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Despite agreement on the importance of adopting governance structures for developing competitive advantage, we still know little about why or how governance mechanisms are adopted in the first place. We also acknowledge that family businesses with formal governance mechanisms in place still resort to informal means to make decisions, and we lack knowledge about why certain governance mechanisms are sometimes, but not always, effective and functional. Given these research gaps, and drawing on institutional theory, we aim to explore: How are governance structures adopted and developed in family firms? Once adopted, how do family businesses perceive these governance structures?

Using Mokken Scale Analysis, a method suitable to uncover patterns/sequences of adoption/acquisition over time, we analyze a dataset of 1,488 Spanish family firms to explore if there is a specific pattern in the implementation of governance structures. We complement the analysis with descriptive data about perceived usefulness of such structures.

Our findings highlight two important issues. Family businesses follow a specific process implementing first business governance (board of directors, then executive committee), followed by family governance (family council then family constitution). We suggest they do so in response to institutional pressures, given the exposure they have to business practices, and their need to appear legitimate. Despite formal adoption of governance structures, family businesses do not necessarily consider them useful. We suggest that their perception about the usefulness of the implemented governance structures may lead to their ceremonial adoption, resulting in a gap between the implementation and functionality of such structures.

Our article contributes to the family business literature by bringing novel insights about implementation of governance structures. We take a step back to explain why these governance mechanisms were adopted in the first place. Using institutional theory we enrich governance and family business literatures, by offering a lens that explains why family businesses follow a specific process in adopting governance structures. We also offer a plausible explanation as to why governance structures are ineffective in achieving their theorized role in the context of family businesses, based on the family's perception of the unusefulness of such structures, and the concept of ceremonial adoption.

There is no single recipe that can serve the multiple needs of different family businesses. This indicates that family businesses may need diverse levels of development and order when setting up their governance structures. Accordingly, this study constitutes an important point of demarcation for practitioners interested in examining the effectiveness of governance structures in family firms. We show that an important pre-requisite for examining the effectiveness of governance structures is to start by investigating whether these structures are actually being used or are only adopted ceremonially.

Our paper expands current knowledge on governance in family firms by taking a step back hinting at why are governance structures adopted in the first place. Focusing on how governance is implemented in terms of sequence is novel and relevant for researcher and practitioners to understand how this process unfolds. Our study uses institutional theory, which is a strong theory to support the results. Our paper also uses a novel method to study governance structures in family firms.

The aim of this paper is to examine the relative influence of regulatory enhancements relating to corporate governance and attributes of business traits on performance of Malaysian listed companies.

Regression analysis was performed on all 742 non-financial main board companies listed on Bursa Malaysia using data from 2013 annual reports.

The results show that the number of board meetings held during the year, role separation and board size have a significant impact on corporate performance. By contrast, independent directors, government ownership and director ownership do not influence corporate performance.

The study investigated non-financial companies for the financial year 2013. Hence, the results may not apply to financial companies and other years. Future research can perhaps include all types of listed companies and carry out a longitudinal study to gain more comprehensive results and understanding on the relationship between corporate governance and corporate performance. Additionally, future research could also consider employing a different methodology to further unveil factors influencing corporate performance.

The above findings provide new evidence of the effectiveness of the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance in improving company performance. The significance of board meetings, role separation and board size shows the importance of internal governance in shaping company processes and hence performance.

The result suggests that although the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance follows the corporate governance code of developed countries, the applicability of the recommendations to a developing country is evidenced. Companies in Malaysia are predominantly government-owned or closely held, but it appears that role separation matters even in these types of companies in achieving better performance.

This paper takes a structured literature review (SLR) approach to identify gaps in the literature and suggest future research opportunities. It focuses on corporate governance (CG) performed outside the formal board of directors’ structure and examines research of alternative CG of small and medium-sized entities (SMEs).

The authors use the SLR method to search the Scopus database, extracting and synthesising findings relating specifically to SMEs’ CG. These are tabulated and described using bibliometric software.

The authors highlight an absence of tailored theoretical approaches to understanding CG in SMEs, which differs from the governance of larger entities. They also find evidence of alternative governance structures in SME CG.

