This study investigates uncertainty levels of various industries and tries to determine financial ratios having the greatest information content in determining the set of industry characteristics. It then uses these ratios to develop industry specific financial distress models. First, we employ factor analysis to determine the set of ratios that are most informative in specified industries. Second, we use a method based on the concept of entropy to measure the level of uncertainty in industries and also to single out the ratios that best reflect the uncertainty levels in specific industries. Finally, we conduct a logistic regression analysis and derive industry specific financial distress models which can be used to judge the predictive ability of selected financial ratios for each industry. The results show that financial ratios do indeed echo industry characteristics and that information content of specific ratios varies among different industries. Our findings show diverging impact of industry characteristics on companies; and thus the necessity of constructing industry specific financial distress models.

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Research has produced inconclusive results concerning the effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firm financial performance, with only 59 percent of studies demonstrating positive effects. Yet, still unaddressed is how CSR impacts the key driver of financial performance-firm growth. We develop new multidisciplinary theory integrating stakeholder and risk management theories with multi-period capital asset pricing. We test the direct and moderating effects of Social, Institutional, Strategic, and Technical CSR using a simultaneous equations model of endogenous CSR and Tobin's q ratio. Our 2004-12 sample of S&P 3000 firms show that all CSR dimensions directly bolster firm performance, while select dimensions moderate the relationship between firms' sales or asset growth and capitalized market value in the periods surrounding the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC). These results deepen understanding of how different forms of CSR influence market value, and refine estimates of CSR's direct and moderating impacts on the growth-value relationship.

This study examines emerging market firms that adopt corporate governance standards similar to those in the US. The investigation highlights the impact governance standards may have on corporate risk taking, as measured by stock return volatility, under varying political and socioeconomic regimes. In a cross-sectional time-series setting, the analysis reveals that enhanced governance standards are associated with risk reductions among US domiciled firms, cross-listed American Depository Receipt companies (ADRs) and non-cross listed emerging market (EM) firms. The effect of these governance standards on risk taking, however, does not deviate considerably between cross-listed ADRs that are exposed to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandated regulations and non-cross-listed EM firms that are not subject to the same regulatory constraints. Also, in some respects, Chinese firms seem to exhibit corporate behavior that is contrary to that of the rest of the world.

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