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The purpose of this paper is to provide a perspective on the distinctive stance of the King Report on Corporate Governance in South Africa, 2016 (King IV) in relation to a number of other codes of corporate governance issued globally.

The paper presents a comparative analysis between King IV and the codes of governance that apply in a select number of the jurisdictions, namely, Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, Nigeria and the UK. The selection of jurisdictions was done with the view of having a sample that is representative of the major global regions. Preference was given to codes that were issued or revised recently. Mention is also made of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance where appropriate.

The conclusion reached in this paper is that King IV is distinctive from the codes compared to it in this paper in six respects. These include that King IV defines corporate governance as accountable leadership instead of it being a system only and is drafted for positive outcomes instead of compliance; proposes an application regime that is qualitative instead of quantitative; integrates sustainable development into its model for corporate governance instead of treating sustainability as an ad hoc-matter; has applicability across the ecosystem of all organisations instead of limited application to listed or larger companies; and has a has built in a social value system to harness broad public support instead of reliance on bottom-down enforcement.

The implications of the distinct approach to corporate governance in King IV are explained in the paper and should serve as a premise to reconsider whether the more traditional approaches to corporate governance code development are still appropriate in light of the learning as evidenced in King IV.

This paper aims to delve into the progress in governance application regimes over the years.

This paper was conceptual/analytical in nature and based on research of King Reports and other desktop research.

Distinctive developments in the narrative and practice of governance in the King Reports were found.

A unique reporting of the development in governance praxis through the King Reports is provided.

Discusses Shakespeare’s Chronicles and their links to organizational behaviour. Highlights lessons from history for those seeking to exercise power successfully and manage both individuals and groups.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that there was a clear shift from the First King Report in 1994, which advocated an input approach to corporate governance, to the Fourth King Report in 2016 that proposed an outcomes-based approach to corporate governance. It will be demonstrated that there was a gradual shift from an “apply-or-explain” approach in the earlier editions of the King Reports, to an “apply-an-explain” approach in the fourth edition of the King Report.

Historical narrative and analysis.

The fourth King Report, published in 2016, encapsulates an evolution in corporate governance thinking where four good governance outcomes – ethical culture, good performance, effective control and legitimacy – are placed at the forefront of measuring governance, with governance principles and practices following from these outcomes.

This study is part of a special issue that looks at the contribution of the King Reports to governance globally.

The purpose of this study is to provide a high-level review of the evolution of shareholder activism and institutional investor engagement in the corporate governance ecosystem in South Africa. Furthermore, it specifically seeks to explain the incorporation of such aspects into the various key codes and reports on corporate governance in South Africa since 1994.

Historical narrative and analysis.

This study highlights how shareholder activism and institutional investor engagement in the corporate governance ecosystem have been considered and addressed in South Africa since the publication of the First King Report in 1994. The progress that has been made specifically with regard to the introduction of a code for institutional investors is highlighted. The study ultimately acknowledges that this evolution is a continuing journey on the road to stakeholder inclusivity and engagement, and then concludes that the specific role and impact of institutional investors, particularly given some of the recent corporate governance failures, will require further consideration going forward. This should ensure the continued alignment of all stakeholders and assist in making the necessary improvements to the overarching governance framework and attendant culture.

This study is a part of a special issue that looks at the contribution of the King reports to governance globally.

This research aims to identify the use of the public relations (PR) methods implemented by King Rama V and his administration to counter the threat to Siam of imperialism in the late 19th century. It also seeks to demonstrate the interplay of the communication strategies used in international diplomacy to enhance Siam's visibility among major European nations.

This is a historical study using both primary and secondary sources. It is a development of the national PR history methodology using a descriptive, fact-based and event-oriented approach.

The main findings are that (1) a PR strategy drove international diplomacy under the administration of Siam's monarch incorporating strategies such as governmental press relations activities; (2) the strategy in building Siam's image as a civilized country was successfully communicated through the personality of King Rama V during his first trip to Europe; (3) with a close observation of the public and press sentiments, the outcome of the integrated PR and diplomatic campaigns was that Siam defended its sovereignty against British and French imperialists’ pressures and was therefore never colonized.

This research adds to the body of knowledge of global PR history by demonstrating that PR evolved before the 20th century in different countries and cultures with different historical paths and sociocultural, political and economic contexts.

This study from an Asian nation demonstrates that PR was being practiced in the late 19th century outside the Western context, prior to the advent of the term. It is a rare example of PR being developed as a part of an anti-colonization strategy.

The purpose of this paper was to develop a comprehensive best practices checklist that can be used by governing bodies to identify and evaluate an enterprise’s risk exposure around cognitive systems (CSs) and formulate mitigating internal controls that can address these risks.

COBIT 5 was scrutinised to identify the processes which are necessary for the effective governance of CSs. The applicable processes were used to identify significant risks relating to cognitive computing (CC), as well as to develop a best practices control checklist.

The research output developed was a best practices checklist and executive summary that would assist enterprises in evaluating their CC risk exposure and assess the adequacy of existing controls. The first checklist highlights the incremental risk exposure which needs to be addressed. To evaluate the effectiveness of the cognitive computing control structure, a best practices checklist was developed that can be used by internal auditors and risk and audit committees. An executive summary was developed to highlight the key focus areas that governing bodies need to consider.

