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This paper aims to present a conceptual model on the efficiency and governance of zakat institutions that are responsible in collecting, managing and distributing zakat in Malaysia. Zakat is an Islamic religious “tax” charged on the rich and well‐to‐do members of the community for distribution to the poor and the needy as well as other beneficiaries based on certain established criteria according to the Qur'an. The main aim of zakat is to protect the socio‐economic welfare of the poor and the needy.

The paper reviews and synthesises the relevant literature on efficiency, governance and zakat. The paper then developed and proposed a conceptual model to study the efficiency and governance of zakat institutions.

The paper identifies the appropriate methods to evaluate efficiency and governance of zakat institutions. Such evaluations are crucial for the Islamic financial system to function effectively in order to achieve the noble objectives of socio‐economic justice through proper distribution of wealth.

This paper presents a conceptual model of efficiency and governance of zakat institutions which would be useful for further empirical research in this area. The findings are not only relevant and applicable to Malaysia but also to other Muslim countries.

The paper aims to account for the substance of non‐linear governance change by analysing the importance of sector‐specific institutions and the pathways of governing they create.

The analysis uses recent reforms of the governance of medical performance in four European countries as a case, adopting an inductively oriented approach to comparison. The governance of medical performance is a good case as it is both, closely related to redistributive policies, where the influence of institutions tends to be pertinent, and is subject to considerable policy pressures.

The overall thrust of reforms is similar across countries, while there are important differences in relation to how individual forms of governance and the balance between different forms of governance are changing. More specifically, sector‐specific institutions can account for the specific ways in which reforms redefine hierarchy and professional self‐regulation and for the extent to which reforms strengthen hierarchy and affect the balance with other forms of governance.

The recent literature on governance mainly focuses on mapping out the substance of non‐linear change, whereas the development of explanations of the substance of governance change is less systematic. In the present paper, therefore, it is suggested coupling the notion of non‐linear change with an analysis of sector specific institutions inspired by the historical institutionalist tradition to better account for the substance of non‐linear governance change. Further, the analysis offers interesting insights into the complexity of redrawing boundaries between the public and the private in health care.

This paper aims to explore activation policy as a condensate for new forms of governance in respect of welfare institutions and in relation to welfare subjects. It asks how far apparently similar concepts – contractualisation, individuation, personalisation – can be applied to the governance of institutions and the governance of persons.

The paper draws on a model of different governance regimes to trace different dynamics at stake in the shift to activation policy.

Tensions in the dynamics of the transformation of welfare governance around notions of activation are highlighted. It is also argued that different reconfigurations of power are at stake in the governance of institutions and the governance of persons. Finally tensions between notions of active, activist and activation conceptions of citizenship are traced.

The paper challenges a govermentality perspective in which managerial discourses are assumed to have similar consequences for institutions and for persons, so drawing attention to the importance of context.

Limited value

This paper makes an original contribution to the field by tracing a number of different dynamics at stake in activation policy rather than assuming a coherent shift from earlier forms of welfare regime.

Institutional governance has recently attracted significant attention, fuelled by increasing numbers of global high‐profile corporate failures and scandals. In many countries issues have been raised about university governance. In Ghana, university governance has become crucial following the upsurge of private universities in recent years arising out of: increased demand for tertiary education resulting from high population growth; and expanded enrolment at basic and secondary levels, which have far exceeded the capacity of existing institutions. This study aims to explore and assess the governance arrangements of private and public universities in Ghana.

A multi‐stage sampling technique was used to select three private and two public universities. An exploratory and comparative approach was used to examine the governance arrangements of private and public universities in Ghana.

Both private and public universities in Ghana follow the “traditional”, “business”, and “trusteeship” models of university governance, although in different proportions. Additionally, both types of institutions follow the bicameral system of decision making.

Only five of 19 universities in Ghana were sampled. Future research might expand the sample size to test and validate the initial perspectives from this study and also investigate differences between governance arrangements of faith based and non‐faith based private universities.

The paper reports the findings of the first nation‐wide investigation into governance arrangements of Ghanaian universities. It will interest policy makers, university authorities, and other stakeholders in the higher educational sector.

To understand whether the public value approach will improve the performance and legitimacy of Italian universities.

The public value approach is used to identify the factors limiting the improvement of the performance of Italian universities over the period 2007–2009. Four cases are analyzed in order to reveal how universities measure and communicate the public value delivered. The evolution of the whole system is analysed in the light of the three paradigms on public administration: traditional public administration, new public management and public value management.

Recent reforms introduced by the Italian government do not facilitate the overcoming of political and organizational constraints, with the exception of a few noteworthy elements. The dominant role of the Ministry of Education in the definition of universities’ strategic goals combined with the great autonomy traditionally granted to the departments and to single academics leave little room for manoeuvre.

