Major Projects at the Centre

The Changing Roles and Responsibilities of Company Boards and Directors

This will involve an interview survey of 100 companies - listed and unlisted - to discover the changing governance practices for companies of different scale, and at different stages in their life cycle.

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Theories of Corporate Governance

This project examines the different historical and theoretical approaches to corporate governance in the light of the Enron failure, and considers future directions for the theoretical analysis of corporate governance. This has resulted in the publication by Routledge of London of the edited collection: Theories of Corporate Governance: The Philosophical Foundations of Corporate Governance (published August 2004).

Whilst this might be considered an academic project, the fact is that the corporate and investment community has held to a narrow view of agency theory inspired by the financial economists. There is a direct connection between agency theory, the excessive emphasis that emerged in the 1990s on shareholder value, and executive stock options, the perceived need to maintain share price by any means, and the development of special purpose entities and other devices to artificially inflate share prices. A more balanced theory of corporate governance might contribute to the effort to achieve sustainable returns.

International Comparative Corporate Governance

This is a survey of changing governance ideologies, institutions and practices around the world. It has resulted in a five volume edited collection to be published by Routledge of London in November 2004: Corporate Governance - Critical Perspectives on Business and Management.

Vol 1 The Genesis of Corporate Governance
Vol 2 Anglo-American Corporate Governance
Vol 3 European Corporate Governance
Vol 4 Asian Corporate Governance
Vol 5 Contemporary Developments in Corporate Governance

Australian Corporate Governance Codes Matrix

The OECD Corporate Governance Principles (1999, 2004) are the most important and influential standards of corporate governance. There are 6 broad principles:

Ensuring the basis for an effective corporate governance framework
The rights of shareholders and key ownership functions
The equitable treatment of shareholders
The role of stakeholders in corporate governance
Disclosure and transparency
The responsibilities of the board

In response to the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance various Australian institutions have responded to the Principles with their own set of codes.

This matrix collates, compares and contrasts the corporate governance policies, principles and/or codes of the following Australian institutions:

Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI)
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)
Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA)
Standards Australia (SA)