Corporate governance and its impact on organisational performance in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A systematic literature review

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Abstract

This paper aims to systematically review the existing studies of corporate governance with organisational performance in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and put forward theories, research methods, topics, and variables that emerge from the review. The systematic literature review is based on 42 peer-reviewed journal articles on the topic written by reputable academics on the Science Direct Database focused on corporate governance, board characteristics, and ownership structure. This study’s conceptual framework is based on agency theory, which is the most widely used to analyse corporate governance (Fama & Jensen, 1983; Jensen & Meckling, 1976). The majority of results show a positive correlation between corporate governance and organisational performance (Pucheta-Martínez & Gallego-Álvarez, 2020) with agency theory being the most utilised theory of choice (Bergh, Ketchen, Orlandi, Heugens, & Boyd, 2019; Panda & Leepsa, 2017). This paper undertakes a significant thorough systematic review of corporate governance with firm performance and the Fourth Industrial Revolution literature. It gives an 11-year review with a reference index from 2011 to 2021, useful for both academics and professionals. This study recommends more evidence-based systematic reviews for different aspects and within different regions. It is further recommended to expand geographical spread across all continents to cover corporate governance area and to improve studies related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and its impact on corporate governance. Lastly, it is recommended that more studies that look at the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on corporate governance and firm performance should be performed.

Keywords: Corporate Governance, Business Administration, Management and Accounting, Firm Performance, Company Performance, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Ownership Structure

Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualisation — R.S.G. and P.M.; Methodology — R.S.G.; Investigation — R.S.G.; Funding Acquisition — R.S.G.; Resources — R.S.G. and P.M.; Writing — Original Draft — R.S.G. and P.M.; Writing — Review & Editing — R.S.G. and P.M.

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

JEL Classification: G34, M1, L25

Received: 18.10.2021
Accepted: 07.02.2022
Published online: 08.02.2022

How to cite this paper: Gwala, R. S., & Mashau, P. (2022). Corporate governance and its impact on organisational performance in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A systematic literature review. Corporate Governance and Organizational Behavior Review, 6(1), 98–114. https://doi.org/10.22495/cgobrv6i1p7