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International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) require external auditors to communicate with the client’s governance body regarding significant matters which came to the auditors’ attention during the engagement. Similarly, the authoritative Practice Advisories (PAs), issued by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), mandate that internal auditors discuss certain items with the board. Thus, the governance body/board should be receiving information from two groups of auditors. Compares and contrasts the requirements of the ISAs and PAs with regard to communications with the governance body/board. The differences in the communications to the governance body/board by the external and internal auditors derive mainly from the focus of each group. The external auditors serve those users external to the organization; in contrast, internal auditors serve the board, which is responsible for the internal aspects of the entity. Besides communication on financial issues, the board also desires information on operational and compliance matters. The comparison of the international external auditing and the internal auditing standards shows that some information received by the governance body/board is similar. However, much is unique. Both groups of auditors aid the governance body/board in achieving its objective of guiding the entity to carry out its mission effectively and efficiently

This study examines the governance structures, practices and related public disclosures of the world's largest professional accounting bodies (PABs). Key aims are to advance the limited available knowledge and guidance on PAB governance and highlight avenues for further research and debate on how PABs can strengthen their governance arrangements.

Content analysis of extant governance arrangements for the subject PABs was conducted using a range of secondary data and guided by available international governance frameworks. The authors focused on identifying critical differences across the studied PABs. The governance recommendations and future research themes presented emerged from an analysis of relevant knowledge on governance practices from the academic literature and other sources.

The paper presents a detailed comparison of PAB governance arrangements across the themes of strategic disclosures, committee arrangements and member engagement. From this analysis, 20 recommendations are presented that seek to fortify the capacity of PABs to uphold their professional and public interest responsibilities.

This is the first paper to systemically examine the governance arrangements of the world's largest PABs. It thus adds to knowledge about the efficacy of extant arrangements in facilitating accountable and transparent self-regulation of PAB responsibilities. Crucial future research opportunities are also highlighted to provoke and guide long-neglected debate on PAB governance.

This article aims to present an analysis of ideas and practices regarding governance of and by the network design process by participants in the technical design process during the first decade (1969-1979) as recorded in the technical document series that provides both the medium for and the history of that design process, the Internet RFCs.

The research was conducted via a comprehensive inductive and adductive reading of all of the publicly available documents in the series from its launch in October of 1969 through the close of 1979.

The findings show that internet designers were well aware that the infrastructure they were building was social as well as technical in nature. They were concerned about both governmental constraints on the design process (governance of) and about how protocol compliance could be achieved (governance by the network design process). As do informational states, network designers developed governance tools that affected the identity, structure, borders, and change in social, informational, and technological systems. The dual faces of network governance reveal tensions between the network political and the geopolitical.

This work contributes to our understanding of the interactions between the social and the technical in the course of the internet design process as it was expressed in concerns about governance by others and of others brought up in the course of resolving technical design problems. Methodologically, the research provides a model of one approach to analyzing the development of governance mechanisms and specific policies along sociotechnical boundaries.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between corporate governance and firm value at different stages of the corporate life-cycle.

The authors use two measures, commonly employed in the literature, to differentiate between “immature” and “mature” firms, and estimate separate governance-value regressions for each set of firms.

The findings suggest that it is differences in the resource/strategic governance functions, which manifest in young firms which result in differences in value across firms, all else equal. The authors find no relationship between governance and firm value for older firms. Hence, differences in the monitoring aspect of governance between mature firms are not rewarded with a value premium.

The findings imply that the strategic and resource roles of governance are “must haves” for firms since firms that score highly on these fronts are valued more highly. In contrast, differences in the monitoring aspect of governance are not rewarded, suggesting that effective monitoring is not a necessity, but rather a “nice to have”. The analysis is limited to a small sample of emerging market firms, and it would be of interest to extend this analysis to a larger and broader sample of firms.

The findings suggest that corporate governance is not valued at all stages of the corporate life-cycle.

The democratic constitution that came into effect in 1994 and ushered in the new South Africa recognises parents' role in education hence the established of an innovative school governance structure of which parents are in the majority. Before then, there existed parents–teachers association in schools. Its members were handpicked and therefore undemocratic and ineffective. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the innovation in school governance encourages parents in the rural areas to be productively involved in school matters.

The study used the qualitative research method of focus group interviews to explore the extent to which the school governing body fosters active involvement of parents in school matters. The purposive sampling technique was used in selecting 21 school governors from three rural schools who were deemed information-rich to participate in the study.

The study found that the post-apartheid school governing body concept, which is an innovation in education management and leadership, encourages and promotes productive parents' involvement in education of their children.

The findings have lessons and implications for school management and leadership in the developing countries because as an Africa adage says, “it takes a whole village to bring up a child”.

