STEWARDSHIP THEORY

Purpose: The study evaluates the implementation of corporate governance guidelines by State Corporations in Kenya.

Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive design was adopted owing to the need to describe characteristics of situations and association with others. The study targeted a sample of 93 corporations, with 68 filling-in and returning the questionnaires utilizing primary data, while a structured questionnaire with closed -ended questions was used to gather the primary data. The variables for analysis included the board of directors; transparency and disclosure; stakeholder rights, obligations and relationship; accountability, risk management and internal controls; ethical leadership and corporate citizenship; sustainability and performance management; and compliance with laws and regulations. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was deployed to determine whether implementation of corporate governance guidelines differ across the different categories of State Corporations.

Findings: The study determined that State Corporations were compliant with the laws and regulations and recognize transparency and disclosure as important aspects of corporate leadership because they enhance the confidence levels of investors, stakeholders and the wider society. The results also revealed that the state corporations were facing challenges when it comes to stakeholder rights, obligations and relationships. Thus, while the implementation of corporate governance guidelines has not been fully realized, regulatory agencies, public fund management and revenue collection corporations are the most compliant to corporate governance guidelines. The most evident good practices were compliance with laws and regulations, alongside transparency and disclosure, implying the organizations have internal policies and procedures that detect and inhibit violations of applicable law, regulations, and ethical standards. However, major areas of weakness included limited stakeholder rights, obligations and relationship together with the board of directors and ensuring of accountability, risk management and internal controls.

Unique Contributions to Theory, Practice and Policy: This study reinforces the stakeholder theory by applying the Mwongozo[1] and OECD governance principles, to test its robustness with respect to policy and practice by advancing the argument that managers must serve the interests of their variant stakeholders. Key confirmatory findings included compliance with laws and regulations, transparency, and disclosure as some of the good corporate governance practices in Kenyan State-Owned Enterprises. In terms of practice, accountability, risk management and internal control were highlighted as areas that needed improvement. Therefore, the implication of this study is that full implementation of the corporate governance guidelines has not been realized by most State Corporations in Kenya. Hence, how can the implementation of corporate governance guidelines be fully realized by State Corporations in Kenya?  Finally, this study strengthens the policy and regulatory framework to facilitate implementation of corporate governance guidelines, enriching policies and operational procedures, and informing theory on corporate governance.

Founders of family firms differ from descendants, particularly in terms of affective attachment, cognitive identification, and social concern. This study examines how these generational differences between founder-led and descendantled family firms affect corporate social responsibility (CSR) decoupling, which is the gap between stated CSR policies on paper and their actual implementation in practice. While decoupling may yield economic benefits by saving on implementation costs if concealed, it can damage socioemotional wealth if revealed. The findings, based on a sample of 3,576 firm-year observations from large firms in the United States, demonstrate that the relationship between family ownership and CSR decoupling is contingent upon family generation. Family ownership decreases CSR decoupling in founder family firms, while it increases CSR decoupling in descendant family firms. It indicates that family firms perceive the benefits and risks of CSR decoupling differently based on the generation of family leaders.

In the midst of global economic dynamics characterized by massive digitalization, growing demands for sustainability through Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles, and rising fiscal uncertainty, firms face significant challenges in making long-term strategic investment decisions. This study synthesizes recent literature (2021-2025) to explore the relationship between financial risk management and strategic investment decisions, while considering the role of digitalization, ESG, and fiscal uncertainty as contextual and moderating variables. The novelty of this study lies in proposing a new conceptual model that integrates three key aspects-financial risk, ESG, and digitalization-within the fiscal uncertainty context of an emerging economy such as Indonesia. This model advances the field of strategic financial management by unifying micro perspectives (finance and technology) with macro perspectives (fiscal policy and sustainability) in a single analytical framework. The findings provide theoretical contributions by extending risk management and investment decision-making literature, and practical implications for corporate policymakers to design more adaptive and resilient investment strategies in response to external uncertainties.

