Cette thèse se propose d’analyser l’agence en conseil de vote et les mécanismes de responsabilisation dans le champ de la gouvernance d’entreprise au travers de plusieurs prismes. Elle se compose d’une introduction générale, de trois chapitres distincts mais interconnectés et d’une conclusion générale. Chaque chapitre suit un ordre logique mais est organisé comme un papier de recherche indépendant avec des contributions théoriques et empiriques qui lui sont propres. Cette thèse étudie l’émergence et la structuration de l’industrie des agences en conseil de vote à un niveau transnational, depuis la construction du champ de la gouvernance (Chapitre 1) à l’autorégulation de l’agence en conseil de vote (Chapitre 2) et enfin la gouvernance (d’entreprise) en action (Chapitre 3). / The dissertation investigates the emergence and the structuration of the proxy advisory industry at a transnational level, from the construction of the field of governance (Chapter 1) to the (self)-governance of the proxy 43 advisor (Chapter 2) and ultimately to the (corporate) governance in action (Chapter 3). The general conclusion wraps-up the main contributions of the dissertation, discusses the potential limitations of this research and suggests avenues for future research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of financial management, governance and service delivery levels on the effectiveness of municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) for the financial Year, July 2008 to June 2009. The study is descriptive in nature, using a quantitative technique of surveys via questionnaires to collect data from chief financial officers (CFOs) from low and medium capacity municipalities in KZN. Regarding the level of financial management, corporate governance and service delivery and the impact on effectiveness of municipalities, the results indicate there are areas of low and high levels of financial management, corporate governance and service delivery in the municipalities. There are some areas in which the municipalities are effective and other areas that need attention. This implies that there is not a 100% state of efficiency with respect to policies and procedures. The difficulty in carrying out research of this scope to investigate the impact of financial management, governance and service delivery levels on the effectiveness of municipalities is that it cannot be measured with absolute certainty. In addition, municipalities may be influenced by political powers and this is also difficult, perhaps impossible, to measure. The study is an important contribution to developing what should be done by municipalities in KZN to be effective i.e. in developing a framework for success in terms of financial management, governance and service delivery. / Graduate School of Business Leadership / (M.B.A.)

许多学者研究了多元化与企业绩效的关系（多元化-绩效关系），结论是形形色色，互相矛盾的。根据我在中国的田野调查，我相信多元化与组织绩效间的模糊关系能够通过考虑人力知识资本在其间的作用较好地解决。依据资源基础理论（RBV），我认为企业的多元化战略可以影响人力知识资本，然后由人力知识资本影响绩效。如果企业实施多元化战略不能提高人力知识资本，多元化-绩效关系的效应则可能不显著，甚至会是负相关。所有这些将能够从中国企业的数据中得到检验。因此，使用中国上市的制造企业样本，我实证研究多元化、人力知识资本与企业绩效的关系。实证研究表明人力知识资本是多元化与绩效的重要传导机制，这个结果对理论研究者和企业管理者都具有重要意义。 一方面从资源基础论的理论角度看，多元化显著影响人力知识资本，人力知识资本又显著影响企业绩效。另一方面从企业管理实践看，在当前的经济发展阶段，中国制造业尚处于规模化和低成本竞争策略层次，产品开发的关键技术以引进国外先进成果为主，缺乏核心技术研发投入，盈利能力偏弱，发展受制于人，急需加强研发人才队伍的建设，提升中国制造业在国际上的整体竞争力。The relationship between diversification and firm performance (diversification-performance relationship) has been studied by many authors, and the results have been mixed. Based on my field research in China, I believe that the fuzzy relationship between diversification and organizational performance can be better solved by considering the role of human intellectual capital in it.According to the resource based theory (RBV), I believe that the diversification strategy of an enterprise can influence human intellectual capital, and then human intellectual capital can influence performance.If the implementation of diversification strategy cannot improve human intellectual capital, the effect of diversification - performance relationship may not be significant or even negative.All this will be tested by Chinese companies.Therefore, using the sample of manufacturing enterprises listed in China, I empirically studied the relationship between diversification, human intellectual capital and enterprise performance. Empirical research shows that human knowledge capital is an important transmission mechanism of diversification and performance, which is of great significance to both theoretical researchers and enterprise managers.On the one hand, from the perspective of resource-based theory, diversification has a significant impact on human intellectual capital, and human intellectual capital has a significant impact on enterprise performance.On the other hand, from the enterprise management practice, in the current stage of economic development, China's manufacturing industry is still in its scale and low cost competition strategy level, the key technology of product development in order to introduce the foreign advanced achievements, the lack of core technology research and development investment, weak profitability, development of others, need to strengthen the research and development for the construction of talent team, enhance the overall competitiveness of China manufacturing industry in the world.

