The governance of Australian nonprofit voluntary sport organisations (VSOs) was once almost the exclusive domain of volunteers. However, changes in government policy and funding levels in recent years has led to the introduction of professional staff in these organisations. Rapid changes to the political, social and economic environment have created new complexities with which VSOs and their governing boards must grapple. Boards act as the main decision making body for these organisations, and as such have a significant impact on the governance of these organisations, and therefore their ability to deliver services. While the process of professionalisation within VSOs has been well documented, very little research has examined factors that may influence the ability of the boards of VSOs to perform effectively. The fields of nonprofit governance and sport management provided a theoretical and conceptual framework for the investigation of the board performance of VSOs. Two broad themes concerning research into board performance were identified in the nonprofit literature; the structural characteristics of the board, and board-executive relations. These two themes have also been addressed to a limited extent within the sport management literature, but not in relation to board performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between board performance, board structures and board-executive relations in Australian VSOs. The study investigated the differences in board structure between effective and ineffective boards, and the relationship between board performance and various elements of board structure, specifically complexity, formalisation and centralisation. The differences in the nature of board-executive relations between effective and ineffective boards, and the relationship of board performance to board-executive relations were also investigated. The sampling frame for the study was state governing bodies of sport in the state of Victoria, Australia. Seven case organisations were identified by a panel of experts; four exhibiting effective board performance and three exhibiting ineffective board performance. Data were collected through structured interviews with executives, from an examination of board documents, from a self-administered questionnaire of executives, board chairs and board members, and through semi-structured interviews with executives, board chairs and board members. Data were collected on board performance, the complexity, formalisation and centralisation of the boards, power patterns within the boards, and the nature of board-executive relations. Data analysis involved both quantitative and qualitative techniques. It was concluded that effective board performance was related to a higher level of board centralisation and associated with a higher level of board formalisation. Board performance was not related to board complexity. Board power patterns that were perceived to be powerless or fragmented were related to lower levels of board performance. Elements of the board-executive relationship that were related to effective board performance were identified as establishing trust between the board and executive, the control of information by the executive, shared board leadership and the responsibility for board performance. Importantly, the study identified the central role executives have in determining the ability of VSO boards to perform effectively. The study contributed to the body of knowledge concerning the governance of VSOs, specifically the measurement of board performance, and the investigation of its relationship with board structure and board-executive relations. A number of questions were advanced for the development of theory and empirical investigation through further research. The study also extended what is known about the models of nonprofit governance and their utility in explaining the workings of VSO boards. The findings of this study suggest that there is a need to adapt such models to the organisational context of member-based organisations such as VSOs.

All motor behaviours are expressed via the activation of alpha motoneurones, the final common path of the central nervous system. The corticospinal tract conveys neural information from the motor cortex to motoneurones. This thesis focuses on the corticospinal control of human motoneurones during voluntary contraction and fatigue. First, output of motoneurones to corticospinal inputs is described for a wide range of contraction strengths. Results show that motoneurones become less responsive during strong contractions whereas motor cortical output cells are not limited in the same way. Comparison of motoneurone output to different strength corticospinal inputs and of different motoneurone pools demonstrates an important role for motor unit firing rates in determining the excitability of motoneurones during strong contractions. Next, the reflex actions of group III and IV muscle afferents on motoneurones are investigated. These studies address a long and ongoing debate about the role of these afferents to the slowing of motor unit firing rates during sustained contractions. It was believed that these afferents inhibit motoneurones and contribute to fatigue. However, findings demonstrate that human motoneurones innervating extensor and flexor muscles are not uniformly affected by fatigue-sensitive afferents. Thus afferent inputs from homonymous and antagonist muscles depress extensor motoneurones but facilitate flexor motoneurones. When group III and IV muscle afferents are activated by hypertonic saline, motoneurones of both extensors and flexors are facilitated. This demonstrates parallel excitatory and inhibitory pathways from group III and IV muscle afferents to extensor motoneurones, which are activated under different conditions. Furthermore, the excitation is more pronounced for high-threshold motoneurones. In addition to the effects mediated at motoneurones, activity in group III and IV afferents inhibits motor cortical cells. The final studies investigate changes in the cervical propriospinal pathway with fatigue. This pathway transmits part of the voluntary drive to motoneurones, in parallel with the direct corticospinal pathway. The studies demonstrate that during fatigue, there are coordinated changes in the excitation mediated via this pathway to motoneurones of both fatigued and non-fatigued muscles of the upper limb. In summary, this thesis demonstrates novel aspects of the corticospinal control of motoneurones during voluntary contraction and fatigue.