This empirical theoretical study investigates the two-way relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance in Indonesian businesses. The theoretical underpinning for the conceptual model is based on agency, stewardship, resource reliance, and stakeholder theory. The social behavior index is made up of four components: participation in global reporting initiatives, inclusion of Green Index firms, good compliance, Corporate Governance Recommendations, and signatories to the Global Compact. The study's findings reveal a positive relationship in both directions: social benefits and positive feedback that social policies increase financial resources. Increased financial success, on the other hand, boosts the social and economic benefits of enacting rules that encourage board-level components to seriously consider spending more money. As a result, this research motivates social behavior members to contribute globally to the betterment of society.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of corporate governance on intellectual capital (IC) in companies listed on the Tehran stock exchange. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the board features (size, independence and CEO duality) and the characteristics of the audit committee (financial expertise, independence and size) are considered to measure the factors of corporate governance. The IC is also divided into communicative, human, structural and value-added IC. Research data are gathered using a sample of 132 companies during 2013-2016. Research hypotheses are analyzed using panel data and logistic regression models. Findings The findings indicate that while the board’s independence, financial expertise and the size of the audit committee are negatively related to the communicative capital, the relationship between audit committee independence and communicative capital is positive and significant. Further, the authors observe that there is a positive ...

Since one of today's business buzzwords is "Sustainability", an increasingly large number of companies aim to generate a lasting competitive advantage by balancing the value creating process with the social and environmental challenges. Therefore, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) appears as the assertive voice in which corporate governance is expressed in terms of sustainable development. The widespread adoption of sustainability reporting (SR) confirms companies' growing awareness of their social responsibilities. The researches previously conducted present mainly two drivers for sustainability reporting. Firstly, it is seen as a communication technique. Secondly, it is a legal obligation, driven by national and international laws. Thus, the credibility of sustainability reporting seems to be relevant to question. The literature review reveals that scholars and practitioners have largely focused on the determinants of this form of communication, used media, content and recipients. Although the reliability of the information has often been questioned, it is the least studied empirically. By adopting internal control mechanisms and privileging external audits, an arsenal of arrangements is used in order to improve the credibility and the transparency of social and environmental information. Through a theoretical and empirical synthesis of the literature exploring the SR research field, this paper answers two major questions: what value for the sustainability reporting and how can their legitimacy be assured? The findings imply that, subjected to various institutional and regulatory pressures, companies tend to adopt societal reporting practices. It is mainly intended to guarantee trust and reliability in the information transmitted to the public.

In fast-paced entrepreneurial environments, control is no longer the enemy of creativity-it is its unlikely enabler. This study investigates whether management control tools can be considered as forms of managerial innovation in startups, examining how they are adopted, adapted, and reinterpreted within organizations marked by uncertainty, growth, and strategic flux. Drawing on a hybrid methodology that combines a narrative literature review with a systematic review, this research bridges conceptual foundations with empirical insights from peer-reviewed articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science. The findings reveal that control tools-such as dashboards, budgeting systems, and performance indicators-are increasingly mobilized by startups not just for oversight, but as strategic instruments for alignment, learning, and legitimacy. These tools act as radical innovations when they redefine managerial paradigms, as relative innovations when adopted for the first time, and as incremental innovations when customized through iterative learning. The study underscores the interplay between external institutional pressures and internal agency in shaping these trajectories. By reframing control systems as evolving and context-sensitive innovations, this paper contributes to a renewed understanding of how startups navigate the paradox of structure and flexibility.

Purpose: This paper investigates whether a family firm's control context is directly associated with a manager's stewardship attitude or whether this relationship is mediated by the manager's perception with respect to the fairness of the control processes. Design/methodology/approach: We have sent a survey to family businesses in Brazil. We tested the hypotheses with the data collected from 141 responding family and nonfamily managers with the use of Structural Equation Modeling analyses (SmartPLS). We find that more participative and more formal controls are associated with higher procedural justice perceptions. Zooming in on the types of control namely forward-looking action controls like target setting (TS) and backward-looking results controls like performance measurement (PM), we observe that TS is significantly positively associated with stewardship identification through a manager's procedural justice perceptions for both control characteristics (partial mediation for participative TS and full mediation for formal TS). PM on the other hand is only significantly directly related to a stewardship identification if it is of a participative character. In addition, we find a significant moderating effect of family affiliation, increasing the strength of the association between PM procedural justice and stewardship identification for nonfamily managers. Originality: Prior literature focused on discussing stewardship attitudes and behaviors in family firms, but few provided empirical evidence that a stewardship attitude in a family firm is associated with contextual factors like the design of controls in family firms in combination with a manager's individual perception of family firm's processes factors.