The restrictive listing requirements imposed by the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange results in the listing of high quality companies, while at the same time provides a higher degree of investor protection. These requirements can however be an obstacle for small and growing companies to go public and raise capital. Thus AIM has developed in order to facilitate the growth of these companies by its lighter listing requirements. This thesis is focused on three outcomes of the lighter listing requirements of AIM. First, AIM companies have a high ownership concentration and lower investor protection, thus enabling blockholders to have a significant impact on their value. This thesis finds that non-managerial and managerial blockholders have quadratic and cubic relationships with firm value respectively. Also, both types of blockholder increase the value of the firm until the first break point which is approximately 30 percent. This is almost exactly the point that the LSE defines as a cut-off point at which the blockholder is regarded as a controlling shareholder. Second, companies moving from the Main market to the AIM impair their information environment when entering the AIM; the information environment is measured by the stock’s liquidity and volatility. This thesis finds that firms experience lower trading activity and lower trading volume, which results in lower liquidity and volatility than matched companies that remain in the Main Market. Third, IPOs listing in the AIM are underpriced in order to compensate for risk. However, the level of underpricing can be alleviated by appointing a reputable Nomad. Underpricing facilitates IPOs to achieve higher aftermarket liquidity in two ways: First, directly by attracting investor attention; and second by diversifying ownership. However, aftermarket liquidity is evident for a longer period than other markets because of a longer lock up period.

abstract: I examine the determinants and implications of the level of director monitoring. I use the distance between directors' domiciles and firm headquarters as a proxy for the level of monitoring and the introduction of a new airline route between director domicile and firm HQ as an exogenous shock to the level of monitoring. I find a strong relation between distance and both board meeting attendance and director membership on strategic versus monitoring committees. Increased monitoring, as measured by a reduction in effective distance, by way of addition of a direct flight, is associated with a 3% reduction in firm value. A reduction in effective distance is also associated with less risk-taking, lower stock return volatility, lower accounting return volatility, lower R&D; spending, fewer acquisitions, and fewer patents. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2014

Today, organisations rely on IT systems which are constantly expected to improve return on investment without an increase in costs. These expectations have resulted in greater importance of the use and management of IT resources. In light of this increased importance of IT management, organisations turned towards frameworks, such as COBIT and ITIL, to better manage their IT resources. Although both frameworks have gained remarkable popularity, there is a lack of detailed information regarding their interrelation within an organisation. This creates a problem where an organisation that has implemented ITIL is unable to determine the level of COBIT compliance. Without being able to determine the level of compliance, it is not possible to ensure that the business requirements for information are being met therefore preventing an organisation from ensuring that their business objectives are achieved. The goal of this dissertation is to establish, from a security perspective, a Model that links COBIT and ITIL together on a detailed level to show their interrelation within an organisation and to provide a means of determining COBIT compliance through the use of the ITIL framework. This will effectively bridge the gap between IT Governance and IT Service Management. Before being able to develop such a Model, it was necessary to first link the COBIT and ITIL frameworks to show that such a Model can be developed. It was possible to establish such a link between COBIT and ITIL as both frameworks are based on a similar process. This is followed by determining the overlap between the security components of COBIT and ITIL. The results indicate that ITIL is insufficient to address all the security aspects of COBIT and additional control measures were required. These control measures werefound in an external framework and integrated into ITIL to complete the overlap. The completed overlap allowed for full COBIT compliance through the use of the ITIL with the additional control measures. The complete overlap between COBIT and ITIL allowed for the development of a framework that showed the interrelation between the security aspects of COBIT and ITIL within an organisation. This framework was then used as a foundation to develop a process of determining COBIT compliance using ITIL. This process of determining COBIT compliance was validated through the development of a software prototype. The framework and the process of determining COBIT compliance constitute the required Model which can be used to solve the identified problem. This dissertation also provides a strong platform for further research involving the areas of IT Governance and IT Service Management. It provides research topics into linking other parts of COBIT and ITIL that are not security related. The process of determining COBIT compliance can also be extended to function with other operational frameworks. This dissertation has also discovered an interesting relationship that exists within the COBIT frameworks. / Prof. Labuschagne

