Financial management practices are likely to have a marked effect on the financial performance of a corporate enterprise. Therefore, sound financial decisions/practices can contribute towards meeting the desired objective of having profitable operations. This subject assumes paramount significance in view of the present dynamic and turbulent business environment, which has produced more intense competition and smaller profit margins across the world. In this context, the financial management practices of the corporates in India, a country with a vast potential for economic growth, can offer valuable insights.

The present study explores whether there has been a major change in the financial performance (measured in terms of profitability) and financial policies/decisions of the sample companies over a fixed period (2000-2001 to 2010-2011), with a special focus on pre and post-recession analysis. It delves deeper into current research areas such as zero working capital, real options in capital budgeting, pecking order in capital structures, and clause 49 as reflected in the financial management decisions of sample companies, and provides a broader perspective by identifying trends (if any) in certain aspects of financial decision-making over the past two decades.

A comprehensive study, covering all the major aspects of financial management practices, also contains an inter-sectoral study (among the sample companies) and develops an index of professionalism in financial management based on the practices of the sample companies.

The book is primarily targeted at teachers/students of finance, management, commerce, accounting and related professional disciplines/fields. Practitioners/professionals will find it an invaluable text that helps guide them to better decision-making.



This book proposes three normative frameworks pertaining to risk-measurement, disclosure and governance using expert opinion and data from the top 429 non-financial companies (of the NIFTY 500 index) over a 10-year period. The book offers a novel contribution to the global literature on disclosure quality by presenting a composite measure of the quality as well as quantity of risk disclosures. Focusing on the quality of risk disclosures and risk governance structures, and using sophisticated methodology to tackle the issue of endogeneity, the book explores the important yet uncharted confluence of accounting information, risk and corporate governance. It addresses the interplay between three facets of risk, and is corroborated by practitioners’ perspectives as well as case studies. It is an excellent resource for practitioners, professionals and policy-makers, in addition to researchers working on the topic.               



The book examines the market reaction to mergers and acquisitions (M&A) announcements over a period from 2003 to 2015. Mergers and acquisitions continue to be amongst the preferred competitive options available to the companies seeking to grow fast in the rapidly changing global business scenario.M&A as a growth strategy has received attention from developed as well as emerging economies. It has been extensively used by managers as an expansion strategy and also serves as an important instrument for increasing corporate efficiency. Recently, M&A has grown at a rapid pace, creating a need for research to analyze what drives this phenomenon and how it affects firms and markets. As such, this book evaluates the impact of M&A on short-term abnormal returns as well long-term financial performance. It also assesses the management view concerning the motives for undertaking M&A. In addition, the book investigates the corporate governance practices of the acquiring firms and their impact on the short- term as well as long- term performance of those firms. 


The book presents a comprehensive view of the Indian equity markets over the past two decades (1994-2014). Equity markets constitute the most important segment of stock exchanges; in fact, the status of equity returns is, by and large, considered as a barometer of the state of a country’s economy. Returns earned by the equity investors on their funds invested in equity markets have become a decisive factor in the growth of such markets. In this context, the book discusses all the major aspects of equity returns and also conducts a dis-aggregative analysis based on underlying factors like age, size, ownership structure, industry affiliation/sector, among others, to explain the factors affecting returns and risk. While on the one hand the study ascertains the market rates of return (earned) on equities from the investors’ perspective (by including both the capital gains and the dividend income), it also shows how to compute the rates of returns on equities from the corporate perspective(that is, rate of return earned on equity funds). It further assesses the required/expected rate of return and examines the volatility in stock returns, with a focus on its behaviour during the period of the study. It deepens investors’ understanding of equity investment, helping them to make more-informed investments. While of interest to the investor community, this book also contributes significantly to the existing literature on market returns and is a valuable reference resource for academics, researchers and market participants, financial institutions and other intermediaries, regulators and policy makers.

This book begins by analysing the various corporate governance mechanisms explored in the extant literature and determining their effectiveness in enhancing the firm value using multivariate analysis. The findings are of global relevance as the corporate governance regulations of most countries focus on independent directors as the mainstay of good governance. The empirical evidence from the first objective of this study corroborates the claim that independent directors do not strengthen the firms’ governance quality. The book is one of the few works to have analysed the possible reasons behind the ineffectiveness of the independent directors. Also, in view of the famous concept of the bundle of governance mechanisms, it might be possible that the independent directors strengthen the firms’ governance quality indirectly by strengthening other governance mechanisms. This aspect too has little precedence. This study adopts a novel moderation and mediation approach to analyse the monitoring behaviour of independent directors in relation to other governance mechanisms. The work is a must read for corporate players as well as researchers and scholars studying this discipline.