A tale of corporate governance: lessons why firms fail

Abstract

Purpose

To review the world's and Australia's notable firm failures associated with divergence of best practices, describing the link of how corporate sustainability depends on its corporate governance implementation.

Design/methodology/approach

An array of existing theories and prior academic findings on corporate governance and corporate sustainability published between 1998 and 2004 are compared and contrasted, fitted with empirical evidence of what had happened with Enron, Inc. (Enron) and HIH Insurance (HIH). Matrices are developed to intercept the key good corporate governance perspectives with the study propositions.

Findings

The study indicates that both Enron and HIH acknowledged good corporate governance as a prevailing framework, yet failed to implement it. Each of the principles had been violated and had served as an attribute to the firms’ failure.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited to the two notable cases, notwithstanding the implication that perhaps its applicability in other corporate settings may be pursued. Data and information sources for this paper have also been limited to the use of secondary data obtained from the public domain.

Practical implications

This paper is expected to fill part of a gap in linking the studies of how corporate sustainability depends on its corporate governance.

Originality/value

This paper provides a practical approach in identifying the existence or non‐existence of key good corporate governance principles in the going‐concern of corporations.

Citation

Mardjono, A. (2005), "A tale of corporate governance: lessons why firms fail", Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 272-283. https://doi.org/10.1108/02686900510585609