Introduction: There are many components that are required for an organisation to be successful in its chosen field. These components vary from corporate culture, to corporate leadership, to effective protection of important assets. These and many more contribute to the success of an organisation. One component that should be a definitive part in the strategy of any organisation is information security. Information security is one of the fastest growing sub-disciplines in the Information Technology industry, indicating the importance of this field (Zylt, 2001, online). Information security is concerned with the implementation and support of control measures to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of electronically stored information (BS 7799-1, 1999, p 1). Information security is achieved by applying control measures that will lessen the threat, reduce the vulnerability or diminish the impact of losing an information asset. However, as a result of the fact that an increasing number of employees have access to information, the protection of information is no longer only dependent on physical and technical controls, but also, to a large extent, on the actions of employees utilising information resources. All employees have a role to play in safeguarding information and they need guidance in fulfilling these roles (Barnard, 1998, p 12). This guidance should originate from senior management, using good corporate governance practices. The effective leadership resulting from good corporate governance practices is another component in an organisation that contributes to its success (King Report, 2001, p 11). Corporate governance is defined as the exercise of power over and responsibility for corporate entities (Blackwell Publishers, 2000, online). Senior management, as part of its corporate governance duties, should encourage employees to adhere to the behaviour specified by senior management to contribute towards a successful organisation. Senior management should not dictate this behaviour, but encourage it as naturally as possible, resulting in the correct behaviour becoming part of the corporate culture. If the inner workings of organisations are explored it would be found that there are many hidden forces at work that determine how senior management and the employees relate to one another and to customers. These hidden forces are collectively called the culture of the organisation (Hagberg Consulting Group, 2002, online). Cultural assumptions in organisations grow around how people in the organisation relate to each other, but that is only a small part of what corporate culture actually covers (Schein, 1999, p 28). Corporate culture is the outcome of all the collective, taken-for-granted assumptions that a group has learned throughout history. Corporate culture is the residue of success. In other words, it is the set of procedures that senior management and employees of an organisation follow in order to be successful (Schein, 1999, p 29). Cultivating an effective corporate culture, managing an organisation using efficient corporate governance practices and protecting the valuable information assets of an organisation through an effective information security program are, individually, all important components in the success of an organisation. One of the biggest questions with regard to these three fields is the relationship that should exist between information security, corporate governance and corporate culture. In other words, what can the senior management of an organisation, using effective corporate governance practices, do to ensure that information security practices become a subconscious response in the corporate culture?.

Numerous studies have used the wedge between control rights and cash flow rights as a proxy for the unobservable likelihood of expropriation (i.e., controlling shareholders tunneling resources from minority shareholders). Therefore, any negative relationship between the wedge and firm value found in previous studies can be interpreted as a relationship between the likelihood of expropriation and firm value. However, the results of this study suggest that the wedge is endogenous and related to firm characteristics, which can be classified into five categories: transparency, the firm's growth and capital requirement, risk, the pledgeability of cash flows and assets, and technology. Based on a sample of 4,185 firm-year observations from 1,202 public firms in the Hong Kong stock market from 2009 to 2013, this study examines whether the wedge remains a good proxy for expropriation if firm characteristics are considered. The results show that the significance of the wedge disappears when it is included alongside firm characteristics in the regressions, meaning that any power of the wedge to explain firm value can be attributed to the effect of these firm characteristics on firm value and not on the effect of the likelihood of expropriation. Moreover, a positive relationship between the wedge and firm value for family-controlled group firms is observed. Therefore, the wedge is not a good proxy for the likelihood of expropriation.

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