There have been numerous studies on the relationship between CSR and performance of family businesses. However, academia have yet to come to a consensus regarding the sign and size of the relationship. Neither was there any consistent evidence on the boundary conditions for the relationship between CSR and performance in family businesses. Based on a review of Agency Theory, Stakeholder Theory, Stewardship Theory, Utilitarian Theory and Social Emotional Wealth Theory, this paper addresses the aforementioned research gap based on a systematic review. The study synthesised the literature on performance which is measured in three aspects by the existing literature, namely financial performance, social performance, and innovation. Moreover, the study assessed the empirical literature on the relationship between CSR and the aforementioned three performance measures. The study contributes to the literature by establishing the conceptual foundation for future empirical research.

The financial scandals that engulfs the Nigerian Banking industry in late 2000, was mainly attributed to corporate governance failures and its attendant consequences has created a vacuum for studies to be undertaken. This study looks at how gender diversity (particularly women representation) affect performance of Nigerian banks from 2011 to 2015. The population and sample is made up of 16 (sixteen) banks listed on Nigerian Stock Exchange within the period. Board gender diversity was operationalized using 3 variables (that is women on board- WOB; women on board percentage-WBF; and presence of female chief executive- CEO) which formed the independent variables while financial performance has 2 variables (return on asset- ROA and return on equity- ROE). The study revealed that gender diversity has a significant positive effect on ROA and has no any effect on ROE. It therefore, recommend increase in number of women on board of directors, even though that skepticism exist towards polici...

Stewardship theory has emerged as a critical framework in corporate governance, emphasizing trust, accountability, and long-term value creation. However, empirical validation of stewardship-driven governance remains limited across industries, with most studies relying on conceptual analyses. This study therefore examines the evolving relevance of stewardship theory as a governance framework, addressing key gaps such as its static perception, lack of standardized methodologies, and the underexplored impact of digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) on governance structures. The study employs an exploratory research design, integrating insights from corporate governance, leadership studies, behavioral economics, and sustainability management. Findings indicate that stewardship theory must adapt to diverse cultural and economic contexts, integrating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks and stakeholder capitalism to enhance broader stakeholder accountability. Additionally, hybrid leadership models and remote work governance pose new challenges, necessitating digital stewardship frameworks to sustain trust and accountability in virtual environments. The study concludes that stewardship theory must evolve to address contemporary governance trends and ensure its applicability in fostering sustainable corporate leadership. Recommendations include integrating digital stewardship models to accommodate AI-driven decision-making, remote work structures and ESG governance indicators. These advancements will enhance the practical relevance of stewardship theory in modern corporate governance.

This article discusses the ability of the family firm to grow for several generations by examining the case of the Ayala group in the Philippines. Such an ability, called here as generational growth, has been the subject of debate regarding the future of the family firm and the zaibatsu, which is a special type of family firm. Two features that distinguish Ayala as a model are 1) the ability of the family to maintain ownership and management control for generations and 2) the rejection of the use of political influence for rent seeking. An examination of Ayala's ownership-management system points to strategies employed for the preservation of the family's position within the firm. The quality and process of such preservation, which family members called stewardship, is also consistent in family and firm's political behavior. The paper proposes that the adoption of superior stewardship strategies accompanied by skillful entrepreneurship would ensure the family's continued ownership-management of the zaibatsu.

