A corporate governance and business ethics framework: The case study of bank subsidiaries in an emerging country

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Abstract

As Africa continues to develop as a foreign direct investment (FDI) destination, greater emphasis must be placed on domestic and international regulations seeking to facilitate governance levels (Awolusi, Adeyeye, & Pelser, 2017, p. 195). This study investigated the degree of compliance to 2016 King IV Report on Corporate Governance™ for South Africa (King IV™) principles and recommended practices by 17 sampled Standard Bank African subsidiaries. An extensive literature review of business ethics and corporate governance was performed, focusing on works from Kretzschmar et al. (2012) and Geach (2009). King IV™ recommended practices were used as constructs to measure the level of compliance. To answer the three research questions and meet the three research objectives, a manual questionnaire approach was employed to collect data from 33 respondents that represented 17 Standard Bank African subsidiaries. Reliability of the constructs in the questionnaire was performed using a Cronbach’s alpha (α) with (α) equals 0.857 indicating a high level of internal consistency for the nominal scales used in the questionnaire. Validity was established through the research design and sequential mixed methods employed. Based on the respondents’ feedback the researchers developed the corporate governance and business ethics framework for Standard Bank African subsidiaries incorporating King IV™. The modes of managing morality (MMM) business ethics model (Rossouw & van Vuuren, 2013, p. 58) was fused into the framework. The researchers are of the view that the framework would assist Standard Bank Group in realising its stated purpose. A set of recommendations that would assist the Standard Bank Group in meeting the prescripts of King IV™ are proffered.

Keywords: Business Ethics, Corporate Governance, Stakeholder-Inclusive Approach, Ubuntu, Botho, Sustainability, King IV™

Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — I.P.; Methodology — I.P.; Investigation — T.P.; Resources — T.P.; Writing — Original Draft — I.P. and T.P.; Writing — Review & Editing — I.P. and T.P.; Supervision — T.P.; Project Administration — T.P.; Supervision — T.P.; Funding Acquisition — T.P.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

JEL Classification: G21, G30, G34, M14

Received: 18.03.2021
Accepted: 06.07.2021
Published online: 08.07.2021

How to cite this paper: Phaswana, I., & Pelser, T. (2021). A corporate governance and business ethics framework: The case study of bank subsidiaries in an emerging country. Journal of Governance & Regulation, 10(3), 30–43. https://doi.org/10.22495/jgrv10i3art3