<p>Company’s annual report has been widely used by stakeholders such as investors, employees, suppliers, customers and creditors. Information included in annual report consists of both mandatory information required by law, regulations as well as accounting standard and voluntary information depended on management’s judgments. We find that voluntary information vary from company to company. From corporate governance field, we find that the company’s board of directors plays an important role in monitoring the management’s performance and have an impact on management’s judgment, including their decision to disclose information in annual report. Board of directors comprises inside and independent directors. Both of them have incentives to disclose information in annual report.</p><p>In this study, we use quantitative method to examine the association between board composition and different types of voluntary disclosure in listed companies in the Shanghai stock exchange (SSE) of China and OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm. The board composition is measured by the proportion of independent directors to total number of directors on the board. Voluntary disclosure has been classified into three categories: Strategic information, non-financial information and financial information.</p><p>The results show that there is no significant association between board composition and voluntary disclosure from our samples Chinese and Swedish companies. However, we find association between different types of voluntary disclosure and firm characteristics. We find significant negative association between strategic information and financial leverage for Chinese companies. We find significant negative association between financial information and equity-based management compensation in Swedish companies. On comparison, we find that Swedish companies is inclined to disclose more financial information than Chinese companies while Chinese companies would like to disclose more strategic information than Swedish companies.</p>

In the absence of Canadian legislation this thesis conducts an exploratory study of the regulations Canadian extraction companies (mining and oil and gas) have implemented to control private security in developing countries. It focuses on discerning what private security policies extraction companies have in place and whether companies have adopted voluntary regulations such as the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights. For this study a survey was conducted of almost all extraction companies listed on the TSX and TSX Venture Exchange. Publically available documents, such as company websites, codes of conduct, annual reports, and corporate presentations, were analyzed to determine what regulations companies have in place. The data indicates that regulation of private security is mainly limited to Canada’s largest extraction companies and that private security is usually a small portion of a company’s overall corporate social responsibility policy. This research also reviews incidents of human rights abuses committed by private security personnel working for Canadian extraction companies over the last ten years. Incidents are drawn from media outlets, NGOs, and academic articles. These cases help illustrate the challenges Canadian companies face employing private security personnel on the ground.

This study examines the connection between social capital and involvement within voluntary associations; involvement is defined either as being a member in an association or a member who has some kind of assignment in an association. The study also examines if there is a difference between two social economic groups regarding the attainment and transformation of social capital through being involved in a voluntary association. Social capital is defined as social trust and the willingness of collective action. The result of the research shows there is a slight connection between the involvement in voluntary associations and social capital. It shows that people who are members of a voluntary association often have higher social capital than those who are not members of any voluntary association at all. The study also shows that there is a difference in attainment of social capital between those who have some kind of assignment in a voluntary association and general members. When studying social capital and involvement in voluntary associations it is also of interest to take social class into the analysis, because the study shows that people with a lower education had increased social capital when they were members in an association compared to the members with a higher education.

Securities legislation in Canada and around the world does not mandate firms to fulfill announced share repurchase programs. As such, a firms repurchase program completion rate can be interpreted as a measure of the firms voluntary compliance, which communicates to investors the degree to which the firm is responsible, reliable and makes good faith efforts to fulfill its announced programs. We therefore expect that the voluntary compliance may reduce the riskiness of a firm and thus its cost of capital. In a sample of Canadian repurchase programs announced between 1995 and 2004, surprisingly, we find little evidence to suggest that a significant relationship exists between the firms repurchase program completion rate and the cost of equity. We present a number of explanations for this result.

