The present study examines the interrelationships between FDI inflows and corporate governance in a large number of countries for the year 2004. Building on the new paradigm shift of FDI attractiveness towards host country's existing corporate governance environment, accounting and disclosure standards, property rights, openness of markets to investments and legal and institutional infrastructure etc. as widely recognised by the World Bank and other organizations, this study provides new evidence of significant bidirectional positive relation between country-level corporate governance and foreign direct investment at international level. We find corporate governance to have significant positive impact on attracting FDI inflows. We also find significant positive impact of lagged FDI on corporate governance though contemporaneous FDI has no significant influence. However, we find no significant effect of adoption of international accounting standards and legal origin on improving corporate governance and FDI inflows in the recipient country. We find significant positive impact of disclosure on FDI inflows. We also find ownership diffusion to have significant positive effect on corporate governance while it has a negative influence on FDI inflows.

This study examines the interrelationships between foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows and country-level corporate governance in a large sample of countries for 2004. Building on the new paradigm shift of FDI attractiveness towards a host country's existing corporate governance environment, accounting/disclosure standards, property rights, openness of markets and legal/institutional infrastructure, this study provides new evidence of a significant positive bi-directional relationship between corporate governance and FDI. However, there is no significant effect of adoption of international accounting standards and legal origin on improving corporate governance and FDI inflows in the recipient country. But disclosure has significant positive impact on FDI inflows. While ownership diffusion has a significant positive effect on corporate governance, it shows a negative influence on FDI inflows. These evidences provide policy makers an insight to frame county-level strategy and implement appropriate measures in attracting FDI and improving quality of country-level corporate governance in an internationally competitive environment.

We investigate the interactions between foreign direct investment, international accounting standards, ownership diffusion and country-level individual governance indicators for a sample of 173 countries. We find a positive and significant interrelation between most of the individual governance indicators and lagged FDI inflows even after controlling for time and region effects. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that governance is a function of FDI inflows and vice-versa. We also find a significant positive impact of international accounting standards on individual governance indicators though their effect is yet to be felt on FDI inflows. Similarly we find that legal origin has no significant influence on FDI inflows though it has significant influence on some individual governance indicators. The study also finds that ownership diffusion has significant positive influence on individual governance indicators. The overall interpretation of the results is that FDI inflows, international accounting standards, ownership diffusion and legal framework of a country 'matter' for governance in a competitive global business environment while FDI inflows are dependent on individual governance indicators to a large extent.

This study has three main objectives: (i) estimate earnings management of Thai listed firms during the period 2003 to 2010, (ii) investigate the relationship between corporate governance and earnings management, and (iii) examine the influence of earnings management and corporate governance on the cost of equity capital. The population of this study comprises all listed companies on the Stock Exchange of Thailand during the period 2003-2010, with the exception of financial and insurance groups, listed companies on the Market for Alternative Investments (MAI), listed companies under rehabilitation and companies under property fund. The final sample for this study consists of 3,120 firms-years.

Corporate governance became one of the most important topics of this century in the business world, particularly after the collapse of large companies such as Enron in the United States, Barings Bank in the United Kingdom and HIH Insurance Ltd in Australia, as well as a number of other high-profile corporate scandals. Good corporate governance practices offer shareholders and stackholders greater confidence and protection. They play an important role in ensuring the accountability of companies by providing transparency, reducing conflicts of interest and attracting investments. The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and both disclosure quality and financial performance in Saudi Arabian and Australian listed companies. Saudi Arabia is an emerging market and one of the biggest and most important markets in the Middle East, while Australia is a developed market with strong and advanced legal protection and investors' rights. Neither market was directly affected by the global financial crisis; thus, they provide good comparative cases to gain insights into the operations of corporations and how best to manage these operations to achieve economic development - especially in emerging markets.

This paper investigates the interactions between foreign direct investment (FDI) and country-level individual governance indicators for a sample of 173 countries from 1996 to 2007, and also the effect of legal origin, international financial reporting standards (IFRS) and ownership diffusion on them. We find evidence of positively significant two-way relationships between each of the six individual governance indicators and lagged FDI inflows scaled by lagged GDP to confirm that governance is a function of FDI inflows and vice-versa. The overall interpretation of the results is that FDI inflows, IFRS, ownership diffusion and legal framework of a country 'matter' for macro-level governance in a competitive global business environment while FDI inflows are dependent on individual governance indicators and other macro-economic variables to a large extent. Both IFRS and legal origin have no direct link to FDI inflow. These findings have policy implications for individual governments and international donor organizations to undertake tenable actions for the improvement of country-level individual governance indicators to attract more FDI inflow.

