Showing papers on "Corporate governance published in 1984"

Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance

Abstract: The relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance is reexamined using a new methodology, improved technique, and industry-specific control groups. Average age of corporate assets is found to be highly correlated with social responsibility ranking. After controlling for this factor, there still is some correlation between corporate social responsibility andfinancial performance.

Comparative Institutional Economics: The Governance of Rail Freight Contracting

Abstract: IN recent years both economists' and lawyers2 have studied the factors that lead private parties to adopt a particular institutional framework for their voluntary transactions. Their inquiry has been into the question of "governance choice." The term governance is a shorthand expression for the institutional framework in which contracts are initiated, negotiated, monitored, adapted, enforced, and terminated.3 To date, however, the literature on the subject has been largely conceptual. One of its central theoretical propositions, attributable to both Williamson and Klein, Crawford, and Alchian, is that the most significant factor affecting the governance choice is the extent to which the parties have made idiosyn-

Another look at corporate social responsibility and reporting: An empirical study in a developing country

Abstract: This paper presents a view of corporate social responsibility accounting and reporting from the standpoint of a developing country. The study is based on a personal interview questionnaire survey conducted by the authors with mainly chief executive officers in one hundred companies operating in Malaysia. Various aspects of corporate social performance, including social reporting, are examined. The findings indicate that social reporting lags behind corporate social involvement and that major corporate attention is focused on activities relating to employees and products/services. In addition, the results show that corporate size and national origin of corporate ownership are relevant in reflecting the extent of social commitments made by companies.

Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Abstract: Preface 1. Introduction: an industry case study of corporate crime 2. Bribery 3. Safety testing of drugs: from negligence to fraud 4. Unsafe manufacturing practices 5. Antitrust 6. The corporation as pusher 7. Drug companies and the Third World 8. Fiddling 9. Strategies for controlling corporate crime Appendix: Getting interviews with corporate executives Notes Bibliography Index

The Economics of Governance: Framework and Implications

Abstract: neglected on the research agenda, in large measure because neoclassical price theory is poorly suited to address it1. Thus orthodoxy holds that the allocation of economic activity as between firms and markets is a datum; firms are production functions; markets are signaling devices; contracting is accomplished through an auctioneer; and disputes are disregarded because of the presumed efficacy of court adjudication. The economic purposes served by organizational variety do not arise within - indeed, are effectively beyond the reach of- this framework. Transaction cost economics approaches the study of economic organization very differently. Thus firms, markets, and mixed modes are regarded as alternative means of organization, the allocation of economic activity among which is a decision variable. Firms, moreover, are described as governance structures, the internal organization of which has real economic consequences. An assessment of the contracting process runs the gamut from faceless transactions of the kind that are adequately serviced by auctioneers to complex bilateral trades in which the identity of the parties matters critically. And the legal centralism tradition, under which court adjudication is presumed to be efficacious, is supplanted by the study of private ordering. Rather than disregard it, organizational variety is centrally located on the research agenda. Transaction cost economics joins aspects of law, economics, and organization theory in an effort to deepen organizational insights and develop refutable

Legislative-Executive Relations And Legislative Oversight

Abstract: As a focus of scholarship, the subject of legislative-executive relations is both elusively broad and remarkably diverse. This essay attempts to make both the breadth and diversity of the field more comprehensible by examining and identifying: (1) attributes and characteristics of key legislative and executive "players," (2) various points of intersection between legislative and executive "players" and their institutions, and, especially, (3) forms, conditions, and impacts of legislative supervision of the executive (oversight). Analysis of the research and scholarly literature on these topics is situated in a context of different normative perspectives toward governance.

Reforming Corporate Governance

Abstract: In their presentations to the Fifth Annual Conference on Business Ethics, Ralph Nader and Kenneth R. Andrews address the issue of the ethical responsibility of the corporate board. Nader insists that the boards of American corporations must become more open and responsive to their shareholders, employees, industries, and society as a whole in order to regain public confidence in management status and actions. Andrews, however, points out the difficulty in ascribing the board's ethical responsibility to particular constituents in view of constant changes in the makeup of shareholders, employee needs, and societal preferences. Andrews claims the ultimate responsibility for the ethical conduct of a company rests with its chief executive officer and not its board.

Efficient Labour Organization

Abstract: There are two general approaches to the study of efficient labour organization. The one is in the neo-classical tradition which emphasizes incentives, efficient risk-bearing, factor proportion distortions, and the like. The second has more recent origins. It emphasizes the contracting process and the transaction costs that are associated therewith. A comparative institutional assessment of alternative governance structures is attempted, the object being to align the attributes of transactions with those of governance structures in a discriminating (mainly transactions costs economizing) way.

Application of Anglo-American Principles of Consolidation to Corporate Financial Disclosure in Japan

Abstract: The adoption by Japan of consolidated corporate reporting in 1977 may be viewed as an instance of the international transfer of Anglo-American practices of corporate reporting, and as a step towards international harmonization of accounting. Consolidation practices in Anglo-American nations are based on assumptions about the nature of corporate group associations. This paper examines the applicability of these assumptions to the corporate context in Japan. Personal interviews and analyses of group associations of listed Japanese corporations support three principal findings: (i) that historical and cultural determinants provide significant contrasts between corporate group associations in Japan and Anglo-American nations; (ii) that Anglo-American methods of consolidation fail to reflect adequately the nature of corporate group associations in Japan; and (iii) that the adoption of consolidation in Japan represented a response to situation-specific change stimuli rather than a general acceptance of the intrinsic merit of consolidation. The findings have implications for international accounting.

