Corporate Governance: Known, Unknown, and the Wrongly Known

Pankaj Kumar Maskara¹, Anita Maskara², Rajesh Aggarwal^3
(1. H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, Nova Southeastern University, USA;
2. Department of Accounting, Finance & Information Systems, Eastern Kentucky University, USA
3. Department of Computer Information Systems, Middle Tennessee State University, USA)

Abstract: We survey the literature and identify the different measures of corporate governance used in the academic literature and those used in the corporate world. We also analyze the characteristics of the firm captured by academic researchers and the commercial vendors to compose such indices. Even though corporate governance in accounting and finance deals with shareholder rights and corporate disclosures we document that none of the measures account for corporate disclosures. We argue that shareholder rights and corporate disclosures are complementary components of corporate governance. In the absence of timely information shareholders cannot exercise their rights effectively. Therefore, we conclude with the recommendation that future measures incorporate timeliness and quality of corporate disclosures in corporate governance measures.

Key words: corporate governance; timely corporate disclosure; shareholders rights; shareholder activism; governance structure

JEL code: M14