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This paper seeks to examine the mainstream theories of corporate governance in an attempt to suggest that their underlying assumptions and ideologies are misplaced and ought to give way to an emerging pluralistic view of the governing process in order to understand any governance contribution to the dynamics of the business environment.

The paper engages with the traditional literature and views on governance models from law, business and organisational studies perspectives. It then considers the environment and changes in the environment and how those challenge the relevance of the traditional approach, drawing upon the impacts on the fluidity of management and governance perspectives and practices in the global economy.

The reflections and analysis confirm the view that the underlying assumptions of existing models and regulatory frameworks for governance are misplaced and it is suggested, with reason, that a pluralistic view and framework are better than the current dualistic approach to provide a better understanding of corporate governance in today's dynamic business environments.

The paper develops a new model and framework for governance practice and regulation and seeks to persuade policy makers and commentators that the global business environment needs to recognise and engage with this new model and validate its assumptions.

Kaplan and Norton’s concept of the balanced scorecard has received wide acceptance from both academics and practitioners. The design and construction of balanced scorecards has not, however, been well documented. Reports on a study undertaken for three companies to determine, develop and implement a balanced scorecard for senior managers’ use. Reviews the theoretical background of integrated performance measures, describes, analyses and cross‐compares the performance measures designed by the three companies. Concludes with a discussion on whether or not the generic model developed by Kaplan and Norton is the most appropriate model for all companies.

The paper's purpose is to identify the inappropriateness of the current model of regulation of corporate governance, which applies worldwide; and inherent paradoxes in the five areas of best practice in corporate governance.

This is a review paper building new conceptualization for research into governance. The paper identifies the origins of the issues with weaknesses in the ontological and epistemological base for theorizing about corporate governance and its regulation. It suggests an alternative theoretical basis, identifying ways forward for developing theoretically aligned best practice along with regulation that properly reflects the complexity of the post‐modern business world.

The paper calls for a fresh approach to governance theorizing for regulation and best‐practice through considering governance praxis rather than structure and the reconceptualization of governance as a process of systematically balancing out tensions in order to effect good governance.

Governance research and regulation requires reframing so that good theory can improve practice.

The paper goes against the conventional wisdom in governance research, falling in with more advanced thinking for practice‐based studies of organising.

The aim of this paper is to explore the longitudinal alignment between performance measures and business strategy. Moreover, the paper will probe the role of business improvement models as a key catalyst in this alignment process. Since the late 1980s performance measurement has become topical with ever‐increasing interest in the subject. The increasing interest has been driven by the rapidly changing business environment and strategy, in both the private and public sectors. A literature review covering the current issues concerning performance measurement was undertaken, emphasising the development of performance measurement in relation to business strategy. The continual alignment of performance measures and frameworks with business strategy is stressed. Also, business improvement models are reviewed as possible mechanisms for enabling this alignment. Following this review, a longitudinal case study approach, based on a five‐year university/industry learning partnership with an international aerospace organisation, was used to investigate alignment between performance measures and business strategy. The findings of the study confirm that performance measures linked to strategy are more effective. Moreover, the alignment between the measures, measurement framework and the strategy must be continually reviewed and treated as a dynamic and complex issue, rather than a linear mechanistic relationship.

This paper reviews experience with credit union demutualisation to date in the light of increasing discussion about whether demutualisation is a likely (or inevitable) future stage in the evolutionary process. It is argued that the credit union industry faces an inherent demutualisation bias which emerges as the sector develops maturity. Contributing factors include the emergence of professional management pursuing personal objectives, together with the economic realities of technological change, financial liberalisation, increased competition, and prudential regulation based on minimum capital requirements. Demutualisation incentives may partially reflect the unsuitability of the mutual form of governance in larger, more sophisticated financial institutions, but there is also a significant risk of demutualisation based on wealth expropriation motives. Alternative policies and strategies which might avoid this demutualisation bias are examined.

The review of contemporary organisational change theories identified one theory which seemed relevant to explaining the organisational change phenomenon in public enterprises – Van de Ven and Poole’s (1995) Evolutionary Change Theory (ECT). However, further review of the management literature revealed its limitations in explaining change, particularly in public enterprises. The theory fails to identify the triggers of change and the roles of various stakeholders, and the purpose of this paper is to enhance model of the ECT and appraise it.

Researchers continue to highlight the need to examine context when examining a change process; therefore, the authors utilised a process research approach to examine changes in the New Zealand electricity industry over the past four decades. As the approach is a flexible one, it allowed exploration of the critical features of change.

Analysis revealed compelling evidence of two new proposed stages to the ECT which operated in conjunction with external environmental influences that acted as stimuli for change.

The research provided insight into the various influences on organisational change, particularly public enterprises. It confirms the previously ignored power of the external environment and the role of stakeholders in influencing organisational change.

The research advances current understanding of organisational change as it offers an enhanced model of the ECT by identifying the trigger for organisational change in public enterprises. Furthermore, it finds different stakeholder groups with the ability to influence the organisational change process.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issues surrounding “say‐on‐pay” legislation in the USA; evaluate the corporate governance alternatives to “say‐on‐pay” legislation; recommend a policy encouraging enhanced executive accountability; and suggest research questions pertaining to “say‐on‐pay” proposals and executive compensation for scholars to pursue.

The paper takes an exploratory approach to discussing and analyzing the issues surrounding “say‐on‐pay” legislation in the USA and offering an alternative corporate governance approach to enhancing executive performance.

The paper finds that whether an annual non‐binding “say‐on‐pay” policy is instituted or not within a company is not the crux of the executive compensation issue. What is important is whether concerned shareholders have the ability to have proxy access and successfully pass such a resolution, thereby exercising shareholder pressure on the board of directors to implement a corporate policy of equating appropriate executive compensation with managerial performance. Moreover, this improvement in board‐shareowner engagement, along with expanded disclosure of executive compensation packages, will assist in obviating the need for the exercise of a draconian shareholder resolution to remove directors.

This paper offers an in‐depth review of the “say‐on‐pay” legislative and corporate governance controversy; places the issue in the context of effective corporate governance; recommends a reasoned approach to executive compensation accountability; and offers a list of research questions for corporate governance and human resource management scholars to pursue.

This paper aims to describe the emerging practice of joint management‐stakeholder‐committees (JMSCs) in which corporate executives take decisions in collaboration with stakeholders.

To identify firms involving stakeholders in their governance arrangements, the authors analysed 51 companies regularly participating in Business in the Community's Corporate Responsibility Index in the UK. The data provided by the index as well as corporate reports were then analysed to evaluate the impact of JMSCs on corporate decision‐making.

The research finds that JMSCs strongly influence corporate governance mechanisms such as monitoring and measurement as well as the policy development of firms.

The analysis builds on corporate responses given to the questionnaire sent by the Corporate Responsibility Index as well as corporate reports. Future research is encouraged to triangulate findings with stakeholder opinions on the effectiveness of JMSCs.

JMSCs prove to be an effective tool to involve stakeholders in corporate decision‐making processes. Owing to their effectiveness JMSCs are more likely to create trust between firms and their stakeholders.

The paper is the first empirical investigation into the effectiveness of engaging stakeholders in joint management‐stakeholder committees, demonstrating the impact and effectiveness of such engagement.