Stewardship theory has emerged as a critical framework in corporate governance, emphasizing trust, accountability, and long-term value creation. However, empirical validation of stewardship-driven governance remains limited across industries, with most studies relying on conceptual analyses. This study therefore examines the evolving relevance of stewardship theory as a governance framework, addressing key gaps such as its static perception, lack of standardized methodologies, and the underexplored impact of digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) on governance structures. The study employs an exploratory research design, integrating insights from corporate governance, leadership studies, behavioral economics, and sustainability management. Findings indicate that stewardship theory must adapt to diverse cultural and economic contexts, integrating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks and stakeholder capitalism to enhance broader stakeholder accountability. Additionally, hybrid leadership models and remote work governance pose new challenges, necessitating digital stewardship frameworks to sustain trust and accountability in virtual environments. The study concludes that stewardship theory must evolve to address contemporary governance trends and ensure its applicability in fostering sustainable corporate leadership. Recommendations include integrating digital stewardship models to accommodate AI-driven decision-making, remote work structures and ESG governance indicators. These advancements will enhance the practical relevance of stewardship theory in modern corporate governance.

In this paper, the authors discuss the impact of corporate governance structure on human resource management and financial performance in the context of Colombian business environment. For this purpose, the paper will analyze the concept of corporative governance and discuss the streams of thought that study both the structure of corporate governance as the behavior of managers, the agency theory and stewardship theory. The methodological development aims to test four models by using regression analysis. The results allow to identify that the structure of corporate governance and distinctive capabilities of human resource are positively related to company performance, but this does not explain the attitude steward of the CEO and collaboration systems.

This study examines corporate governance structures and financial performance of quoted and unquoted firms in Ghana. The sample consists of 30 quoted and unquoted companies. It covers the period 2010-2018. The objective of the study is to determine the effect of board structure on Return on Asset (ROA) of quoted and unquoted companies in Ghana, to determine the effect of board structure on Net Profit Margin (NPM) of quoted and unquoted companies in Ghana and to determine the effect of board structure on Gross Profit Margin (GPM) of quoted and unquoted companies in Ghana. The quantitative study applied the panel regression for its analysis. The study finds the gender diversity variable (Blau index) to have negative but significant relationship with performance measured by ROA. Gender diversity also records negative and significant correlation by NPM at above 0.005 significant levels. The study again finds CEO duality variable as having a negative but significant relationship with the companies' performance as measured by ROA. The CEO duality variable and performance are positively related but insignificant after being measured by GPM. CEO duality variable shows a negative and significant connection among NPM. Board size shows a negative but statistically significant at 0.006 using ROA. Board size has negative but significant connection with performance of the selected quoted and unquoted companies in Ghana using GPM and NPM. A major policy recommendation is that there should be an effective governance structure and function of board of directors for all corporate entities as board functions are statistically significant to the performance of companies. This will result into goal congruence and effective fiduciary and stewardship responsibilities and proactive steps to meet objectives of companies.

Investors and governments have drawn attention to company governance due to the 2007 financial crash. This study aims to determine the impact of board characteristics, i.e. women on the board, busy directors, blockholder ownership, and director qualification on firm financial performance based on evidence from Pakistan. Former research on the impact of board features on company financial performance is built on contradictory theoretical viewpoints and factual results, which are primarily built on regression and are equivocal. Based on the con- figurational analysis, this study clarifies previously ambiguous findings concerning the link between keyboard attributes and business financial success. This research draws upon theories, including resource dependence and agency theory. The study utilized fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to examine a sample of 60 non-financial companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). Data referred to the pre-crisis period. Findings have shown th...

Drawing on institutional theory this article presents theoretical perspective of formal and informal institutional drivers of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It tries to enlarge the understanding of the drivers of CSR activities and how it varies among corporate operating in various contexts. Corporations engaged in corporate social responsibility because of formal and informal pressures. Formal institutional drivers are rule based such as political system, law enforcement and labor system. While, informal institutional drivers are societal-level norms and values including socioeconomic need, social organization, and national culture. Formal and informal institutional pressures are interacting to construct a vibrant pressure for the practice of CSR. Thus, understanding institutional context is a key to comprehensively realize the drivers of CSR as institutions determine the decisions and strategies of companies towards corporate social responsibility. Thus, corporate social responsibility is context specific and its conceptualization and practice varies among the globe depending on differences in institutional context.

