Douglas Cumming

Florida Atlantic University | FAU · College of Business

We examine the impact of corporate governance on firm value by using a unique research approach ‘sector‐wise analyses’ by employing a data set of listed firms in Taiwan. We investigate whether the unique dynamics of each industrial sector could differently affect internal corporate governance (CG) practice. In addition, we investigate the moderatin...

We investigate the exogenous increase in the proportion of independent non-executive directors (INEDs) in response to the corporate governance regulations 2012 in Singapore and Vietnam to estimate the effectiveness of INEDs in restraining earnings management. We also investigate the moderating effect of two important characteristics of INEDs: ed...

Entrepreneurial finance scholars address the questions and themes related to which, how, when, and why ventures attract external funding and how it affects their future development (Bellavitis et al., 2017b; Block et al., 2018; Cumming et al., 2019a; Cumming & Groh, 2018; Cumming et al., 2022a). Most attention has been devoted to equity capital bec...

Purpose – This paper aims to provide an in-depth examination of the emergent state of financial technology (fintech), particularly emphasizing capital-raising innovations and their implications for international business. Design/methodology/approach – Using the highly influential articles published in fintech, we identify the advantages and disadva...

Using a data set of two important emerging markets namely Taiwan and Pakistan, we investigate an unexplored dynamic of the top leadership i.e. the politician as a CEO and determine their impact on firm value. We show that the presence of the powerful politician as a CEO tends to limit the board power and endorse managerial entrenchment i.e. put...

In the wake of the global pandemic, a challenge for CEOs and boards is to set a stakeholder‐acceptable organizational balance between remote and traditional office working. However, the risks of work‐from‐home are not yet fully understood. We describe competing theories that predict the effect on misconduct of a corporate shift to work‐from‐home. U...

This study documents corporate culture at the time of initial public offering (IPO) and the relationship between corporate culture at the time of IPO and firm financial performance. Based on a sample of 1157 US firms that went public between 1996 and 2011 and performance information through 2016, the data provide strong evidence that regional cultu...

Natural disasters exacerbate swings in investor sentiment and information asymmetry. As such, we propose natural disasters enable more frequent and severe market manipulation. We test this proposition using the securities listed in the NYSE and NASDAQ, disaster data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and surveillance industry...

Prior literature (e.g., Brav and Gompers, 1997) establishes that the average VC-backed IPO does not outperform benchmarks. In this paper, we show, by accounting for VC holdings, that the average VC-backed IPOs does outperform as long as the VC is still present. This outperformance continues following the lead VC's exit among portfolios that interse...

This study presents an analysis of publication patterns and major themes in research on mergers and acquisitions in finance and accounting. We find that takeovers as mechanisms of governance, drivers of mergers, mechanisms of mergers, bank mergers, cross‐border mergers, shareholder wealth effects of mergers and related events, and the role of finan...

This handbook presents the latest theoretical and applied thinking on state capitalism, i.e., the institutional, policy, and ownership arrangements that reflect the direct influence of the state on the economy and firm behavior. It is a timely volume given the worldwide changes regarding the role of the state in the economy. Starting in the 1980s,...

Firm managers make ethical decisions regarding the form and quality of disclosure. Disclosure can have long-term implications for performance, earnings manipulation, and even fraud. We investigate the impact of venture capital (VC) backing on the quality and informativeness of disclosure controls and procedures for newly public companies. We find t...

The rise of digitization and information and communication technologies (ICT) is playing a vital role in facilitating global trade and business activities and in overcoming cross-border transaction costs. In so doing, it offers firms significant benefits and opportunities to compete on a global scale, as witnessed during the ongoing COVID-19 pandem...

The fields of venture capital and private equity are rooted in financing research on capital budgeting and initial public offering (IPO). Both fields have grown considerably in recent times with a heterogenous set of themes being explored. This review presents an analysis of research in both fields. Using a large corpus from the Web of Science, thi...

The Russia–Ukraine war requires management scholars to reflect on the interconnectedness of research themes across countries, and across management disciplines. This paper introduces the papers in this mini special section and discusses the interdisciplinary implications of the Russia–Ukraine war on themes that include – but are not limited to – ma...

In innovative entrepreneurial finance markets, ventures raising funds target a set of heterogeneous "digital" investors using distinct governance mechanisms. We focus on the micro-functioning of equity crowdfunding (ECF) markets by investigating the differences in terms of agency issues and potential principal-principal conflicts arising from the c...

We conjecture that marketplace lending provokes an increase in the quantity of entrepreneurship, particularly in more regionally disadvantaged areas, albeit at lower average quality. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity design that exploits exogenous variation in borrowers’ access to marketplace loans along U.S. state borders, we estimate a 10% i...