Further research should embrace management and other theoretical perspectives and expanded methodologies, nuances in understanding offered in contextualised settings and awareness of practical implications to better understand the specific setting of CG in SMEs.

SMEs seek to access the scarce resources and skills external to their formal CG structures. Regulators and resource providers should mobilise facilitation and training for this expansion.

The authors synthesise a large body of literature to extract findings specific to SMEs. A unique contribution is our focus on alternative forms of CG in SMEs. Evidence of alternative boards points to resolutions for human capital shortages in SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the literature on two lines of research, corporate governance and innovation, explaining how different internal corporate governance mechanisms may be determinants of business innovation.

It explores the theoretical background and the empirical evidence regarding the influence of both ownership structure and the board of directors on company innovation. Then, conclusions are drawn and possible future research lines are presented.

No consensus was observed regarding the relation between corporate governance and innovation, with both positive and negative arguments being found, and with empirical evidence not always pointing in the same direction. Thus, new studies trying to clarify this relationship are needed.

Over recent years, interest has grown in the influence of governance mechanisms on innovation decisions taken by the management. Innovation efforts and results depend on factors that are influenced by corporate governance, such as ownership structure or the functioning of the board of directors. Thus, the paper shows an updated state of the art in this field proposing future lines for empirical research.

The study aims to investigate the influence of corporate governance practices on enhancing firm value in manufacturing industries in Bangladesh.

The study sample consists of 131 companies from 10 manufacturing industries listed in Dhaka stock exchange (DSE). Using the multiple regression method, the study analyzed 1,193 firm-year observations from 2012 to 2021.

The outcome reveals that managerial ownership, foreign ownership, ownership concentration, board size, board independence, board diligence and auditor quality have a significant positive influence on firm value. In contrast, audit committee size has no significant influence on firm value.

The practical implications of the current study demonstrated that good corporate governance creates value and must be invigorated for the interest of all stakeholders. Policymakers should formulate specific guidelines regarding firms' ownership structure and audit quality issues.

Studies show that corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are driven by ethical practices. The relationships between corporate ethics, CG and CSR have been heavily studied indicating significant associations. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of CG on the relationship between ethics and CSR.

Data were collected through questionnaires from small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. The results were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that ethical practices have positive impact on CG, and in turn CG has a positive impact on CSR. The results also reveal a mediating effect of CG on the relationship between ethics and CSR.

The sample selected is based on two countries in the MENA region, Egypt and Lebanon. Only SMEs are considered.

The innovative capabilities of SMEs in developing and emerging economies could be enhanced through corporate ethical practices which guide management for more CSR engagement through good CG.

The study contributes to corporate ethics, CG and CSR literature by providing evidence from a significant region, with both developing and emerging economies, on the mediating role of CG on the relationship between ethics and CSR.

Stakeholders' uncertainty about firms' value drives their urge to get information, as well as managerial disclosure choices. In this study, the authors examine whether and how an important source of uncertainty – the recent COVID-19 pandemic's effect on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure – is beyond managerial and stakeholders' control.

The authors develop a novel construct for daily CSR disclosure by employing computer-aided text analysis (CATA) on the press releases issued by 125 New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) listed from 28 February 2020 to 31 December 2020. To capture COVID-19 intensity, the authors use the growth rate of the population-adjusted cumulative sum of confirmed cases in New Zealand on a specific day. To examine the association between the COVID-19 outbreak and companies' CSR disclosure, the authors employed ordinary least squares (OLS) regression by clustering standard error at the firm level.

The authors find a one standard deviation increase in the COVID-19 outbreak leads to a 28% increase in such disclosures. These results remained robust to a series of sensitivity tests and continue to hold after accounting for potential endogeneity concerns. In the channel analysis, the study demonstrates that the positive relationship between COVID-19 and CSR disclosure is more pronounced in the presence of a well-structured board (i.e. a large, more independent board and with a higher proportion of women on it). In further analysis, the authors find the documented relationship varies over the pandemic's life cycle and is moderated by government stringency response, peer CSR pressure and media coverage.

