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Recent high profile U.S. corporate collapses have their counterparts in other international markets, such as Australia. The corporate governance failures that led to major corporate collapses in both countries are strikingly similar, despite differences in their respective corporate governance systems. In this paper, I present an examination of the corporate governance failures that led to the demise of three prominent Australian firms in 2001 and illustrate that the corporate governance failures are not limited to the existing corporate governance system in the United States. I will also outline the various corporate governance reforms that were established to restore investor confidence.

This is the story of an ageing fitness fanatic and the financial sharks who circled his empire before destroying it. Peter Gosnell, The Daily Telegraph 17/4/2003:29. In 2001, Australian company HIH Insurance was placed into liquidation, with severe financial losses and devastating consequences for its employees and policyholders. Dubbed as ‘Australia’s biggest corporate collapse’ (Westfield 2003:241), the HIH case attracted a great deal of attention, not only because of its adverse economic and social impacts but also because it reads like a moral tale in which senior executives of a major business corporation infringe ethical principles and are chastised in the end for their greed, hubris and lack of social responsibility. An examination of media texts published as the case unfolded reveals a strong sense of moral indignation with the social consequences of the HIH collapse, reflected in particular in representations of the shamed executives as greedy, dishonest, arrogant and ruthless. This paper examines the discursive processes that generate representations of HIH senior executives in such dysfunctional terms. Its main contention is that these negative representations can be linked to the growing influence of discourses such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), conceptualised here as a counter‐hegemonic discourse that emerges in an era of increased reflexivity to challenge the legitimacy of dominant discourses of global capitalism. The structuring effects of these discourses are explored in this paper through a methodological framework that borrows from discourse analysis and narrative analysis. This framework reveals links between texts, discourses and macro‐systemic context ‐ or ‐ to borrow from Schegloff (1992) ‐ between proximate and distal contexts The first section of the paper discusses the methodological framework used in the study; the second section provides a brief overview of the broad social context within which the HIH narrative unfolds, and the third part examines the textual construction of the HIH narrative as a moral tale of advanced capitalism, paying particular attention to the portrayal of its key protagonists.

To review the world's and Australia's notable firm failures associated with divergence of best practices, describing the link of how corporate sustainability depends on its corporate governance implementation.

An array of existing theories and prior academic findings on corporate governance and corporate sustainability published between 1998 and 2004 are compared and contrasted, fitted with empirical evidence of what had happened with Enron, Inc. (Enron) and HIH Insurance (HIH). Matrices are developed to intercept the key good corporate governance perspectives with the study propositions.

The study indicates that both Enron and HIH acknowledged good corporate governance as a prevailing framework, yet failed to implement it. Each of the principles had been violated and had served as an attribute to the firms’ failure.

This study is limited to the two notable cases, notwithstanding the implication that perhaps its applicability in other corporate settings may be pursued. Data and information sources for this paper have also been limited to the use of secondary data obtained from the public domain.

This paper is expected to fill part of a gap in linking the studies of how corporate sustainability depends on its corporate governance.

This paper provides a practical approach in identifying the existence or non‐existence of key good corporate governance principles in the going‐concern of corporations.

This experimental study investigates the connotative (measured) meaning of the concept “auditor independence” within three audit engagement case contexts, including two acknowledged in the literature to represent significant potential threats to independence. The study’s research design utilises the measurement of meaning (semantic differential) framework originally proposed by Osgood et al. (1957). Findings indicate that research participants considered the concept of independence within a two factor cognitive structure comprising “emphasis” and “variability” dimensions. Participants’ connotations of independence varied along both these dimensions in response to the alternative experimental case scenarios. In addition, participants’ perceptions of the auditor’s independence in the three cases were systematically associated with the identified connotative meaning dimensions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the efficacy of the current legislative provisions that protect auditor independence in Australia. The collapses of several high-profile companies (Enron and WorldCom in the USA, HIH insurance and OneTel in Australia) in the early 2000s has raised questions about audit quality and independence. In response, regulators have introduced new regulations and guidance to improve audit quality. In Australia, the Corporations Act 2001 (2001) was amended via the Corporate Law Economic Reform Program Act 2004. This study poses the question: do non-audit service fees influence the level of accounting conservatism?

