Green investment in South Africa: A perception of overinvestment or underinvestment in energy and mining firms

There is an academic discussion about investment efficiency, regarding its determinants and effects. Corporate Governance (CG) and Audit Quality (AQ) are determinants of investment efficiency The main objective of the article is to investigate the effect of CG and AQ on investment efficiency, this objective is divided into sub-objectives: to investigate the direct effect of CG on AQ, AQ on investment efficiency, and CG on investment efficiency. Moreover, the indirect effect of CG on investment efficiency through AQ as a mediator variable. This paper focuses on non-financial listed firms in the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX), especially firms recorded in EGX 100 for four years’ period (2013–2018), for 103 firms and 412 completed observations. The researcher uses Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through SmartPLS software. The paper shows evidence that management that has good CG mechanisms obtains a suitable atmosphere to prepare transparent financial statements, which helps enhance the auditor’s role and improve AQ. Improving AQ lowering IA, which increases the trust of investors in management decisions, this leads to reduce pressure on management and improve efficiency of investment decisions. Having good CG mechanisms provides management with a good atmosphere to make right investment decisions, and having good CG mechanisms increases AQ, which helps management to have a good environment to make investment decisions with higher efficiency, or in other words, there is a significant and positive effect of integration between CG and AQ on investment efficiency.

Considering that bank does not always perform its functions to overcome financial constraints and to monitor the company’s financial activities, this study aims to examine the role of bank-firm relationships in the effect of internal finance on investment based on the business cycle. The testing stages started with testing the effect of internal finance on investment, testing the role of bank-firm relationships in the effect of internal finance to investment, and testing the role of bank-firm relationships based on the business cycles. Non-financial companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange make the sample of this study, while the data used are the financial statements for the period of 2002 – 2015 sourced from Osiris database. Hypotheses were tested using unbalanced panel regression. The results showed that internal finance has a positive effect on investment. The bank-firm relationships play a significant role in the effect of internal finance on the investment. In the growing companies, bank-firm relationships reduce underinvestment, and in mature companies, bank-firm relationships reduce overinvestment significantly. This study implies that banks run their role in helping to meet the needs of the internal financing. Companies with strong bank-firm relationships reduce the problem of underinvestment and asymmetric information. They also reduce the problem of overinvestment and agency of free cash flow. Banks perform their role in monitoring the financing activities of the mature companies.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between pay disparity and a company’s investment inefficiency, and to explore the moderating influence of investment in internal control personnel on this relationship. The global concern over pay disparity has intensified as executive compensation soars to unparalleled heights, while employee wages remain static. Utilizing a fixed-effect regression model and analyzing 5,407 observations from Korean listed companies between 2018 and 2020, the study shows a positive association between pay disparity (coef = 0.034, p-value < 0.01) and investment inefficiency, with pay disparity increasing the level of investment inefficiency by fostering overinvestment. Furthermore, the study shows that the interaction term between pay disparity and quantitative (coef = –0.246, p-value < 0.01) and qualitative (coef = –2.104, p-value < 0.01) investments in internal control personnel is negative and significant, indicating that the positive link between pay disparity and investment inefficiency is lessened when there is a higher quantitative and qualitative investment in internal control personnel. By offering a more comprehensive understanding of the conflicting evidence about the impact of pay disparity and the role of investment in internal control personnel in moderating the negative effect of pay disparity on investment efficiency, this study contributes to the existing literature. The findings of the study suggest that companies aiming to minimize investment inefficiency should consider not only addressing pay disparity but also investing in internal control personnel.