Firm's Sharia-compliant status, cross-sectional returns, and Malaysian cross-border acquisition

The results suggest that acquirers' agency costs influence CBA performance. Those with reduced agency expenses, as defined by sharia compliance, greater ethnic diversity on the board, and greater gender diversity on the board, demonstrate superior performance. Additionally, the performance is influenced positively by the acquirer's prior year profitability and diversification of acquisition strategy. Because the sample was restricted to the CBA in Malaysia, the findings could not be generalized to other countries. The findings are plausible to lead policymakers in developing acceptable policies on sharia compliance, female representation, and representation of diverse races on corporate boards of directors. Additionally, the findings could be used to encourage suitable investment policy decisions that improve enterprises' long-term success. The unique novelty of this work is to illustrate the application of corporate finance theories that attempt to explain CBA effectiveness in emerging economies where CBA is vigorously sought and significant rate of failure are observed using long-term datasets and robust performance indicators and analytics.