Currently, there are three popular theories of corporate governance widely applied in the field of jurisprudence worldwide. They are Agency Theory, Stewardship Theory, and Stakeholder Theory. Based on these theories, the article focuses on clarifying legal issues about corporate governance, thereby suggesting solutions to the improvement of corporate governance legislation in Vietnam at present time.

This paper seeks to examine the effects of board size upon firm's financial performance. Board characteristics include outside directors, board size, gender diversity and board diligence. This paper concentrated upon the board size's effect upon firm performance. The two corporate governance theories: namely, stewardship theory; and resource dependence theory were utilised. This paper made use of analysing and sy nthesising literature from various sources in a bid to expose the views of various writers upon the effects of Board size on firms' financial performance. The qualitative methodology was applied through the thematic analysis approach. Both the deductive and inductiv e approaches were utilized to enjoy the benefits of the thematic approach. This enabled robust coding technique.

This study aims to explore whether capital structure (CS) has a contingent role in the relationship between corporate governance (CG) quality and firm performance. The empirical findings indicate that CG quality had a positive and significant effect on the performance of Jordanian non-financial firms listed on the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) from 2014 to 2019. Additionally, the moderate effect of the CS reinforces this relationship. These results are robust to alternative econometric specifications and variable definitions. This study utilizes certain firm-specific characteristics to represent the CS to assess its role as a moderating variable in the relationship between CG quality and firm performance. This study makes a contribution to the literature by showing that CS can strengthen the relationship between CG quality and firm performance. The results have important managerial implications for the practice of CG in developing countries. Firms in developing countries can enhance performance by implementing and abiding by good governance practices. Moreover, firms in developing countries should adopt effective financial strategies regarding CS to enhance the relationship between CG quality and firm performance. Finally, potential investors should consider the debt level in the CS of non-financial firms in Jordan when making investment decisions.

This paper aims to use theoretical literature to develop propositions and suggest a research agenda on the implications of internal audit (IA) on corporate governance (CG). The paper uses institutional theory and Marx’s theory of the circuit of industrial capital to develop theoretical and justifiable propositions and highlight influential research agenda. The key variables are identified and operationalization issues are discussed. To demonstrate the relationship between CG and IA, researchers used theories such as institutional theory, agency theory, stewardship theory, and resource dependence theory (Tripathi, 2019; Činčalová & Hedija, 2020). The existing literature does not offer norms for IA effectiveness. We claim that a positive relationship between IA compliance with standards and CG could be used to assess IA performance. It is high time that the IA should be given consideration as a service to the board, and the IA should be made independent of the top management. Studies ...

Companies self-regulating were mostly for improving their reputation and public image rather than achieving to sustainability goals and this let to shift to co-regulating approach. In co-regulation practices, however, NGOs initially played a vital role to reduce the companies’ misuse of self-regulating era, but given that many companies have tied with NGOs and under business-NGOs partnership concealed the corruptions. The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of Governments in Green Supply Chain Management in order to examine the coercive and supportive dimensions of governments’ effects on all stakeholders’ actors. In this regard, stakeholder theory, institutional theory and resource based view have been utilized to identify and explain the governments’ role in the chain. The findings of this research suggested that governments’ stewardship role can be more appropriate to the Green Supply Chain Management in order to coordinate and integrate the supply chain activities. This st...

The ability of family firms to identify and respond to changes in their external environments can be a key source of competitive advantage leading to success and survival. Some research, however, has suggested family firms are conservative and often lack the ability to adapt to their changing competitive environments. Using data from 248 family firms, we found a family firm's culture of commitment to the business is positively associated with its strategic flexibility—the ability to pursue new opportunities and respond to threats in the competitive environment. Further, we found stewardship–oriented organizational culture positively moderated the family commitment–strategic flexibility relationship.

