":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102989","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102989","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the roles of common factor in the heterogeneous impact of oil price uncertainty shocks on the Korean sectoral stock market between January 2000 and December 2022. Our results show that, when controlling for the common factor in the sectoral stock returns, sectoral heterogeneity is observed, but without considering the common factor, the impact of oil price uncertainty exhibits similar responses across all sectors. We also examine the asymmetric relationship between oil price uncertainty and the Korean sectoral stock market by using a Markov-switching structural vector autoregression. We confirm the asymmetric effects of shocks arising from the regime of high- and low-oil price uncertainty in most sectors. Our results emphasize the necessity of accounting for the common factor and asymmetry to precisely analyze the relationship between oil price uncertainty and the Korean sectoral stock market.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51430,"journal":{"name":"Research in International Business and Finance","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 102989"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144212903","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":"Does Confucian culture make firms more generous?","authors":"Deyu Liu , Kefan Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103025","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.103025","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines whether Confucian culture (CC) influences corporate charitable donation (CCD) from an informal institutional framework. Using 11 years of data from 3472 Chinese listed companies, the empirical analyses find that CC promotes CCD while reducing agency costs and alleviating financing constraints, which serve as important intrinsic mechanisms. Further analyses show that CC promotes CCD more significantly in regions with inadequate financial and economic development and that CC and formal institutions have a substitution relationship. In addition, female executives and executives with overseas backgrounds weaken the positive effects of CC, whereas executives with financial and academic backgrounds enhance the promotional effects of CC on CCD. This study provides empirical evidence for promoting traditional culture and offers guidance on how to encourage corporate social responsibility.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51430,"journal":{"name":"Research in International Business and Finance","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 103025"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144338721","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":"Digital M&A triggers innovation: When the going gets tough, the tough get going","authors":"Wenting Chen , Wenxin Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102957","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ribaf.2025.102957","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As an emerging digital investment behavior, digital mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have garnered significant attention. However, research examining the impact of digital M&A on the decision-making and performance of connected enterprises remains limited. This study employs textual analysis to develop indicators of digital M&A, assessing their impact on and mechanisms for fostering innovation among upstream suppliers. The findings reveal that a one standard deviation increase in downstream firms’ digital M&A activity is associated with a 2.16% increase in innovation investment and a 10.45% increase in innovation output among upstream firms. The study highlights that the bargaining power accrued through digital M&A significantly drives upstream innovation, with knowledge and resource transfers being particularly beneficial when suppliers possess high absorptive capacity. However, the positive effects on innovation may be mitigated by the “digital divide” and excessive reliance of upstream firms on the supply chain. Upstream innovation is shown to enhance supply chain resilience and contribute to overall quality and sustainable development. This research provides valuable insights for enterprises within the supply chain to strengthen their sustainable development capabilities, thereby supporting the long-term, high-quality progression of the supply chain ecosystem.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51430,"journal":{"name":"Research in International Business and Finance","volume":"78 ","pages":"Article 102957"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3,"publicationDate":"2025-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144184558","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}