This paper is the first study that contributes to the scant literature examining the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on CSR disclosure. Prior research either investigates the relationship of the CSR-stock return during the COVID-19 market crisis or examines the relationship between corporate characteristics including the quality of financial information and the reactions of stock returns during COVID-19. The authors extend such studies by providing empirical evidence that managers respond to COVID-19 by increasing CSR disclosure.

This study aims to investigate the association between corporate governance and financial transparency, using the moderating role of an Egyptian currency devaluation decision as a policy shock.

Data was collected for a sample of companies listed on the Egyptian stock exchange from 2014 to 2019. To control for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity, the authors analyse panel data using an estimated generalised least squares regression model.

The findings underline the pitfalls of assuming that corporate governance mechanisms are effective regardless of circumstances and support the complementary roles of a number of theories in interpreting the empirical findings.

This study is limited to non-financial companies and includes only corporate board and audit committee governance mechanisms. The study results have important implications for policymakers, international lending institutions, investors and accounting standards setters. It is of particular importance to policymakers in other less-developed countries with similar economic conditions.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first empirical attempt to provide evidence of the impact of a currency devaluation shock on the relationship between corporate governance and financial transparency within the Egyptian context as an example of a transitional economy. Hence, it provides a significant theoretical and empirical contribution to the literature.

The objective of this study is to assess the level of corporate governance (CG) compliance and identify determinants of high compliance in Indonesian publicly listed corporations including family and nonfamily firms. The country uses a voluntary disclosure approach to enforce its regulations; thus, it is important to identify the factors affecting compliance.

Employing a logistic regression model, this paper analyzes the CG index of high-compliance vs. poor-compliance companies and emphasizes factors that contribute to better governance compliance. The CG index of high-compliant firms is almost twice as high as that of low-compliant firms.

The study explores factors that contribute to high CG in an emerging market like Indonesian corporations. The study's findings indicate that family-owned businesses predominate in the low-compliance group. High-compliance firms are older and larger with higher financial performance, free float and leverage, as well as a positive influence of the founder's great leadership. The results support theoretical arguments that concentrated ownership and excessive majority shareholder control are key factors in determining the likelihood of good governance practices by firms. Hence, the market and regulators should devise effective strategies to encourage and reward high compliance.

The findings of the research offer several implications for the academic community and policymakers. Improving CG at the firm level is a viable goal, even though the agenda to reform minority investor protection laws and increase judicial quality is challenging and may take a long time to show significant results. Moreover, this study has some limitations that could be addressed in future research. The study focuses on a single-country setting, Indonesia. There are cultural aspects and governance settings that may be unique in the Indonesian context, which may limit the applicability of the findings to other countries with their own cultural settings and institutional legal framework.

The study investigates the factors that influence high governance compliance in specific CG regulations designed for the emerging Indonesian market. The study also discovers evidence that the crisis period has a favorable impact on the firm's decision to comply with governance provisions.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of financial restatements (FRs) on the likelihood of the top management team (TMT) dismissal. It investigates the effects of types of FRs [corrective note and reissuance of financial statement (RFS)], of FR severity and of FR related to international financial reporting standards (IFRSs) easy or difficult-to-estimate.

The authors hand-collect: data about 96 FRs from the Italian public oversight board documents; chief executive officer (CEO) name, chairman name, year of the financial statement under investigation, total assets and operating income, from their financial statement. The authors use multivariate regression to test the effects of FRs on the probability of TMT dismissal.

The authors find that the RFS leads to a higher likelihood of chairman dismissal. A greater magnitude of misrepresentation on income statements, and FRs, which decrease net income, increase the likelihood of CEO dismissal. Difficult-to-estimate IFRSs increases the likelihood of CEO dismissal.

FRs are significant determinants of the CEO/chairman dismissal. The authors show that FRs directly involving shareholders (RFS) have negative consequences on the chairman of the board of directors, while the CEO is more affected by FRs that involve technical factors (FR severity or financial statement associated with difficult-to-estimate IFRSs).