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This chapter demonstrates that social business models do not meaningfully prioritize or impose accountability to “social good” over other purposes in ways that (a) best protect against owners changing their minds or entry of new owners with different priorities and (b) enable reliable accountability over time and across circumstances. This chapter further suggests a model – a “social primacy company” – that actually prioritizes “social good” and meaningful accountability to it. This chapter thus clarifies circumstances under which existing models might be most useful and are not particularly useful, especially as investors, entrepreneurs, employees, regulators, and others pursue shared, common understandings about purposes, priorities, and accountability.

The purpose of this study is to gather the perceptions of the Shari'ah committee members on what and how they safeguard and strengthen their independence in fact and independence in appearance during the discharge of their duties.

Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 13 Shari'ah committee members from 13 different Islamic financial institutions (IFIs).

Based on the Islamic worldview and agency theory, the findings suggest that safeguard measures within the context of the Shari'ah committee are strengthened by the following factors: presence of competencies, personal characteristics of the Shari'ah committee members, board engagement, role of the chairman in the Shari'ah committee and accountability to God. Based on the agency theory, it can be suggested that the characteristics of the Shari'ah committee and the presence of an effective governance structure are able to minimise threats to the independence of the Shari'ah committee and enhance its effectiveness.

The insights from this study highlight that proper and fit criteria need to be enhanced to ensure the independence of the Shari'ah committee members when performing their roles for IFIs. Moreover, it shows that board engagement and chairman involvement in overseeing the Shari'ah committee in the discharge of its duties is able to improve the independence of the Shari'ah committee both in fact and in appearance.

This study contributes to the evidence on safeguard measures in the Malaysian context, which is highly regulated in relation to the Shari'ah governance practices in IFIs. This evidence could be considered by other Shari'ah committees in different contexts.

Family constitutions are relatively new to the law of family companies, although there might have been forerunners in the history of entrepreneur families. The practical importance and the proliferation of family constitutions in German family companies are increasing, along with the discussion of family constitutions in legal literature. This new instrument of family governance is not law driven but business driven, it has been designed by business advisors. Its analysis and classification are still at the very beginning in academic research and practice. Even though family constitutions are generally deemed to be without any legal effect and not legally binding, from a legal point of view, this assumption is at least highly questionable.

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 present an analysis of the role of financial incentives, moral hazard and conflicts of interests leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.

The study’s analysis has identified common structural flaws throughout the securitization food chain. These structural flaws include inappropriate incentives, the absence of punishment, moral hazard and conflicts of interest. This research sees the full impact of these structural flaws when considering their co-occurrence throughout the financial system. The authors address systemic defects in the securitization food chain and examine the inter-relationships among homeowners, mortgage originators, investment banks and investors. The authors also address the role of exogenous factors, including the SEC, AIG, the credit rating agencies, Congress, business academia and the business media.

The study argues that the lack of criminal prosecutions of key financial executives has been a key factor in creating moral hazard. Eight years after the Great Recession ended in the USA, the financial services industry continues to suffer from a crisis of trust with society.

An overwhelming majority of Americans, 89 per cent, believe that the federal government does a poor job of regulating the financial services industry (Puzzanghera, 2014). A study argues that the current corporate lobbying framework undermines societal expectations of political equality and consent (Alzola, 2013). The authors believe the Singapore model may be a useful starting point to restructure regulatory agencies so that they are more responsive to societal concerns and less responsive to special interests. Finally, the widespread perception is that the financial services sector, in particular, is ethically challenged (Ferguson, 2012); perhaps there would be some benefit from the implementation of ethical climate monitoring in firms that have been subject to deferred prosecution agreements for serious ethical violations (Arnaud, 2010).

The authors believe the paper makes a truly original contribution. They provide new insights via their analysis of the role of financial incentives, moral hazard and conflicts of interests leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.