Escalation of commitment to a chosen course of action is a phenomenon that shows for example when failing strategic Information Systems (IS) projects are continued for much too long. With this study we contribute to the explanation of why managers (Project Owners) respond with the Deaf Effect to Risk Warnings, even when these warnings are provided by a credible messenger,

This study examines the experiences of board members regarding their roles, the conduct of board meetings, and their influence on the appointment of new directors, the influence of "major" shareholders on board decisions, and the protection of the interest of the minority shareholders. The main objective of this study is to determine whether agency theory plays a dominant role in explaining the roles of the directors of Malaysian listed firms. Semi-structured interviews were carried out amongst selected directors. Our results suggest that agency theory alone is not sufficient to explain the complex issues involving board roles. Rather, a clearer picture emerges with the integration of agency theory and wider theoretical perspectives (i.e. stewardship and resource dependency). Although there is a constrain in accessing the board, this should not hamper future studies on examining other issues that could affect board roles such as effectiveness of the chairman, non-executive directors and board subcommittees. Studies of this nature are important as the board has an important influence on the decision making process.

This exploratory study examines the experiences of board members regarding their roles, board meeting, influence of board on appointment of new director, influence of "major" shareholders on board decision, and protection of interest of minority shareholders. Based on theories of board roles that underlie the study, semi-structured interviews were carried out amongst directors of Malaysian Public Listed Companies to collect relevant data on control and service roles. Results indicate that agency theory alone is insufficient to explain complex issues of board roles. Rather, better understanding can be achieved with the integration of agency theory and wider theoretical perspectives (i.e. stewardship and resource dependency). Although there is a constrain in accessing the board, this should not hamper future studies on examining other issues that could affect board roles such as effectiveness of chairman, nonexecutive directors and board subcommittees. Studies on this nature are important as the board has important influence on decision making process.

This study aims to explore the effect of family firms’ corporate governance characteristics on their acquisition propensity: as the extant literature is increasingly emphasizing the heterogeneity of family firms and is calling for further insights into the peculiarities affecting their decision-making processes, our objective lies in identifying corporate governance mechanisms that influence their acquisition attitude. Thus, building on the behavioural agency theory, we investigate the effect of family members’ ownership stake, their involvement in the board of directors (BoD), the family versus non-family chief executive officer (CEO), and the generational step on the propensity to execute acquisitions. We test our framework on a sample of 207 acquisitions executed by Italian listed family firms in the 2014–2020 period. In line with our prediction, we find evidence that family members sitting on the board of directors are negatively associated with acquisitions. However, when famil...

Corporate governance plays two broad important roles of (i) stewardship and accountability role, that is, it is a mechanism designed to monitor managers and enhance performance of the firm; and (ii) entrepreneurship, that is, providing the mechanisms that motivate managers to create and sustain corporate competitiveness, thereby optimizing shareholders’ wealth. China, a country that does not align with the Anglo-American or stakeholder models of corporate governance (CG), but which is a major economic force in the transition economy. It is steadily moving away from centralised planning of its innovation system by the state to an increasingly open system involving technology outsourcing and imports, and foreign investors’ involvement makes it an interesting context to examine the relationship between CG structures, corporate entrepreneurship (CE) and firm performance. Consequently, this thesis aims to investigate the effects of CG structures and CE on firm performance among Chinese l...

This paper analyzes how the family owned company produces a behavior steward of CEO and in turn this behavior with family ownership and partnership plans are generated to good financial performance. For this, it contrasts theories of agency and stewardship, using the method of seemingly unrelated regressions (SUR) to a sample developed in Mexico and in Colombia and with a survey of 88 companies we have that the results are there is a positive and significant relationship between ownership of the business and financial performance.

This study analyzes the impact of ownership structure on R&D investments in the United States and Japan. It begins with the premise that U.S. and Japanese firms have distinct patterns of ownership that may result in disparities in R&D investments. Agency theory and stewardship theory are used to hypothesize about the relationship between ownership and R&D investments. Empirical evidence shows that the level of ownership concentration, and its impact, differ across countries. We argue that these differences result from a mixture of motives and incentives. With communism laid to rest. .. it has become fashionable to talk of numerous capitalist "models"-the American model.., .in which firms feed on a huge and liquid stock market; the Japanese one, in which groups of firms and banks are bound together through complex webs of crossholdings.

