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The purpose of this study is to provide for critical literature on the legal aspects of corporate governance and their application in Mauritius. The drawbacks of having the principles in the form of a non-binding code are discussed, and a case is made to consider their enshrinement in laws such as the Companies Act 2001 to render them legally enforceable for the good health of companies in Mauritius.

A doctrinal legal methodology has been adopted to assess the effectiveness of the principles of the 2016 Code of Corporate Governance of Mauritius. Legislations, legal texts, case law and regulations are used to conduct this assessment. In addition, a black-letter approach is taken while discussing the enshrinement of the principles in the Companies Act 2001 of Mauritius. The doctrinal methodology is further supported by a qualitative analysis of the principles of corporate governance based on existing legal literature, which emphasises their relevance and importance.

The principles of the 2016 Code of Corporate Governance are no doubt a progress over the former 2004 Code in various aspects, aligning the Code with the requirements of the OECD. However, there are still certain loopholes that have been highlighted. In addition, the extent to which these principles are reflected in the Companies Act, which is the primary legislation for companies, has been found to be lacking and inadequate.

This paper is, to the best of the author’s knowledge, the first legal literature concerning the Mauritian legal framework on corporate governance. This is relevant because the country has recently experienced corporate collapses, which could arguably have been avoided with the application of the principles of corporate governance. As such, the paper will present a case study that can be used as a reference for future research on the enforceability and justiciability of these principles.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the reasons for non‐compliance by Polish listed companies with elements of the Polish code of corporate governance Best Practices in Public Companies 2005.

Based on 250 publicly available compliance statements filed in 2005 by companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) content analysis is used to classify the explanations provided for non‐compliance with those corporate governance principles that attract high levels of non‐compliance.

The data analysis reveals that, despite a high level of overall compliance, three out of 50 code principles attract high levels of non‐compliance. These principles concern the independence of supervisory board members, the composition of supervisory board committees and the appointment of auditors. The most contentious principle concerns the independence of supervisory board members, due to the presence of many majority‐owned companies on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

The paper sheds light on the operation of the “comply or explain” approach to corporate governance in Poland and provides suggestions for improving the level and quality of compliance with the revised corporate governance code Best Practices for WSE Listed Companies, applicable from 2008 onwards.

The paper provides an empirical investigation of the reasons given by Polish companies for non‐compliance with the most controversial corporate governance principles. It highlights a tendency for some companies to report compliance that is conditional, suggesting that reported compliance under‐represents the true level of compliance. We suggest that establishing a monitoring committee tasked with evaluating the quality of explanations for non‐compliance and reducing ambiguities in the wording of code principles will improve the quality of Polish corporate governance in the long term.

This study aims to describe the role of knowledge diffusion in evolving governance principles for Islamic banking.

This study develops a discursive theoretical debate using the discourse analysis method on the Sharīʿah principles related to interest (Riba), excessive uncertainty (Gharrar) and profit and loss sharing and their convergence with the conventional banking principles of profitability, solvency and liquidity.

The study proposes a novel framework that describes how knowledge diffusion bridge-up the Sharīʿah and banking principles in terms of integration of banking principles by Sharīʿah scholars, integration of Sharīʿah principles by managers and the resultant, emergent principles for the governance of Islamic banking.

The proposed framework can inform professionals on how knowledge of banking practices and Sharīʿah can help them in governing Islamic banking. The Board of Directors may adopt a holistic approach for encouraging enhanced interactions between Sharīʿah scholars and managers. Such interaction may be increasing harmony, reducing conflicts and better coordination resulting in Sharīʿah-compliant and market wise viable products and services, thus increasing banking profitability.

This is the first study, which acknowledges and illustrates the role of the knowledge diffusion process in evolving governance principles for Islamic banks. This paper contributes to the theory of corporate governance by using the knowledge, aptitude and practice theory lens to examine conceptually how Islamic banking governance principles emerged through the knowledge diffusion process.

The purpose of this paper is to comparatively analyze the corporate governance codes of transition economies, particularly five Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) members (i.e. Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia). Specifically, the convergence or divergence of these countries’ corporate governance codes among themselves as well as relative to the best practices of the UK Corporate Governance Code (UK Code) and the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance are investigated.

Initially, the existing literature on corporate governance with special focus on transition countries is reviewed. Afterwards, benchmarking the international best practices, based on main chapters and contents, the corporate governance codes of all countries in the sample are analyzed.

The paper finds that even though some principles of the corporate governance codes of the countries in the sample differ in some aspects, they do converge to some extent. However, high misalignments between the UK Code and the OECD Principles and the codes of selected countries in some aspects were found.

The conclusion and implications of the study characterize the corporate governance of selected developing countries; thus, they might not be generalizable to other countries.

The codes of the countries in the sample should be revised, and more specifications regarding the stakeholder, board structure, its subcommittees, independence, diversity and transparency issues need to be addressed.

The paper comprehensively analyzes the contents of corporate governance codes of transition countries; from both practical and academic point of view, it was important gap that needed to be fulfilled.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of convergence of regulations and of practice regarding corporate governance between a developing country (Turkey) and a developed country (the UK).

The development of the codes is described and compared and then research is conducted into the top 100 companies on the stock exchanges of each country.

It is shown that, although the codes, and their iterative development, are similar, the degree of compliance is dissimilar.

These findings suggest that further research in other countries is also needed to see if the explanations are robust.

Much research has been undertaken into corporate governance and national differences but the paper is different in that it makes a comparison between countries and also between regulation and practice to show that these diverge.