The case of the Italian higher education system highlights the importance of the rules of governance for public value production. The analysis shows that the actual governance of the higher education institutions does not favour the construction of a public value proposition by the universities’ managers. This aspect raises the more general question of identifying the necessary conditions for realizing the public value proposition and determining its presence in all public administrations.

This article contributes to the understanding of mechanisms that hinder the capability of public institutions’ to develop their own public value proposition.

Many recent studies have highlighted the importance of quality of governance and institutions for economic performance. According to New Institutional Economics, the quality of governance and institutions is a fundamental precondition for sustained increases in prosperity, well-being, and territorial cohesion. The quality of governance influences people’s health, their access to basic services, social trust, and political legitimacy. Governance encompasses the traditions and institutions by which authority in a country is exercised, and its performance can be measured. In this chapter we use the World Bank’s measure Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI). The aim of the chapter is to highlight the variation of the quality of government between regions of Scandinavia and South East Europe and to analyse recent changes in South East Europe. Not surprisingly, Scandinavian regions outperform all other EU regions in quality of government, and the situation has been stable over time. In South East Europe, the situation has improved, although at a slow pace. Whereas the rule of law and government efficiency seem to be steadily increasing, the fight against corruption has been less successful.

Albeit the growing academic research on emerging economies corporate governance (CG) environments within accounting and finance literature, there exists a dearth of cross-country studies using a qualitative approach to understand practitioners’ behaviour vis-a-vis diffusion of international CG practices in emerging economies. This study aims to fill this oversight through a comparative analysis of the divergence and convergence of CG systems operational in three emerging economies (Cameroon, Kenya and Pakistan) while highlighting different institutional and contextual impacts on behaviour of governance actors. The paper uses an interface between critical realism and new institutional economics theory to explore the implementation and execution of CG in Cameroon, Kenya and Pakistan.

The study analysed 24 in-depth semi-structured interviews and conducted with key governance practitioners across the three countries.

The findings show that CG implementation processes in Cameroon, Kenya and Pakistan are nascent and driven by international forces rather than local initiatives. CG lacks institutional identity across the three countries as regulatory coercion acts as a key driver for CG adoption and practitioner accounts are mixed regarding the impact of CG on firm performance.

The paper evidences that the lack of governance identify, compliance and slow implementation process of governance regulations and its impact on firm performance in emerging economies is caused by the fact that local institutional characteristics prevalent in these economies may not be suitable for a “copy and paste” of Western form of governance regulations. Furthermore, governance actors do not see the relevance of recommended CG practices except as a regulatory burden.

The paper contributes to close the lacuna in the seemingly little qualitative comparative study that has examined practitioner’s perception vis-à-vis the diffusion of international governance practices in emerging economies. Specifically, it uncovers how different institutional and contextual factors impact on the behaviour of governance actors and how their behaviours may constrain adoption, implementation and compliance with recommended governance practices.

The recent oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico as well as a multitude of other corporate scandals repeatedly draw attention to the importance of good corporate governance. This paper seeks to explain the possible reasons for violations of principles of good corporate governance in corporate practice.

The paper opens with a brief illustration of the Deepwater Horizon case by relating BP's corporate governance rules to its actual decision making in the context of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The insights gained through this analysis are used to identify a basic precondition for the realization of good corporate governance in corporate practice.

This paper finds a link connecting the conflicts in the relationship between short‐ and long‐term interests of corporations and good corporate governance. Occasionally, deficits in the institutional environment foster the pursuit of quick wins through violations of corporate governance rules. To resolve the tension between short‐ and long‐term objectives, good institutions are required that provide incentives for sustainable behavior without endangering corporations' short‐term competitiveness. This is the starting point for global governance efforts.

On the basis of the analysis in the paper, new implications for business are derived with respect to the relationship between corporate and global governance.

The paper derives a theoretical framework that captures the relationship between corporate governance and global governance. This framework identifies an interplay between corporate and global governance that allows corporations to bring good corporate governance to life and thereby to invest in the conditions of their sustainable success.

A confluence of several factors influenced donors’ decision to launch a new wave of institutional reforms that, on the surface, appeared to be the opposite of what the second wave of reforms were about. One of the main contributors to this shift was the increasing amount of evidence pointing to the limits of relying purely on market policies. Contrary to donors’ prescriptions, not all the countries that followed the “Washington Consensus” prospered as a result of the reforms. If anything, the Asian crisis, the experiences of transition from command to market economy, and situations in much of the poorest regions of the world provided examples of the human costs of neglecting the proper role of public sector institutions.²