Modern Financial Theory, Corporate Strategy, and Public Policy: Another Perspective

Abstract: Modern financial theory (MFT) is not widely recognized beyond the confines of a relatively small segment of academia. An examination of the theory's main assertions reveals that MFT may be more compatible with corporate strategy and public policy than is commonly recognized. Disciplinary interaction is encouraged.

Settlement Patterns and the Governing Structures of Nineteenth-Century School Systems

Abstract: This paper examines the governing structures of state and local school systems as reported for 1880. Three distinctive models of governance are identified for the Northeast, the South, and the Midwest in the method of appointment or election of school officers at the state and local levels. An explanation for these patterns is presented that centers on the structural relationship between local, corporate communities and the methods of choosing education officials at the state and local levels of government. The northeastern town, the southern county, and the midwestern township are seen as historical antecedents to the specific regional pattern of school governance.

Corporate Views of the Public Interest

Abstract: The article presents a review of the book “Corporate Views of the Public Interest,” by Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld.

Selected Aspects of Governance: An ERIC Review.

Abstract: The study of governance in higher education is probably one of the most provocative areas of inquiry in the field. How institutions of higher education are governed has captured the interest of sociologists, organization theorists, and political scientists; the subject has also stimulated experienced leaders of college and universities to reflect on it and write about it from the viewpoint of the practitioner. Out of this intense interest in the structures and processes related to the governance of colleges and universities has emerged a body of literature that is rich in theory and extensive in the variety of topics and issues addressed. The wealth of descriptive and analytical studies notwithstanding, the better-known works either ignore the community college or treat it peripherally. The only published work that deals exclusively with governance in two-year colleges dates back to 1972 (Richardson, Blocker, and Bender, 1972). Moreover, a manual search of publications in the ERIC database revealed that studies on this topic are scarce. Because the subject of community college governance is apparently a relatively unexplored area, the literature review presented here is somewhat unconventional. Rather than presenting a synthesis of the available literature on the subject, the author has chosen instead to select specific topics for discussion based on what is available in the community college literature, which can be illustrated from the literature on higher education governance in general. Topics under the general rubric of governance in community colleges discussed herein were selected on the basis of two criteria. The first criterion was the extent to which they figure prominently in the literature on community colleges; the second was the extent to which they are relevant to contemporary developments in higher education. A topic that figures prominently in the literature on community college governance is the strong tendency toward bureaucratic decision making in these institutions. Several authors (Richardson and Rhodes, 1983; Richardson, 1975; Lahti, 1979; Baldridge, Curtis, Ecker, and Riley, 1978) point out that, compared to other institutions of higher education, community colleges exhibit stronger bureaucratic tendencies and a very high level of administrative dominance. Consequently, the literature selected for inclusion in this review addresses topics that influence the bureaucratic tendencies of community colleges. The following are some of the

The Corals of Hong Kong

Abstract: This book provides a comprehensive and up to date review and critique of corporate governance reforms and related financial reforms in China during the country's transition to a market economy, involving its enterprise, banking and capital markets sectors.

Organizing schools to encourage self-direction in learners

Abstract: (partial) Foreword. Introduction. Lifelong education, the school and self-direction in learning. The concept of self-direction in learning. From theoretical perspectives to research questions. Participating institutions. School governance and decision-making in teaching and learning. Curriculum in the four schools. Teaching and learning processes. Comparisons between high and low self-directed learners. Principles, theories, findings, and the facilitation versus training assumptions. Appendices. References. Index.

University autonomy and public policies: A system theory perspective

Abstract: This article addresses problems facing universities because of external pressures for changes in their teaching, research, and governance and management policies and practices to align them with public policies. The view is put that governments are introducing public policies in times of economic recession to achieve rationalisation of human, physical and financial resources in higher education and to foster initiatives that shape university teaching and research to serve the needs of society and assist in national economic recovery. Examples of these external pressures, which have resulted in intrusions into the autonomy of university governance and management, are provided in the context of general system theory. It is assumed that the pressure of public policies on universities will continue and that each university should have a development plan for its present and future teaching and research activities, which has the endorsement of the government higher education advisory agency so that university management can function on a secure basis. The effectiveness and efficiency of functioning at the various levels of the university system should be assessed by periodic evaluative reviews. The quality of management by academic leaders should be fostered by the establishment of national centres for the study of higher education management and policy. The relationship between government higher education advisory agencies and universities should be renegotiated so that, as interdependent and interrelated parts of the higher education system, they work in joint co-operation to ensure the most effective and appropriate development of each institution. Nevertheless, a state of equilibrium between the university system and the supra (social) system within which it exists will never fully be achieved. The fundamental role and functions of a university require that it be concerned with teaching and researching both ageless and current phenomena. Hence, a perfect equilibrium state cannot exist if external social pressures are for the main weight of university activities to be shifted to providing service for the current needs of society.