We examine why venture capital firms re-invest in portfolio companies also after the IPO. Companies are taken public earlier than optimal, resulting in lower post-IPO returns, and a greater likelihood of, and shorter time to, the first post-IPO VC refinancing.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a shift in entrepreneurial opportunities in the United States. In this paper, we proxy entrepreneurial processes by examining housing prices in different regions of the United States. Housing prices capture the movement in people, tax dynamics, and behavioral preferences for equity ownership in different regions...

This paper presents evidence on hedge fund sales fees (sometimes viewed as “kickbacks”) around the world. Using a novel dataset of onshore and offshore Hedge Funds from 69 countries, over the time period 1998–2020, we show that sales fees have been extremely common, particularly among offshore funds. Also, we show the use of sales fees was more com...

The ownership structures of European banks are today quite different relative to those before the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), particularly due to new takeovers, government guarantees, bailouts, and other defensive market responses post-GFC. These new ownership structures raise questions as to how these banks have performed, particularly during t...

This paper focuses on a less-studied corruptive behavior hidden in trade facilitation costs. We use Chinese firm-level data to identify systematic variations in entertainment and travel costs (ETCs) across different trading markets and trading partners. We find that ETCs significantly increase when the firms sell to more distant domestic markets bu...

Venture capital and private equity research has grown considerably in recent times with a heterogenous set of themes being explored. Using a large corpus from the Web of Science, this study used bibliometric analysis to present a comprehensive encapsulation of the fields’ geographical focus, methodological choices, prominent themes, and future rese...

Venture capital and private equity research has grown considerably in recent times with a heterogenous set of themes being explored. Using a large corpus from the Web of Science, this study used bibliometric analysis to present a comprehensive encapsulation of the fields’ geographical focus, methodological choices, prominent themes, and future rese...

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a shift in entrepreneurial opportunities in the United States. In this paper, we proxy entrepreneurial processes by examining housing prices in different regions of the United States. Housing prices capture the movement in people, tax dynamics, and behavioral preferences for equity ownership in different regions...

This paper examines the performance of limited partners’ (LPs) investments in venture capital, private equity, and real asset funds (referred to as “alternative asset funds”) from 52 countries around the world over the period of 1995 to 2020. The data indicate that sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) are significantly slower to fully liquidate and earn l...

This study investigates the differing role of enforcement on the formation of venture capital (VC) syndication networks. We conjecture that public enforcement, with strong investigative powers against any syndicate member, discourages the formation of denser syndication networks due to misconduct risk by a member. By contrast, private enforcement,...

The Oxford Handbook of Hedge Funds provides a comprehensive look at the hedge fund industry from a global perspective. The chapters are organized into five main parts. After the introductory chapter in Part I, Part II begins in Chapter 2 with an analysis of the main factors that have affected the operation of hedge funds. Chapter 3 explains the con...

The Oxford Handbook of Hedge Funds provides a comprehensive look at the hedge fund industry from a global perspective. The chapters are organized into five main parts. After the introductory chapter in Part I, Part II begins in Chapter 2 with an analysis of the main factors that have affected the operation of hedge funds. Chapter 3 explains the con...

Unlabelled: Fraud in the reward-based crowdfunding market has been of concern to regulators, but it is arguably of greater importance to the nascent industry itself. Despite its significance for entrepreneurial finance, our knowledge of the occurrence, determinants, and consequences of fraud in this market, as well as the implications for the busi...

Traditional intermediaries have the ability and the incentive to intertemporarily smooth outcomes. Fintechs, such as peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms and equity crowdfunding (ECF) platforms, enable riskier projects without regard to intertemporal smoothing. U.S. data from May 2016 to June 2020 show that COVID-19 had an adverse impact on bank co...

COVID-19 brought about a shift in entrepreneurial opportunities and in the United States. In this paper, we proxy entrepreneurial processes by examining housing prices in different regions of the United States. Housing prices capture the movement in people, tax dynamics, and behavioral preferences for equity ownership in different regions and over...

This paper reviews the literature on corporate governance in extreme institutional environments, including both formal and informal institutions. We focus on three main areas of research: corporate governance in an international context, banking and corporate governance, and governance in entrepreneurship and innovation. We document some classic pa...

Research Summary When evaluating Internet-based loan project of small and medium size firms (SME), lenders can rely on easy-to-understand risk ratings or more sophisticated financial information. We investigate lenders decisions and its effect on loan funding success on the marketplace lending platform Zencap. The dataset has been provided by the p...

We investigate the unexplored role of large controlling shareholders (blockholders) in constraining real earnings management (REM). We examine the mechanisms through which blockholders engage with the managers to manipulate corporate earnings. We also investigate the extent to which country-level institutional and regulatory arrangements influence...