The checklist provides a tool to assess the enterprises’ risk exposure, evaluate the existing CC control mechanisms and identify areas that require management attention.

The checklists and executive summary developed provides enterprises with a comprehensive checklist that can be used, while at the same time allowing them to discharge their responsibility in terms of King IV.

This paper aims to examine trends in the content of reporting within 135 UK higher education institutions (HEIs). It explores the extent to which integrated reporting (IR) content elements, reflecting integrated thinking, are disclosed voluntarily and whether HEI-specific features influence the resulting disclosures.

Existing IR guidelines given by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and the adoption of content analysis have provided the opportunity to examine the trend and extent of IR content elements associated in HEI corporate reports. The evidence was obtained from 405 UK HEI annual reports covering the period 2014-2016.

The results indicate a significant increase in the number of IR content elements embedded in HEI annual reports. The HEI-specific characteristics examined, such as the establishment of HEI (before or after 1992), adoption of IR framework and size of HEI, are all significantly and positively associated with IR content elements disclosure. This paper argues that institutional theory, isomorphism and isopraxism are relevant for explaining the changes in the contents of HEI annual reports. The findings also suggest that universities are beginning to adopt an integrated thinking approach to the reporting of their activities.

The study is based on IR content elements only and could be extended to include the fundamental concepts and basic principles of the IR framework. There are other factors that have a potentially crucial influence on HEI core activities (such as teaching and learning research and internationalisation) which have been omitted from this study.

The findings will allow policymakers to evaluate the extent to which integrated thinking is taking place and influencing the UK HEI sector in the selection and presentation of information. A further implication of the findings is that an appropriate a sector-wide enforcement and compliance body, for instance, the British Universities Finance Directors Group (BUFDG), may consider developing voluntary IR guidance in a clear, consistent, concise and comparable format. Also, it may pursue regulatory support for this guidance. In doing so, it may monitor the compliance and disclosure levels of appropriate IR requirements. Within such a framework, IR could be used to assist HEIs to make more sustainable choices and allow stakeholders to better understand aspects of HEI performance.

The research has implications for society within and beyond the unique UK HEI sector. Universities are places of advanced thinking and can lead the way for other sectors by demonstrating the potential of integrated thinking to create a cohesive wide-ranging discourse and create engagement among stakeholder groups. Specifically, IR builds on the strong points of accounting, for instance, robust quantitative evidence collecting, relevance, reliability, materiality, comparability and assurability, to explain the sustainability discourse into a “language” logical to HEIs organisational decision makers. Consequently, IR may generate better visibility and knowledge of the financial values of exploiting capitals (financial, intellectual, human, manufactured, social and natural) and offer a multifaceted approach to reassess HEIs organizational performance in various sectors that support the growth of integrated thinking.

This is the first known study to explore HEI characteristics and link them with the level of voluntary IR content elements disclosed in UK HEIs.

This study aims to conduct a survey in a bank to measure the perception of employees towards the effective governance of information privacy and at the same time validating the information privacy governance questionnaire (IPGQ) used in this study.

A quantitative research approach was followed using an online survey questionnaire to collect data in a bank in South Africa.

The survey results showed that employees perceived the governance of privacy in the organisation in a positive way. Three significant differences were identified, namely, Generation-Y being significantly more positive than Generation-X regarding privacy control assessment. Also, that the contractor/vendor group was significantly more positive than permanent employees regarding organisational commitment and privacy control assessment. Exploratory factor analysis was used to validate the IPGQ and four factors were identified: privacy control assessment, personal information awareness assessment, privacy governance reporting and organisational commitment towards privacy. Cronbach’s alpha was used to establish the internal reliability of the factors and indicated good internal consistency.

One of the potential empirical research limitations for this study is that the study was conducted in a single organisation; therefore, when generalising the results, caution must be taken.

Organisations, academics and the industry may find the questionnaire useful to determine employee perception towards privacy governance and to identify recommendations that could be used to improve their privacy policies, privacy programme controls and organisational commitment towards privacy. In this study, it was identified that for Generation-X employees to be more accepting towards the privacy controls, the organisation needs to implement focussed awareness training for them. To ensure permanent employees’ commitment and accountability, internal audits, monitoring and risk assessment measures need to be implemented. These can be directed through the outcomes of the survey.

The IPGQ can aid organisations in determining if they are governing privacy effectively, and thus assist them in meeting the accountability condition of data protection regulation.

Several mechanisms exist to address the low levels of gender and race diversity in boardrooms, including mandatory quotas, voluntary targets and investor activism. Based on the similarity-attraction theory, the authors investigated whether nomination committees of companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) could serve as an internal change mechanism to promote board gender and race diversity.

Panel data on the gender and race diversity of the nomination committees and boards of the 40 largest listed companies (the JSE Top 40) were analysed over the period 2011- 2016. Panel regressions were conducted to investigate four hypothesised associations.

More diverse boards had significantly more diverse nomination committees in terms of both gender and race. A significant positive association was furthermore reported between the race diversity of nomination committees and the appointment of new directors of colour. The latter finding could partly be attributed to legislation to enhance black representation in all spheres of the South African economy.

South Africa offers a unique socio-political setting in which to conduct board diversity research. In line with the similarity-attraction theory, it is shown that diverse nomination committees have an essential role in setting and achieving board gender and race diversity targets.