Zugl.: Leipzig, Univ., Diss., 2009

In order to test the theory of the firm and alternative theories of firm behaviour, primary data was collected from 310 managers of UK-based firms. This primary data was then combined with secondary data collated from the Financial Analysis Made Easy (FAME) database and the FTSEISS Corporate Governance Index. This data was then used to construct a number of binary probit models to test the validity of competing theories of the firm. Finally, the data was used to test an original hypothesis, that the level of corporate governance within a firm's management structure is the factor that determines if the managers of the firm will aim for a maximum level of profits. The hypothesis offered here is that it is not, as previously suggested, the percentage of shares held by any one individual, the overall ownership structure, the size of the firm or indeed any firm, market or industry-specific variable that determines if a firm will aim to maximize profits. The relevant factor that determines if a firm will aim to maximize profits is the level of corporate governance within the firm's management structure. Regardless of any other variable, a firm with a high degree of corporate governance is more likely to aim to profit maximize than a firm with a low level of corporate governance.

[pt] Para minimizar a perda de valor da empresa decorrente da separação entre controle e propriedade, surgiu o conceito de governança corporativa, há cerca de vinte anos. A governança traduz-se em mecanismos internos (Conselho de Administração, Estrutura de Propriedade, Sistema de Remuneração dos Executivos, etc) e externos (mercado de fusões e aquisições e sistema legal/regulatório). A adoção de suas práticas é um processo recente no Brasil. Em virtude disto, ainda não existe uma literatura empírica consolidada sobre o assunto no país. Sendo assim, o propósito deste trabalho é investigar a influência de mecanismos internos de governança corporativa - relativos ao Conselho de Administração e à Estrutura de Propriedade - sobre o desempenho econômicofinanceiro e o valor dos bancos no Brasil. Para isso, a amostra selecionada contém 19 bancos, analisados durante o período de 1998 até 2003. Os resultados demonstram que ainda é tímida a influência dos mecanismos de governança tanto sobre a variável de desempenho analisada quanto sobre a medida de valor estudada. No entanto, estudos sugerem que pelo fato de o setor financeiro ser regulado é possível que se encontre resultados distintos daqueles preditos pela teoria e que, até então, foram obtidos para empresas não- financeiras. / [en] Over twenty years ago, the concept of corporate governance appeared to minimize the loss in the firm value due to the conflict of interest inherent in the separation between ownership by shareholders and control. Governance can be classified in two sets of mechanisms: internal (Board of Directors, Ownership Structure, Executive Compensation, etc.) and external mechanisms (Mergers and Acquisitions Market, Legal/Regulatory System, etc.). The adoption of these practices is a recent trend in Brazil. For this reason, there is no consolidated empiric literature in Brazil. In such a case, the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of internal mechanisms of corporate governance - especially the Board of Directors and the Structure of Ownership - on the performance and the firm-value of banks in Brazil. For that, the selected sample contains 19 Brazilian banks, analyzed during the period from 1998 to 2003. The results demonstrate that the influence of internal and external mechanisms on the performance variable analyzed as well as on the measure of firm value studied is still small. However, studies suggest that because financial system is a regulated sector it is possible to obtain results different from those predicted by the theory and that, until now, were obtained in studies of non- financial firms.

Performance of the institutions in the public sector has always been among the main drivers that determine how the country is ultimately perceived by its citizens and the world, it is the policies and regulations established by these institutions that governs the private sector. The objectives of these public institutions can only be achieved through well formulated, well implemented and a continuous review of the strategies being pursued to achieve the stated objectives. At the core of setting strategies is Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), being an organisational procedure enabling the identification, assessment and action plans for the organisational risks linking to the achievement of objectives. The action plans formulated through the ERM should translate into strategic objectives mainly in the public sector where resources are chronically limited. Even with good intentions, government may spend badly because it has either chosen the wrong projects to fund or planned badly for good projects if the strategies are not continually and systematically reviewed. The objective of this research was to gain an understanding of how risk management is conducted at an enterprise-wide level within public sector institutions to ensure that the institution complies with all the relevant requirements within its ambit. It was a qualitative study that was conducted using a case study methodology wherein a public sector institution was identified and the executives involved in the risk management were interviewed individually. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and the results were analysed through the themes that were identified. The study identified that more understanding is required by public sector organisations to be able to realise the benefits of ERM. A clear distinction of what the objectives of the institution are, the related strategies, strategic objectives and risks to the strategic objectives, need to be made clear. The use of risk registers at different levels of the organisation is a tool to draw the relevant risks from deep in operations to a strategic level and this has to be understood at all levels. More importantly the correct action plans in reaction to identified risks can greatly turn risks into opportunities but this is not currently the case as risk registers are still not well implemented and utilized. Risk identification should not be a brainstorming session when the strategy is created but a continuous well operated system within operations throughout the period. The risk culture, roles and relevant systems are still lacking in public institutions. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / lmgibs2014 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Employment equity legislation facilitates the entry of women into the workforce; as a consequence there is now a need to investigate factors that would increase female employees’ commitment levels in the workplace. One such factor is perception of social aspects of the corporate governance policy. The present study investigated the influence of employee perceptions of the value of social factors of company policy, on affective, continuance and normative commitment levels. This study was conducted in order to ascertain whether a perception of high value of social factors of corporate governance correlates with high levels of organisational commitment. A positive relationship between these variables would direct and inform the corporate governance policy in an organisation, resulting in a more committed and productive workforce. The study was contextualised in the South African banking industry- in FNB, Standard Bank, Nedbank and Absa. A literature review was undertaken to gain insight into previous work in the fields of organisational commitment studies and corporate governance. A quantitative study was then conducted, using a researcher-constructed questionnaire. Data was analysed using an SPSS statistical package. Findings indicated that the respondents are satisfied that employee welfare, gender equality, increased promotion opportunities for female employees, flexible working hours, parental responsibilities, retaining, training and developing women in the workplace, and employee health and safety are all important considerations in a company’s corporate governance policy. The findings revealed that overall these positive perceptions of the social factors of the corporate governance policy in respondents’ organisations correlated positively with respondents’ workplace commitment levels in the organisation. Findings were then discussed in relation to the literature. Conclusions, recommendations and areas for further study were presented. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Organisations operate under unpredictable business environments. These business environments can be classified into internal and external environments. The decision taken by organisations to allocate resources for CSR depends on business environments. Organisations have no control of external business environments. Global financial crisis is an example of an external business environment of which organisations have no control over. The event in the business environments can influence the organisation to review its CSR operations. The beneficiaries of the organisation's CSR program get affected by such decision reviews and face even bigger challenges.