In this Editorial, we begin by sketching out two areas that we believe will prove promising for researchers in international entrepreneurship in the foreseeable future: (i) asymmetric information leading to adverse selection; and (ii) the adoption of emerging digital technologies, including social media, aimed at reducing asymmetric information, vi...

The proper object of the fiduciary duties of corporate directors and officers is frequently described as the central question in all corporate law. We use the adoption of constituency statutes, which shift the loci of corporate managers' duties from shareholders to a wide range of stakeholders, as a quasi-natural experiment to determine the actual...

We examine 68,044 completed or abandoned M&A transactions involving unlisted targets to determine the effect of transaction rumors on deal-closing propensity and transaction values. Estimation is challenging because rumors may be spread on purpose or emerge accidentally while transaction values are only observable for completed deals and no regulat...

Scope of the Conference: We are delighted to invite you to the 2nd Annual Boca Corporate Finance and Governance Conference, which will be Hybrid, both held in Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, and Virtually during 11th–12th December 2021. We invite the submission of original papers on all aspects of corporate finance and corporate...

This paper investigates whether gender, age, ethnicity, and geography affect the choice of equity crowdfunding offerings vs initial public offerings (IPO) on traditional stock markets and whether these characteristics increase the likelihood of a successful offering. Using 167 equity offerings in Crowdcube and 99 equity offerings on London’s Altern...

I offer insights into publishing as Managing Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Corporate Finance as it passes its 25th anniversary. The publishing tips are presented with a view towards guiding future authors. Also, I provide an intermediation perspective to publishing to further guide future authors, explaining the role of the publisher alongside...

Research Question/Issue What are the causes and consequences of board diversity on innovation across a broad array of different types of diversity (education level, gender, and age), while controlling for director expertise in science and business? How do these different types of diversity affect innovation in different industry contexts? Research...

Cryptocurrencies have been broadly scrutinised in recent times for a host of concerning regulatory and cybercriminality issues. Although steps have been taken to promote regulatory sufficiency in the near future, we examine the avenues through which this extremely high-risk industry can derive potentially devastating contagion channels, influencing...

This paper briefly surveys the literature on finance, growth, and policy in China and emerging markets. We introduce the papers that comprise this special issue of Emerging Markets Review. The papers comprise themes in corporate social responsibility, innovation, insider trading, financial reporting behaviours, and financial openness. Also, we disc...

End-of-day stock price manipulation is generally associated with short-termism, long-term damage to equity values, and reduced incentives for employees to innovate. We use a sample of suspected stock price manipulation events based on intraday data for stocks from nine countries over eight years and find evidence of negative effects of market manip...

The globalization of production and trade has significantly increased quality uncertainty faced by the consumers. This study uses a large firm-product-country level panel data involving 2922 multinational enterprise affiliates producing in China and exporting to 25 countries to investigate the role of trust in quality evaluation of foreign products...

Regulatory spillovers occur when regulation in one country affects either the expected regulatory approach and/or entrepreneurial finance markets in other countries. Drawing on institutional theory, we investigate the global implications of a regulatory spillover on entrepreneurship. We argue that regulatory spillovers have both short- and long-ter...

Cryptocurrencies have been broadly scrutinised in recent times for a host of concerning regulatory and cyber-criminality issues. Although steps have been taken to promote regulatory sufficiency in the near future, we examine the avenues through which this extremely high-risk industry can derive potentially devastating contagion channels, influencin...

Digitization has enabled “testing-the-waters” in entrepreneurial finance whereby investors can make nonbinding commitments in equity crowdfunding prior to an actual campaign to ascertain interest in the project. We consider whether these nonbinding equity investment commitments are informative about actual investments during the campaign and, thus,...

In this paper, we investigate the innovative efficiency of SOEs in China. Innovative efficiency refers to output of patents per dollar spending of R&D expenditure. The data indicate that minority SOEs are substantially more innovatively efficient than non-SOEs and majority SOEs. The relative innovative efficiency of minority SOEs is more pronounced...

We study the effect of public‐to‐private buyout transactions on investments in innovation using an international sample over the 1997–2017 period. We use patent counts and citations to proxy for the quantity, quality and economic importance of innovation. Our results are based on time analysis and matched sample regressions. The data indicate that...

We examine the intersection between financial inclusion, financial literacy, and financial technology. Using worldwide data, we find a significant positive relation between the World Bank's "Findex" measures and various measures of financial literacy, as well as Google Trends. We show that e-commerce legislation around the world significantly posit...

We conjecture that adoption of agricultural biotech innovation imposes relationship-specific investments that exacerbate hold-up costs between biotech producers and farmers. Moreover, the increasing presence of biotech reduces biodiversity, which is a significant negative externality on food production across farms. As such, increasing biotech has...