An old sporting aphorism states that "offense wins games, defense wins championships". The financial crisis clearly highlighted the imbalance that currently exists between offense and defense in the corporate mind-set. This imbalance is reflected in the unequal focus on bringing the dollar in...

Union pension funds manage approximately $3.5 trillion in retirement assets on behalf of public and private sector employees covered by collective bargaining agreement. They are also very active in the proxy process, sponsoring approximately one-third of the shareholder proposals that are...

Corporate monitors are important participants in corporate governance systems. Monitors include the board of directors, the general counsel, and internal and external auditors. Monitors are paid by the organization but their responsibilities largely or mostly non-managerial.How should monitors...

In the current economic climate organisations are now under increased pressure to ensure that they are taking appropriate measures to adequately defend the interests of their multiple stakeholders (e.g. shareholders, staff, clients, business partners, suppliers, regulators, local communities and...

Say on pay is the practice of granting shareholders the right to vote on a company's executive compensation program at the annual shareholder meeting. Under the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, publicly traded companies in the U.S. are required to adopt say on pay. Advocates of this approach believe that...

The financial crisis of 2008 and the resulting economic recession have cruelly exposed weaknesses in corporate oversight at all levels – organizational, sector, national, and international. Consequently stakeholders are now demanding higher standards of corporate oversight to provide them with...

Proxy advisory firms are highly influential in the design and approval of equity compensation plans. The largest proxy advisory firm — Institutional Shareholder Services — uses a variety of tests to determine its recommendation on equity plan proposals. Among these is a proprietary metric...

The banking crisis has cruelly exposed how UK banks failed to adequately defend the interests of their multiple stakeholders and has resulted in the reputation of the banking sector being severely tarnished. This proposal specifically addresses measures to help to improve corporate governance in...

Ninety-two percent of the 1,348 North American executives we survey believe that improving culture would increase firm value. A striking 84% believe they need to improve their culture. But how can that be achieved? Our paper provides some guidance. First, we directly link culture to financial...

Using enforcements of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, we test the hypothesis that socially responsible (ESG) firms receive lower sanctions from prosecutors. Since virtually all cases are settled by bargaining, we estimate sanction specifications derived from a Nash Bargaining model. To...