The sample used in this analysis consists of all available Australian listed companies from the years 2006 till 2010.

Using multiple measures of accounting conservatism and the auditor-client economic bond, our results suggest that the level of the economic bond between the auditor and the client does not significantly influence the level of accounting conservatism.

Our results demonstrate that the combination of intrinsic market mechanisms and regulation in Australia sufficiently protect auditor independence.

The purpose of this paper is to develop conceptual designs for blockchain implementations aimed at reducing corporate fraud. The proposed framework consists of different levels of implementation with specific examples for each level.

The paper uses a multi-level framework to highlight the properties of blockchain technology as suitable for reducing corporate fraud. The five levels of technological complexity designed for this research include information storage, information flow, information processing, information enhancement and information and financial integration. Specific cases of corporate fraud are discussed to complement the proposed methodology.

The potential ability to limit fraud and increase transparency could greatly improve faith in financial reporting. These benefits accrue to all capital market participants. The blockchain infrastructure can significantly improve the existing monitoring system and provide value added in detecting, deterring, and documenting possible fraud.

The paper contributes to the growing field on corporate fraud and blockchain technology. The paper is novel in the implementation of the nascent blockchain methods to detect and deter fraud at the organizational level. The proposed five conceptual levels provide practical use.

The study of “wisdom” is a subject normally outside the traditional bounds of management studies. Recent financial scandals and management blunders suggest that the time is ripe to introduce, via management development programs, an introductory study into the nature of “wisdom”, and followed by further study into the nature of “managerial wisdom”. Decisions are being made by people practising management which demonstrate that they do not know how to exercise good judgement, nor do they demonstrate that they have an understanding of what it means to be “wise”. This paper looks at the way philosophers have addressed the topic of wisdom from Greco‐Roman times. It includes references to wisdom in history and literature. The paper summarises some of the ideas and developments of more recent research published in psychology journals. It is an extension of ideas expressed in an earlier paper published in this journal viz. “Philosophy in management: a new trend in management development”. Both these papers suggest that management development studies should include areas of study more akin to the great classical tradition, where education is aimed at developing the “whole person”. An introductory study of “philosophy in management”, and “wisdom” in particular, are seen as two ways of expanding the present offerings in management studies

Spectacular corporate failures including One Tel, Ansett, HIH, Enron and Worldcom and the recent fiasco with National Australia Bank are evidence of a legitimacy crisis in current corporate governance practices. This paper analyses the organisational impact of recent “best practice” guidelines and the recommendations for reform. We conclude that substantive concerns still exist and it is likely that companies will utilise a “tick the box” approach emphasising form over substance governance changes. We argue for a two-fold approach to embed effective ongoing reform. The first involves cultural change(s) at the boardroom level to develop a “real” team approach. This would embrace the use of constructive conflict in the decision-making process and also incorporate elements of trust and openness. Constructive conflict, we argue, leads to real and effective boardroom behavioural changes.

The second strand of reform proposes that such changes should be extended into the internal decision-making (enterprise governance) arena. Such a move towards organisational pluralism devolves decision-making and allows greater employee involvement in the “running” of organisations. It also entails a significant re-framing of organisational values, culture and followership. The leadership role becomes one of facilitation and support not the current dominant “command and control” mindset.

The auditing profession has been an important feature of industrialized economies for many years. The manner in which the auditing profession is regulated in the insurance industry, therefore, is worthy of investigation in light of the recent collapse of Heath International Holdings (HIH) which is currently recorded as the biggest corporate collapse in Australia's history. Two questions remain: did the HIH auditors carry out the work ethically and responsibly? Did the regulators fulfill their responsible roles? Among all factors that have led to the collapse of HIH, that of the auditor's role and the auditing profession's ethics has assumed particular importance.