New Issue of “Corporate Board: Role, Duties and Composition” journal has Been Published

The recent issue of the journal Corporate Board: Role, Duties and Composition pays attention to issues of board meetings, corporate governance, common law, De Facto Director, job insecurity etc. More detailed issues are given below.

Khaleel Ibrahim Al-Daoud, Siti Zabedah Saidin and Shamharir Abidin examine the impact of board meeting frequency on the firm performance of the firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange from industry and service sectors for the 2009-2013 period. The study controls for endogeneity and simultaneously problems using the dynamic panel technique of Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The findings of the study suggest that a positive association between the frequency of corporate board meetings and firm performance. This suggests that through meetings, board members determine operational issues through discussing and engaging with each other frequency meetings enhancing the decision making process, and consequently the performance of the firms.

Anthony O Nwafor argues that there are different categories of persons involved in the execution of the company’s affairs, but not all have the capacity to bind the company as the embodiment of the company itself. Those who exercise acts of management and control over the company’s business are usually referred to as the directors. Where persons who satisfy the statutorily prescribed qualification standard are duly appointed by the shareholders to exercise control and manage the affairs of the company function in that capacity, they are usually identified as de jure directors. But where there is no such appointment, or irregular appointment, the law demands, for the protection of those dealing with the company, that the role performed by the person be examined to ascertain whether such a person is a de facto director. The more difficult part lies in identifying a de facto director where the subject company has a corporate body as its director. The extant judicial authority suggests that the human person in the corporate director must be performing functions which are beyond the natural call of duty in relation to the corporate director to constitute a de facto director of the subject company. The paper argues that the standard is satisfied in any case where the human person is involved in the initiation and execution of the affairs of the subject company, and more so where the conducts of the subject company are patently unlawful.

Olufemi Adigun Lawal and Sunday Samson Babalola examine the extent and nature of mediational roles of affective and cognitive trusts on the predictive relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and job insecurity. Six hundred and twenty-six employees are surveyed through questionnaire administration. Analysis of the data is done with simple regression and multiple regression analyses. The findings show no significant prediction of job insecurity by affective trust as well as no significant mediation of the LMX and job insecurity relationship by affective trust. The study also shows significant prediction of job insecurity by LMX, and significant mediation of the LMX-job insecurity relationship by cognitive trust. The results are discussed in the light of reviewed literature and current realities. The implications of the study are also highlighted.

Nidhi Pandey has proven that inclusion of female directors helps in increasing profits, but the top position is still eluding the women. One of the leading reasons for this grimy scenario is lack of gender sensitivity in the male dominated society which puts forth various queries regarding the bulging gap. Gender Sensitivity in the new millennium is the core of corporate world. With lesser number of women at top of the ladder it put forth various queries. The paper brings forth with the help of a pilot survey the sensitivity of both the genders towards each other in our modern society basically referring to work place and to understand the psychological differences of both the genders on career break and progression post marriage.

Aagoth Storvik and Trygve Gulbrandsen discuss a new regulation in Norway, that required at least 40 percent of each gender on company boards. Norway was the first country in the world to introduce such a law, but several countries have since proposed similar arrangements. Before the reform, opponents of the law in Norway claimed that the new women directors would not be allowed to participate fully in board decision-making. Instead, their role would only be window dressing. Based on a questionnaire sent to all directors in public limited companies in 2009, the article studies this allegation. Results show that women directors report less ability to influence board decision making than men directors. Moreover, women to a lesser extent feel they are part of the inner circle on boards where such phenomena is perceived to exist.

Ntoung A. T. Lious, Outman Ben Chettah and Eva Masárova study the impact of the mandatory International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) adoption has on the value relevance of accounting numbers based on a sample of 440 listed firms. The aim is to identify the effects of the mandatory IFRS adoption by relying on panel data gathered over the period 2002 to 2012 resulting in more than 4,840 firm-year observations. The main finding shows that the adoption of IFRS across the studied period results to some improvement in the value relevance of accounting information with the stock return model.

Asri Marsidi and Shazali Abu Mansor argue that well performed companies have always been linked with effective governance which is generally reflected through effective board of directors. However many issues concerning the attributes for effective board of directors remained unresolved. Nowadays diversity has been perceived as able to influence the corporate performance due to the likelihood of meeting variety of needs and demands from diverse customers and clients. The study therefore aims to provide a fundamental understanding on governance among high performing companies in Malaysia.