This study investigates corporate social and economic disclosure as an integral part of sustainability reporting to observe voluntary compliance with stakeholders' inclusiveness and corporate legitimacy phenomenon. Following Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Guidelines (G3) on sustainability, a sample of 67 Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) in Australia, United Kingdom and South Africa for the period 2008 and 2009 is examined. Empirical results provide evidence of stakeholders' inclusiveness and corporate legitimacy in voluntary social and economic reporting in the three selected countries. Findings show significant influence of industry sector and firm size on social reporting along with limited influence of firm age. Again, industry, board structure and assurance appear to have significant impact on economic reporting. These findings have important policy implications for the companies, investors, regulators and stakeholders faced with investment, consumption and production decisions.

This thesis aims to determine the factors that encourage increased accountable and transparent corporate sustainability disclosures in promoting stakeholder responsiveness towards sustainability reporting. The study argues that the current low level of disclosure and lack of transparency, accountability and responsiveness in corporate sustainability disclosures require urgent attention. Currently, companies publish sustainability reports mainly to fulfil their legitimate obligations to society. Disclosures are often not balanced, as most companies tend to disclose positive rather than negative outcomes. This problem has widened the information gap between companies and stakeholders, especially those investors who aim to invest in socially responsible enterprises. It also becomes difficult for companies to raise capital for their sustainable development activities. Furthermore, lack of balanced disclosures has rendered sustainability reports less useful to primary stakeholders. Thus, increased transparent and accountable sustainability disclosure is warranted. There is an argument that since companies use societal resources, they should show accountability for the use of such resources through transparent disclosures; independent third parties can provide credibility of such disclosures through 'assurance reports'. Stakeholders can also rely on such disclosures if they are able to physically verify some of the projects undertaken by companies. Stakeholders, especially primary stakeholders, have long been left out of the company decision-making process. This study is of the view that inclusion of primary stakeholders in the corporate decision-making process will help companies to disclose transparent and accountable information. Disclosure of such information will also enhance the corporate legitimacy process. The current study is, therefore, motivated to explore empirically the specific factors that would push companies to increase their sustainability disclosures and also publicly provide transparent and accountable information.

This study presents new international evidence on the interdependence of governance and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows based on twelve year data of 173 countries. Results from ordinary least squares and 2-stage least squares show that FDI and governance as proxied by average governance index of World Governance Institute of the World Bank are indeed interdependent. The implication is that FDI and governance go hand in glove i.e., FDI is determined by governance and vice-versa. We also examine the impact of adopting international accounting standards (IFRS) and legal origin of sample countries on FDI and governance. We find a significant impact of adopting international accounting standard (IFRS) and legal origin of the sample countries on governance rather than on FDI. This implies that adoption of IFRS strengthens governance and thereby allows free movement of capital around the world. We find the interdependence even when we control for certain macro economic factors as well as time, region and income factors. These findings have implications for individual governments of the world and international donor organizations to undertake tenable actions to improve the governance of countries.

The present study examines the interrelationships between FDI inflows and corporate governance in a large number of countries for the year 2004. Building on the new paradigm shift of FDI attractiveness towards host country's existing corporate governance environment, accounting and disclosure standards, property rights, openness of markets to investments and legal and institutional infrastructure etc. as widely recognised by the World Bank and other organizations, this study provides new evidence of bidirectional positive relation between country-level corporate governance and foreign direct investment at international level. We find corporate governance to have significant positive impact on attracting FDI inflows. We also find significant positive impact of lagged FDI on corporate governance though contemporaneous FDI has no significant influence. However, we find no significant effect of adoption of international accounting standards and legal origin on improving corporate governance and FDI inflows in the recipient country. We find significant positive impact of disclosure on FDI inflows. We also find ownership diffusion to have significant positive effect on corporate governance while it has a negative influence on FDI inflows.