We examine whether corporate governance affects the level of information asymmetry in the capital market. We hypothesize that firms with stronger corporate gov-ernance would be more likely to voluntarily disclose corporate information using public rather than selective methods, and that this would be associated with lower levels of in-formation asymmetry. We carefully establish the path through which corporate govern-ance affects a firms voluntary disclosure method based on previous literature. Surpris-ingly, in full sample analysis we find that firms with stronger corporate governance (as measured by Gompers et al.s, 2003, G index) are associated with higher levels of infor-mation asymmetry (as measured by Easley et al.s, 1996, PIN). In subsample analysis, we find that, consistent with our hypothesis, for the most weakly governed firms, stronger corporate governance is associated with lower information asymmetry, and the impact of corporate governance on information asymmetry is more pronounced than that of firms with moderate and strong corporate governance. <p> To further test our hypothesis, we consider the external effect of Regulation Fair Disclosure on the disclosure method to examine the corporate governance-information asymmetry relationship. Consistent with our hypothesis, our evidence suggests that by forbidding the practice of selective disclosure, the regulation significantly decreases the impact of corporate governance on information asymmetry level.

Securities legislation in Canada and around the world does not mandate firms to fulfill announced share repurchase programs. As such, a firms repurchase program completion rate can be interpreted as a measure of the firms voluntary compliance, which communicates to investors the degree to which the firm is responsible, reliable and makes good faith efforts to fulfill its announced programs. We therefore expect that the voluntary compliance may reduce the riskiness of a firm and thus its cost of capital. In a sample of Canadian repurchase programs announced between 1995 and 2004, surprisingly, we find little evidence to suggest that a significant relationship exists between the firms repurchase program completion rate and the cost of equity. We present a number of explanations for this result.

We examine whether corporate governance affects the level of information asymmetry in the capital market. We hypothesize that firms with stronger corporate gov-ernance would be more likely to voluntarily disclose corporate information using public rather than selective methods, and that this would be associated with lower levels of in-formation asymmetry. We carefully establish the path through which corporate govern-ance affects a firms voluntary disclosure method based on previous literature. Surpris-ingly, in full sample analysis we find that firms with stronger corporate governance (as measured by Gompers et al.s, 2003, G index) are associated with higher levels of infor-mation asymmetry (as measured by Easley et al.s, 1996, PIN). In subsample analysis, we find that, consistent with our hypothesis, for the most weakly governed firms, stronger corporate governance is associated with lower information asymmetry, and the impact of corporate governance on information asymmetry is more pronounced than that of firms with moderate and strong corporate governance. <p> To further test our hypothesis, we consider the external effect of Regulation Fair Disclosure on the disclosure method to examine the corporate governance-information asymmetry relationship. Consistent with our hypothesis, our evidence suggests that by forbidding the practice of selective disclosure, the regulation significantly decreases the impact of corporate governance on information asymmetry level.

Company’s annual report has been widely used by stakeholders such as investors, employees, suppliers, customers and creditors. Information included in annual report consists of both mandatory information required by law, regulations as well as accounting standard and voluntary information depended on management’s judgments. We find that voluntary information vary from company to company. From corporate governance field, we find that the company’s board of directors plays an important role in monitoring the management’s performance and have an impact on management’s judgment, including their decision to disclose information in annual report. Board of directors comprises inside and independent directors. Both of them have incentives to disclose information in annual report. In this study, we use quantitative method to examine the association between board composition and different types of voluntary disclosure in listed companies in the Shanghai stock exchange (SSE) of China and OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm. The board composition is measured by the proportion of independent directors to total number of directors on the board. Voluntary disclosure has been classified into three categories: Strategic information, non-financial information and financial information. The results show that there is no significant association between board composition and voluntary disclosure from our samples Chinese and Swedish companies. However, we find association between different types of voluntary disclosure and firm characteristics. We find significant negative association between strategic information and financial leverage for Chinese companies. We find significant negative association between financial information and equity-based management compensation in Swedish companies. On comparison, we find that Swedish companies is inclined to disclose more financial information than Chinese companies while Chinese companies would like to disclose more strategic information than Swedish companies.