Attempts to benchmark corporate governance practices have focused primarily on developed capital markets, whereas cross‐country comparisons remain difficult for emerging markets. Given the growing importance of emerging markets as an asset class, this paper attempts to shed some light on the quality of governance practices in a large sample of countries and the extent to which that quality may offset perceived weaknesses in the institutional framework in which companies operate.

In the absence of comparable data for many emerging markets, the paper employs new survey evidence from the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report.

The analysis suggests the following: first, legal institutions play a key role for corporate governance, but other factors, such as politics and cultural and historical roots, matter too. While corporate governance practices in emerging markets tend to be weaker than in developed capital markets, several emerging markets have already made substantial progress in upgrading their practices and, as their institutions continue to emerge, the existing quality gap looks set to narrow further. There are several countries whose companies on average appear to follow better practices than the quality of their legal and regulatory environments would suggest.

Good corporate governance at the company level need not be tied or constrained by its local environment. That good company practices may at least partly offset weak framework conditions and could have important implications for the mode of entry foreign investors choose, an issue to be left for further research.

Overall, the paper's main contribution lies in its novel approach to disaggregate different levels of corporate governance, thus allowing a more textured assessment of corporate governance risk.

This paper aims to discuss the different practices and regulatory frameworks of Shariah supervision in Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) across Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states and to identify the gaps in current Shariah supervisory practices. Parallel with the rapid growth of Islamic finance worldwide, corporate governance has received a considerable amount of attention in Islamic finance. Shariah is a unique characteristic of Islamic finance. That is why the need for a good and efficient Shariah governance system for IFIs is considered to be a crucial requirement to ensure the development and the stability of the Islamic finance industry.

The paper is based on critical review of current laws and regulations for IFIs; this provides a reflective synthesis on the practical work of the Shariah supervisory system across the 25 different OIC member states.

The paper reveals several findings. First, the authors observe a weak and poor Shariah supervisory system in most OIC member states. Furthermore, the authors detect various gaps in the current Shariah supervisory practices. Most of these shortfalls are linked to the current regulatory frameworks: the roles and the responsibilities of the national Shariah authority, and the institutional Shariah board’s duties and attributes.

This paper’s originality and value lies in its critical review of current Shariah supervisory practices across 25 OIC member states. Also, the paper puts forward various suggestions to the regulatory authorities and to the Islamic Financial Services Board to enhance the Shariah governance system and to standardize the different practices of Shariah governance worldwide.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether corporate governance has an impact on portfolio selection within the usual mean‐variance framework, the idea being that by reducing agency conflicts, corporate governance increases the value of the firm.

Using a sample of 460 American firms between 1995 and 2004, the authors first determine the optimal mean‐variance portfolio. The authors then test whether governance characteristics explain the optimal portfolio weights.

The results show that the optimal portfolio weights are sensitive to internal control mechanisms, ownership concentration, managerial entrenchment and incentive compensation.

The results are relevant to academicians and investors concerned with portfolio selection. In fact, they underline the importance of including governance characteristics in their portfolio selection.

The collapse of some prominent corporations over the last ten years has been attributed to poor governance. Not‐for‐profit agencies are now examining their own governance policies and practices in an attempt to prevent the calamities that have plagued the private sector. Because heritage sites, conservation organizations and heritage‐based tourism are significant factors in the social life and economies of many countries, the proper management of cultural heritage initiatives is vital. This paper seeks to undertake the development of a set of good governance principles applicable to the oversight and operation of cultural heritage institutions.

The fifth World Parks Congress, in South Africa in 2003, encouraged the development of governance principles for protected areas based on the UNDP document Governance for Sustainable Human Development. Using these standards as a reference for the cultural heritage setting, UNESCO and ICOMOS charters and conventions, along with documents from National Trusts in specific countries are examined with regard to their relevance to good governance.

A set of good governance criteria and principles including legitimacy and voice, direction, performance, accountability, and fairness, is developed.

The paper addresses governance issues and principles relevant to non‐governmental and public sector governance in the cultural heritage sector.

The paper draws on principles of good governance from several international heritage related agencies, trusts and organizations to develop a set of principles that can be recommended for use in the cultural heritage sector.

Since the mid‐1980s focus has shifted from stabilization to economic growth as a national goal. A large number of studies have been undertaken to explain economic growth. It is intended to show that the current debate between those who claim only institutions matter to economic growth and others who claim that only governance matters is totally unproductive.

Econometric methods are used to evaluate the recent empirical studies on linking the quality of institutions or governance to economic growth.

It is shown that the empirical model specification as well as the estimation methods used by important studies are inappropriate.

Future research needs to incorporate not only the institutions, and governance but also the desire to save, invest and innovate to explain economic growth.

The existing theories of economic growth do not fully capture the complex process of economic growth implying that these theories should not be used as a guide to the screening of developmental aid to the developing countries.

The researchers need to change direction away from data mining and towards developing a better understanding of the growth process. Policy makers should be careful in crafting their policies.