The moderating role of investor sentiment on profitability and investment premiums: Evidence from the Indonesian stock market

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure becomes vital for banks to be transparent and accountable for their investments and lending decisions to shareholders, regulators, and society. The potential enhancement of shareholder value through ESG disclosure is still inconsistent. Empirical studies on the association between ESG disclosure and financial performance are mixed and limited in emerging economies. This study aims to examine whether ESG disclosure impacts the financial performance of 24 Vietnamese commercial banks in terms of return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and net interest margin (NIM). The study uses the feasible generalized least squares estimation method based on panel data from 2018 to 2022. The study employs content analysis on 12 themes related to environmental, social, and governance pillars to score policy disclosure based on the Fair Finance Guide Methodology. The results highlight the positive effects of ESG policy disclosure, individual environment disclosure (E), and individual governance disclosure (G) on bank financial performance. Notably, ESG, E, and G have the largest influence on ROE, with coefficients of 0.051, 0.036, and 0.027, respectively, at a 5% significance level. However, the study does not provide evidence of a statistically significant association between social disclosure and financial performance. These results provide empirical evidence for regulators and bank managers to shape ESG policies and practices aligning with international standards.

Acknowledgment
ESG disclosure score of 11 banks as primary data in this study is conducted under the project coordinated by the Fair Finance Vietnam coalition, as part of Fair Finance International.

The selection of financing is a top priority for businesses, particularly in short- and long-term investment decisions. Mixing debt and equity leads to decisions on the financial structure for businesses. This research analyzes the moderate position of company size and the interest rate in the capital structure over six years (2013–2018) for 29 listed Pakistani enterprises operating in the sugar market. This research employed static panel analysis and dynamic panel analysis on linear and nonlinear regression methods. The capital structure included debt to capital ratio, non-current liabilities, plus current liabilities to capital as a dependent variable. Independent variables were profitability, firm size, tangibility, Non-Debt Tax Shield, liquidity, and macroeconomic variables were exchange rates and interest rates. The investigation reported that profitability, firm size, and Non-Debt Tax Shield were significant and negative, while tangibility and interest rates significantly and positively affected debt to capital ratio. This means the sugar sector has greater financial leverage to manage the funding obligations for the better performance of firms. Therefore, the outcomes revealed that the moderators have an important influence on capital structure.

Signaling theory assumes that it is necessary to signal investors to how they perceive company’s prospects. One of them is dividend announcements. The announcement of dividends is predicted to be a signal for investors in the investment decision making process. This study aims to determine and analyze the effect of dividend announcements, both increases and decreases in dividends, on stock returns. This study is intended to find empirical evidence about market reactions based on signaling theory in Indonesia Stock Exchange on the period 2017. The analysis of this study uses the event study method and hypothesis testing carried out using different test paired sample t-test. The results of this study prove that the market reacts to the announcement of dividends. The market reaction is indicated by the value of abnormal returns, namely abnormal returns in the positive direction when the announcement of dividend increased and abnormal returns in the negative direction when the announcement of dividend decreased. The value of abnormal returns in a positive direction reflects the company’s performance in good condition, and vice versa. This result indicates that dividend announcements are a signal and contain information relevant to investors in the investment decision making process.