Information technology (IT) constitutes an important driver for innovation in the public sector. However, taking advantage of IT to innovate requires the existence of other organizational and institutional capabilities within the public organization. Using absorptive capability theory, the purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between principles for IT governance and dynamic capabilities across semi-urban (between 10,000 and 149,000 inhabitants), urban (between 150,000 and 600,000 inhabitants) and metropolitan (more than 600,000 inhabitants ) municipal governments in Mexico.

This study reports on three workshops involving 34 chief information officers (CIOs) from semi-urban, urban and metropolitan municipalities. The workshop agenda included a series of brainstorming exercises to discuss – among other topics – the capabilities required for digital government innovation. The capabilities collected during the workshops were codified by the authors based on their relationship to the six IT governance standardized principles and the four dynamic capabilities identified in the literature. The authors used descriptive and correlation analyses to show the importance of governance principles and dynamic capabilities for innovation, as well as the relationships between those two dimensions, in each type of municipality.

This study shows that specific IT governance principles may enhance innovation capabilities linked with knowledge acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation. Moreover, the ways in which IT governance principles support innovation are linked to size, resources and complexity of the local government. In conclusion, this study discusses the primary IT policy implications to improve possibilities to innovate in the public sector.

Although researchers and practitioners agree that following principles of good governance may enhance performance and innovation in the provision of public services, the link between the principles of IT governance and capabilities to spur innovation has not yet been fully established in the literature. Thus, in this study, empirical evidence of this linkage is provided.

The chapter aims to clarify the relationship between corporate governance structure and corporate subscription to Global Compact standards. Part one of the chapter looks at the relationship between different models of board governance and active Global Compact participation by publicly listed companies. Part two of the chapter examines a number of external mechanisms aimed at bringing corporate behavior in line with Global Compact principles, and argues that there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between internal governance structures and external provisions aimed at influencing corporate behavior.

Part one of the chapter uses an independent T-test to compare the average (mean) proportion of publicly listed companies from unitary board countries with an active Global Compact Communication on Progress status with the average proportion of publicly listed companies from two-tier/hybrid corporate governance systems listed as active Global Compact participants. Part two of the chapter uses primary and secondary sources to examine external mechanisms operating across national borders aimed at influencing corporate behavior.

The chapter finds that a higher proportion of public companies from countries with two-tier/hybrid corporate governance structures have become active Global Compact participants compared to public companies from legal systems with unitary board corporate governance structures. Part two of the chapter examines the potentially mutually reinforcing relationship between internal governance structures and external mechanisms for modifying corporate behavior.

While external codes and standards such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises appear to be influencing corporate behavior worldwide, quantitative data confirming and recording the extent and nature of this influence (if any) remains limited.

The chapter provides useful insights for policy makers and corporate leaders into the relationship between internal corporate governance structures and external codes, standards and guidelines aimed at influencing corporate behavior.

This chapter provides original insights into whether and how internal governance structures can complement and reinforce social standards regarding global corporate citizenship, and the legal guidelines reflecting those standards.

This study aims to explore the quality of corporate governance disclosure under an “apply and explain” regime in the context of an emerging economy (Mauritius), following a transition from the traditional “comply or explain” approach within the national code of corporate governance.

The research relies on a content analysis of corporate governance disclosure in 86 annual reports of companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Mauritius for the financial periods 2018–2019 and 2019–2020, one-way analysis of variance tests and draws on the typology of corporate governance explanations developed by Shrives and Brennan (2015), focusing on specificity, location and comprehensiveness dimensions. This paper draws on legitimacy theory and the concepts of substantive and symbolic disclosures to guide the interpretation of the findings.

From a specificity point of view, the disclosure index revealed significant variations, with the highest score being four times the lowest score. With regards to location and comprehensiveness, only around half of companies are making optimum use of a corporate governance report and providing explanations by principles. This paper also illustrated how some firms provided symbolic disclosures. Overall, there are disparities in the application of the code by companies, reflected in a blend of substantive and symbolic disclosures to maintain their legitimacy.

This study examines “apply and explain” disclosures in a emerging economy in contrast to the “comply or explain” approach studied so far in the literature. Merely professing a “well intended” shift to the “apply and explain” approach does not necessarily lead to improvements in the quality of corporate governance disclosures. Companies, governance professionals and regulatory bodies could formulate disclosure guidance to better underpin the implications of the “apply and explain” approach.

This study aims to investigate the nature and extent of compliance to the principle-based corporate governance initiatives by the listed companies in the South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPSE) in Fiji. Three important questions are addressed: whether listed companies in Fiji have complied with the principle-based governance practices? Did compliance with principle-based recommendations lead to an improvement in the listed company's financial performance and legitimacy? How the institutional factors have contributed towards corporate governance practices in Fiji?

Panel data for the SPSE companies over the period 2008-2011 are analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression. Tobin's Q and return on assets (ROA) metrics are used as dependent variables.

The findings indicate that listed companies have adopted the Capital Market Development Authority's (CMDA) recommendations by establishing subcommittees for audit and remuneration, having non-executive/independent directors on the board and separate chair and CEO positions in order to gain legitimacy from stakeholders. Results support the view that the CMDA recommendations of board sub-committees (audit and remuneration) have had positive influence on company performance measured by Tobin's Q. The findings of this study give support to the principle-based corporate governance practices adopted in Fiji to gain legitimacy.

The study adds to the governance literature by focusing on the principle-based governance practices in a small remote island country, Fiji which has relatively small economy, capital market and company size. Finally, the study adds to institutional theory by showing how companies' corporate governance choices are affected by the severity of agency conflicts and the way corporate governance is regulated.