We sketch out two basic paradigms informing banking practice: the economistic paradigm focusing on profit maximization and the humanistic one, serving the common good. We then highlight paradigmatic cases to explore how each of these business models fared during the quasi-natural experiment of...

10.2 trillion dollars have been lost in the US alone in the past two years. 45% of world’s wealth has been destroyed and three of the largest bankruptcies in the US have occurred in the past year. Just as the majority of observers thought lessons from Enron had been learned, crisis has struck...

Banks failed in 2008 because individuals with knowledge of risks were not connected to individuals who had the incentive and power to take corrective action. Evidence of this problem is provided by reports from the Lehman liquidator and The US Government Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission....

Using an information processing perspective we identify two reasons why boards failed to manage risk well 1) board members did not get relevant information about risks incurred by management because they lacked control over information supply; 2) board members were not able to process such...

The financial crisis of 2008/09 has many roots and remedies will have to be multipronged. However, there seems no doubt that corporate governance mechanisms failed with regard to risk management across the board. In this presentation, we show the systemic shortcomings of a unitary board which...

This paper compares the competitiveness and resilience of firms governed by a single board that were considered “too big to fail” in 2008 with firms governed by a network of boards. Network governance introduces a division of power, checks and balances with stakeholder engagement....