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The principles, regulations and directives associated with corporate governance constitute a view of the role, responsibilities and obligations of corporations within a given society. Identifying the ethics of a specific corporate governance regime entails making explicit the moral responsibilities and obligations of corporations in society as well as the ethical values associated with these responsibilities and obligations. In order to make meaningful global comparisons between the ethics of corporate governance regimes, a number of vital distinctions need to be made. The purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss three such distinctions.

Conceptual clarifications and distinctions are considered with regard to three pairs of related concepts: the ethics of governance and the governance of ethics; external and internal corporate governance; and shareholder and stakeholder orientations in corporate governance.

The conceptual distinctions that have been considered are vital for making useful comparisons between the ethics of different corporate governance regimes around the world. Neglecting these conceptual distinctions can lead to misunderstanding and confusion in the global discourse on the ethics of corporate governance.

The paper provides a theoretical framework for comparing four regional perspectives on the ethics of governance, namely from Africa, Asia, Continental Europe and North America. It also provides a framework for any other global comparative study on the ethics of corporate governance.

The paper provides a conceptual framework for making global comparisons with regard to the ethical underpinnings of corporate governance regimes. It thus assists in creating a framework for a global discourse on the ethics of corporate governance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is a global divergence or convergence with regard to the ethics of corporate governance.

Regional perspectives on the ethics of corporate governance from four regions, namely, Africa, Asia, Continental Europe and North America are first briefly introduced and characterized in terms of distinctions between the ethics of governance and the governance of ethics, internal and external corporate governance, and shareholder and stakeholder orientations to corporate governance. Thereafter these regional perspectives are compared in order to determine whether there is a global divergence or convergence with regard to the ethics of corporate governance amongst these four regions of the world.

There are four factors that potentially may have an impact on the ethics of corporate governance, namely, patterns of ownership, the prevailing view of the role of the firm in a society, cultural and societal norms, and socio‐political priorities. The influence of these factors makes a global convergence on the ethics of corporate governance neither likely nor desirable.

Not all regions of the world were included in this comparative study. Regions that need to be included in future studies are Latin America, Central Asia and the Middle East.

The main finding, namely, that a global convergence on the ethics of corporate governance is neither likely nor desirable, should be taken into consideration by promoters of global corporate governance standards.

Based on regional perspectives from Africa, Asia, Continental Europe and North America, the paper provides a global perspective on the question of whether there is global divergence or convergence with regard to the ethics of corporate governance amongst these four regions of the world.

This investigation into listed companies at the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) in Vietnam aims to discern whether such constructs as trust and ethics act as precursors for brand performance with the mediating role of corporate governance.

Three hundred and twelve responses returned from self-administered structured questionnaires relayed to 1,163 middle-level managers were dissected via ANOVAs and structural equation modelling.

From the findings emerged the interconnections between ethics of justice and calculation-based trust. Ethics of care, on the other hand, tends to cultivate knowledge-based trust and identification-based trust, which in turn positively impact corporate governance. The findings also paved the path from strong corporate governance to high brand performance.

From the findings of the study, the insight into the interconnection pattern of brand performance and its antecedents highlights the magnitude of ethics training program as well as the construction of knowledge-based trust, identification-based trust as well as strong corporate governance in optimizing brand performance in listed companies in Vietnam market.

This inquiry into companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) in Vietnam seeks to discern whether such constructs as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethics act as antecedents for corporate governance.

Three hundred and seventeen responses returned from self‐administered structured questionnaires relayed to 1,173 middle level managers were analyzed via ANOVAs and structural equation modeling (SEM).

From the results an interplay emerged between the ethics of justice and legal CSR/economic CSR. The ethics of care, on the other hand, tend to cultivate ethical CSR, which in turn positively influences corporate governance.

From the results of the research, insight into the linkage pattern of corporate governance and its antecedents highlights the magnitude of the ethics training program as well as CSR initiatives in reinforcing corporate governance in listed companies in Vietnam.

The purpose of this general review is to enhance understanding of the importance of a corporation’s whole ethics of governance regime and the connection to governance practices. This connection is often missing from corporate governance discussion. There is need for better business community awareness of a well-developed ethics of governance regime guiding appropriate board structure and composition choices subject to firm age and size, understanding of how these choices evolve as the firm matures and grows, plus the benefits from more emphasis in this area for company director training and development. This paper synthesises the theoretical and empirical insight from the ethics and corporate governance literatures to give guidance on best practice for large, medium size and small stock exchange listed companies. This synthesis of the literature evidences that the preferred Australian Institute of Company Directors agency theory prescription for a corporate board is not always optimal. In terms of practical implications advice is given on sound choices on board composition, director selection, plus director training and development that will give the best probability of effective board decisions and strong firm performance – this is not ‘one size fits all’ corporations advice. Future research should focus on whole ethics of governance regimes and governance practices in place for companies that have succeeded compared with companies that have failed. This will improve understanding in this area. This is a substantial future research agenda item as deeper knowledge of this contrast may add significantly to understanding of corporate success and failure.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the prominence and positioning of ethics in the four editions of the King Report on corporate governance for South Africa that were published since 1994. It tells a tale of how certain ethics aspects remained fairly constant over the four editions of the King Report on corporate governance for South Africa (King I in 1994; King II in 2002; King III in 2009; King IV in 2016), whilst other ethics aspects evolved quite substantially over the four editions.

