This volume provides an up-to-the-minute survey of the field of corporate governance, focusing particularly on issues of convergence and diversity. A number of topics are discussed including bankruptcy procedures, initial public offerings, the role of large stakes, comparative corporate governance, and institutional investors.
'Investor Protection and Corporate Governance' analyzes the impact of corporate governance on firm performance and valuation. Using unique datasets gathered at the firm-level the first such data in the region and results from a homogeneous corporate governance questionnaire, the book examines corporate governance characteristics, ownership structures, dividend policies, and performance measures. The book's analysis reveals the very high levels of ownership and voting rights concentrations and monolithic governance structures in the largest samples of Latin American companies up to now, and new data emphasize the importance of specific characteristics of the investor protection regimes in several Latin American countries. By and large, those firms with better governance measures across several dimensions are granted higher valuations and thus lower cost of capital. This title will be useful to researchers, policy makers, government officials, and other professionals involved in corporate governance, economic policy, and business finance, law, and management.
Takes readers through an in-depth examination of many leading industrialized nations and identifies both the drivers that propel corporations towards convergence and the major impediments that stand in the way of convergence. Also examines many mechanisms of convergence such as governance codes, MNCs, and IPOs.
Invaluable guidance for complete integration of sustainability into reporting and performance management systems Global businesses are under close scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators, and their diverse stakeholders to focus on sustainability and accept responsibility for their multiple bottom line performance. Business Sustainability and Accountability examines business sustainability and accountability reporting and their integration into strategy, governance, risk assessment, performance management and the reporting process. This book also highlights how people, business and resources collaborate in a business sustainability and accountability model. Looks at business sustainability and accountability reporting and assurance and their incorporation into the reporting process Focuses on how the business sustainability and accountability model are impacted by the collaboration of people, business, and resources Presents laws, rules, regulations, standards and best practices relevant to business sustainability performance, reporting and assurance Organizations worldwide recognize the importance of all five EGSEE dimensions of sustainability performance and accountability reporting. However, how to actually assess sustainability risk, implement sustainability reporting, and obtain sustainability assurance remain a major challenge and best practices are evolving. Straightforward and comprehensive Business Sustainability and Accountability hits on all of the hottest topics around sustainability including multiple bottom line (EGSEE) performance and reporting, related financial and non-financial key performance indicators (KPIs), business social responsibility and environmental reporting.
New research suggests that cross-country differences in legal origin help explain differences in financial development. This paper empirically assesses two theories of why legal origin influences financial development. First, the political' channel stresses that (i) legal traditions differ in the priority they give to the rights of individual investors vis- ...-vis the state and (ii) this has repercussions for the development of property rights and financial markets. Second, the adaptability' channel holds that (i) legal traditions differ in their ability to adjust to changing commercial circumstances and (ii) legal systems that adapt quickly to minimize the gap between the contracting needs of the economy and the legal system's capabilities will foster financial development more effectively than would more rigid legal traditions. We use historical comparisons and cross-country regressions to assess the validity of these two channels. We find that legal origin matters for financial development because legal traditions differ in their ability to adapt efficiently to evolving economic conditions.
Establishing a corporate governance strategy that promotes the efficient use of organisational resources is instrumental in the economic growth of a country, as well as the successful management of firms. This book reviews existing literature and identifies board structural features as key variables of an effective corporate governance system, establishing a multi-theoretical model that links Board structural characteristics with firm performance. It then, using a comprehensive empirical study of 265 companies listed on the Karachi Stock exchange, tests this conceptual model. This research serves as a significant milestone, reflecting the socio-economic setting of emerging economies, and highlighting the need for the corporate sector in emerging markets to move away from a 'tick-box' culture. It argues that the sector needs to implement corporate governance as a tool to mitigate business risks; appoint and empower non-executive directors to achieve an effective monitoring of management; and establish their own ethical and governance principles, applicable to the Board of Directors. Based on an extensive data base, collected painstakingly over five years, this book offers new insights and conceptual framework for further research in this area. Given the breadth and width of the research, it is a useful source of future reference for students, researchers and policy makers.
The Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics (ABCDE) is one of the world s best-known series of conferences for the presentation and discussion of new knowledge on development. The conference provides a forum for the world s leading development thinkers to share new knowledge and ideas. 'Lessons from East Asia and the Global Financial Crisis' was the theme of the ABCDE held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on June 22 24, 2009. The conference was co-organized by the Government of the Republic of Korea, the Korea Development Institute (KDI), and the World Bank.
This book offers comprehensive examination of research on the relevance of individual behavior and technology to financial innovations. The chapters cover current topics in finance including integrated reporting, people finance, crowdfunding, and corporate networks. It provides readers with an organized starting point to explore individual behaviors and new technologies used in financial innovations. The explicit and growing speed of the spread of new technologies has hastened the emergence of innovation in the field of finance. Topics like the Internet of Things, semantic computing and big data finance are motivating the construction of financial tools that translate into new financial mechanisms. This book strives help readers better understand the dynamic of the changes in financial systems and the proliferation of financial products. Individual Behaviors and Technologies for Financial Innovations is organized in 16 chapters, organized in three parts. Part I has eight chapters that review the research on gender differences in attitudes about risk and propensity to purchase automobile insurance, financial literacy models for college students, wellness and attitude of university students in the use of credit cards, impact of programs income distribution and propensity to remain in employment, financial literacy and propensity to resort to informal financing channels, risk behavior in the use of credit cards by students. Part II reviews the research on financing for startups and SMEs, exploring funding through crowdfunding platform, operating credit unions, and using networks of friends to finance small businesses outside the domestic market. The four chapters of Part III describe contexts of financial innovation in listed companies, including society's demands on their behavior - we discuss motivations for companies to participate in corporate sustainability indexes, corporate performance through their profile of socially responsible investments, influence of networks of social relations in the formation of boards, and management of companies, and also the precariousness of financial decisions in large companies, as well as the role of the internet in corporate communication with the market.
The primary contribution of this book is to integrate the important disciplines which simultaneously impact the investment appraisal process. The book presents a study that develops a new approach to investment appraisal which uses a multiple objective linear programming (MOLP) model to integrate the selected disciplines which include capital markets, corporate governance and capital budgeting. The research covers two case studies, one in the e-commerce sector and another in the airline industry in which the above disciplines are integrated. Readers from the areas of corporate governance, regulation, and accounting would find the survey of different approaches and the new integrated optimization approach particularly useful.