A wealth of studies indicates that good corporate governance has a positive impact on company performance. However, it is not always understood how this positive relationship is achieved. In firms where shareholders and management are misaligned and agency costs are high, cash and cash equivalents can be used in ways that lead to poor company performance and to the destruction of shareholder value. In addition to this problem, very few studies on corporate governance focus on emerging markets: “most studies of corporate governance focus on one or a few wealthy economies” (La Porta, Lopez-De-Silanes, Shleifer & Vishny, 1998, p.1117). Therefore, the focus of this study was to address these two main issues. The author of this report set out to understand the impact of corporate governance on corporate cash holdings by focusing on emerging markets. This was first done by reviewing the extensive literature on agency theory, firm-level corporate governance, cash holdings and the three hypotheses for reasons why firms hold cash. Firm-level corporate governance, corporate cash holdings and total assets data was collected for 620 firms in 17 emerging market economies using Thomson Reuters DataStream for the period 2009 to 2012. The data was then used to determine whether firm-level corporate governance, board characteristics, shareholder rights and vision and strategy are associated with corporate cash holdings. The study found that for the selected sample, firm-level corporate governance is negatively correlated to corporate cash holdings in emerging markets. This implies that the flexibility hypothesis is the dominant reason why firms hold cash in emerging markets. Emerging market firms tend to hoard cash because it provides the flexibility for these firms to take advantage of profitable opportunities as they present themselves. This outcome is contrary to the results obtained in prior studies done on firms in developed economies: these firms tend to spend cash quickly on acquisitions and capital projects (spending hypothesis) or they keep cash to avoid under-investing in case they cannot access external credit lines.(shareholder power hypothesis). / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / pagibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

“What determines bond ratings?” has been asked since 1860 when Henry V. Poor, of now Standard & Poors, released his first financial and operational analysis of the railroad industry and is still asked today. The determinants of bond rating studies date back to Fisher (1959) and single out various industries (railroad, manufacturing, industrial, and utility) but do not focus on REITs. REITs are different from other industries in various ways. Literature suggest differences between REITs and non-REIT industries including: the regulatory IRS restrictions regarding REITs, the uncertainty regarding the value of REITs, the number of uninformed investors is greater in the REIT market due to valuation uncertainty, REITs securities behave more like mutual fund securities than like industrial firm securities (Wang et al. (1992), (1995)), and the uncertainty about the value of real estate stocks is greater than that for stocks of industrial firms with operating assets, causing REIT advisors to complain that the stock market underestimates their real value more often than the real value of industrial firms (Hite, Owens, and Rodgers (1987)). This study analyzes the determinants of REIT debt ratings. The determinants are analyzed using ordered probit and multinomial logit regression models. The results of the ordered probit regression model reveal that REIT debt ratings are determined by similar financial characteristics used to analyze determinants for non-REIT industries. Similar to the findings in Horrigan (1966), the data also reveals that liquidity is not as significant to REIT debt ratings as S&P analyst claim. The multinomial logit resuts show that leverage, cash, size, interest coverage, and shareholders right plan are significant to downgrades. Overall, the findings presented here are consistent with non-REIT ratings literature.

This study examines the effect of independent board members on a bank's performance. Roughly 100 banks in the SIC codes of 6020, 6022, 6035, 6036 were used, with data from the year 2003. Several governance variables were also included in this study; they are CEO/Chair duality, management ownership, insider tenure and total assets. P-B, ROA, ROE and ROI measured financial performance. The effect of outside directors was insignificant. However, the results indicated that bank size positively affects how well outsiders on the board monitor the company. Also, this study suggests that management's ownership of the company increases short term performance, while insider tenure decreases it.

Innovation is fundamental to long-term business success in technology medium-sized enterprises (MSEs). The owner-CEO interrelationship is likely to set the culture and be an important influence on the enterprise innovation capability. Previous studies of the owner-CEO interrelationship have produced varying results but few have examined the influence on innovation capability. Agency theory assumes that owners and CEOs have contrasting objectives but it is silent when owners and CEOs are in accord. Companies may have varying dominant ideologies, such as entrepreneurialism, managerialism, and paternalism, which likely influence their innovation capability. Using primary data from three different German MSEs, selected for their contrasting ideologies, this study examines how interrelationship influences of the owner-CEO interrelationship have the potential to influence the innovation capability of MSEs. The results show that the influence of the owner-CEO interrelationship on the innovation capability is associated with social and situational influences. This thesis provides an original contribution by developing an “interrelationship influence model” that captures the interrelationship factors that influence innovation capability, namely: action, support, communication, responsibility, power and autonomy. This study has important implications for researchers in corporate governance as well as in innovation. Enterprises aiming to improve their innovation capability should pay attention to interrelationships and the influence of owners as well as to the CEO and the management team.