In this paper, a conceptual distinction between “Ethics of Governance” and “Governance of Ethics” will be introduced, which will then be used to analyse the ethics dimensions of the four King reports.

It will be demonstrated that there is continuity across the four editions of the King Report as far as the Ethics of Governance is concerned.

With regards to the Governance of Ethics, there has been a quite drastic evolution in both the prominence and positioning of ethics since the publication of the first King Report in 1994.

The aim of this theoretical and conceptual research paper is to give a definition of the concept of corporate citizenship, which together with business ethics and stakeholder management function as foundation of a vision of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for financial institutions and capital markets.

This paper is based on a conceptual methodology which analyzes the main aspects of corporate citizenship with regard stakeholder management and the UN SDGs. In particular there is focus on stakeholder justice, integrity and fairness with regard to stakeholder responsibility at capital markets.

This paper suggests that concepts of corporate citizenship, business ethics, stakeholder justice, integrity and fairness, as well as stakeholder responsibility must be conceived as the basis for an acceptable vision of sustainable development at capital markets.

This paper is a theoretical paper so the paper is limited to the presentation of major concepts from the point of view of business ethics, stakeholder management and SDGs. This is a framework that needs to be developed in specific research and investment practice at capital markets.

This paper provides the basis for developing a good vision of SDGs in financial institutions and capital markets and it demonstrates that the SDGs must be developed as the foundation of ethics of investments and capital markets.

With suggestions of visions of corporate citizenship, business ethics and stakeholder management this paper situates the firm in a social context as a social actor in the context of sustainable development. The business firm is therefore integrated in society and there is a close connection between business and society which needs to be developed in codes and values of ethics of financial institutions capital markets.

The originality and value of this paper is a conceptual formulation of the relation between the concepts of corporate citizenship, business ethics, stakeholder management and SDGs in financial markets. With this the paper refers to earlier research and summarizes concepts from this in a short synthesis.

This paper aims to highlight the role and impact of corporate governance in combating fraud by drawing on insights from the literature, identify gaps in the literature and suggest new directions for future research.

The paper is based on a comprehensive general literature review using multiple search engines and databases.

This paper finds that effective corporate governance can help reduce fraud risk, prevent fraud and detect fraud, particularly corporate fraud, insider fraud and asset diversion. Some companies use corporate governance mechanisms to bolster their reputation following fraud detection. Ineffective corporate governance increases fraud risk, provides the opportunity for perpetrating fraud and reduces the likelihood of fraud detection. The paper sheds light on several governance mechanisms that could help in mitigating fraud risk, as reported in the literature. The paper categorises these governance mechanisms into four broad governance aspects, including board leadership and the role of ethics; (b) board characteristics, composition and structure; ownership structure; accountability. The paper proposes a guide summarising these broad fundamental governance aspects, including specific anti-fraud controls and examples of how organisations could enhance ethical cultures and the tone at the top.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first paper to elucidate the role of corporate governance in countering fraud and develop guidance in this area. The proposed guidance could be helpful to businesses leaders, policymakers, researchers and academics alike.

This study aims to investigate the antecedents of code of ethics’ quality with specific regard to the peculiarities of corporate governance, which include the role of the primary shareholders within the firm, the role and influence of independent directors on the board, the effect of board size on the strategic decision-making process and the influence of the chief executive officer’s (CEO) age and gender diversity.

A sample of 248 Italian public companies publishing a code of ethics as of 2011 is used to test the hypotheses through Tobit regression models.

A positive or negative impact is derived from the implementation of a high-quality code of ethics. Codes of ethics are strongly influenced by the ownership structure of the company given the critical role played by primary shareholders with larger stakes in influencing the quality of a code. Moreover, the lower the number of independent directors, the higher the firm’s propensity to invest in code of ethics’ quality. Similar results were found in relation to board size and CEO age, where smaller boards and younger CEOs are more inclined to implement higher-quality codes of ethics.

Results support the argument that when linked to a sustainability strategic orientation focused on a high-quality code of ethics, corporate governance characteristics reveal influences that differ from those found in prior literature.

The paper presents an overview of perspectives on corporate governance grounded in the Common Law legal traditions of the UK and the USA. It further discusses whether that perspective is suitable for global application.

The paper presents personal observations on the operational dynamics of rules and practices of corporate governance as necessary functional supports for large scale financial capitalization of enterprise under conditions of modern industrialization.

The paper concludes that the US perspective on corporate governance is rationally related to objective requirements of financing enterprise and that, as capital markets become larger and more liquid around the world, the corporate governance regimes will, in the main, come to resemble the US model. Though cultural variations on the US pattern are compatible with the purposes of corporate governance to constrain abuse of power in private corporations.

The implication of this paper is for the implementation of corporate governance regimes in emerging market countries, i.e. that flexibility is permissible but a focus on transparency and accountability under all circumstances is required.

The contribution of the paper is to provide a framework for balancing the rules and practices of US corporate governance with the cultural styles and patterns of different national regulatory settings.