Examination of energy sector: The implications and effects of financing for innovations, corporate governance for company value, and resource abundance and corruption for investment attractiveness

Abstract

In this dissertation, the examination of energy sector development is presented. The purpose is to understand and highlight the importance of financing access for innovation activities, along with the business transparency necessary for firm value and the impact of corruption on capital investments in energy companies. Globally, long-term energy confidence is dependent on energy security and supply. Based on our empirical estimations, we expect there to be an increasing need for understanding financing innovations in the European energy industry. We expect more support for corporate governance integrity within Russia, as Russia is the main energy supplier for the European energy sector. It is expected that corruption will be a dominant issue for countries that are rich in natural resources. The main empirical findings and concluding comments are as follows:  The EU energy sector requires substantial financial support for promoting innovations, especially among ‘younger’ energy companies and those in the newest EU countries.  We expect to see increased discussion and long-term development of corporate governance integrity (transparency and disclosure, in particular) among Russian energy firms based on the long-term investment attractiveness of sustained energy production and supplies to countries that are energy dependent.  We conclude that investment activities in natural resource exploitation are directly linked with the presence of corruption, and that tightening up on corruption should facilitate FDI (foreign direct investment) in the primary industry and enable the effective use of received natural resource gains. To summarise, in this assessment, we empirically studied the EU, Russian and global energy industries, focusing on the issue of the development of energy within three key areas: the examination of financing for innovation, corporate governance integrity and corruption within primary FDI inflows.