E. Stanley Jones held that the Kingdom of God is the master key in which everything in our lives finds purpose, meaning, integration, and goal. God's Kingdom is wholistic, embracing every area of our lives, including material possessions, social relationships, and economics. The Kingdom of God is rooted in the sacrificial love of neighbour as family and in the Golden Rule: "To love your neighbor turns out to be the soundest economic realism." Our neighbour, said Jesus, is the one who is in need. The Kingdom law of love of neighbour shifts our economics from self-centered competition to Christ-centered cooperation: "industry is a dogeat-dog affair-selfishness ruling both capital and labor." Jones saw the Church as a potential Kingdom friend to both employees and employers, bringing about a cooperative one new man out of two conflicted parties. Kingdom economics functions best as people become brothers & sisters helping brothers & sisters, rather than as master & servant, or boss & employee. Christianity is the most materialist religion on earth. Jones taught we need to accept the material as God-made and God-given, and to use as much of it as will make us more physically, mentally, and spiritually fit for the purposes of the Kingdom of God. Matter is not the enemy. Christians are not gnostic spiritualists who avoid the material world and hide out in the spiritual world. Matter is God's creation that we need to steward for the benefit of all.

Responding to the perceived dysfunctions of New Public Management (NPM) and Agency theory, New Public Governance (NPG) and Stewardship theory offer conceptualizations of the behaviour of the for-profit service provider as well as a governance system that better meet community expectations as to the performance of privatized public infrastructure. Empirical research involving privatized water services was carried out to test if these conceptualizations adequately explain the reality of modern governance systems and organizational behaviour. NPG presented as a framework appropriate for understanding the reality of governance systems establishing a context for the foundational level stewardship behaviour of the for-profits.

Adopting a stewardship perspective and relying on a sample of 93 Spanish family firms, we emphasize the importance of psychological ownership as a primary determinant of entrepreneurial orientation in terms of proactiveness, innovativeness and risk taking. We also suggest that the relationship between psychological ownership and entrepreneurial orientation is mediated by knowledge sharing. Finally, we assess the potential moderating roles of heterogenous governance conditions in terms of the generation in control, generational involvement and family involvement in the top management team with regard to the relationship between psychological ownership and knowledge sharing. Research and managerial implications are shared in the concluding section.

Over the last three decades, systemic corporate misconduct, increased shareholder activism, and recurrent global financial crises have stirred an extensive academic, business, and societal debate over corporate governance (CG) and the way public corporations are directed and controlled (Haxhi, 2010). CG studies "the power and influence over decision making within the corporation" (Aguilera & Jackson, 2010), focusing notably on how to monitor managers, protect minority shareholders, enhance reporting and disclosure, and improve employee and other stakeholder participation in firms' strategic decisions (Aguilera, Marano & Haxhi, 2019). This brief overview seeks to grasp the state-of-the-art of comparative CG by focusing on its definition, regulation and practices, alternative models, and its internal and external characteristics, and current debates and future trends.

Project managers constitute a major part of the project-based organization. Many studies focused on the selection approach of competent project managers that had been based on attitude and performance competencies. The current study expands the approaches to include the impact of corporate governance on the project manager competency selection method as well as the impact on two of major project manager competencies’; decision-making and action versus outcome. The research takes positivist epistemology, a deductive approach taken to investigate the impact through a quantitative survey study, 70 responses have been analyzed yielding that approximately 6% of selection criteria correlate to governance orientation also the study highlights the effect of governance on project manager decision and action. Approximately 8% of project manager decisions and 11 % of project manager actions are impacted by governance control whereas only 9% of project manager decisions are impacted by governance orientation. The study recommends corporate governance board to adopt a stakeholder orientation and worker-based selection of competencies that are aligned with outcome control also, the study recommend that project managers need to understand corporate governance and work within the authority the entitled by the governor  (Sovereignty versus govern-mentality).

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how corporate governance moderates the relationship between macroeconomic uncertainty and corporate capital structure. Design/methodology/approach: This paper employs the two-step system generalized method of moments regression, considering a sample of 907 listed non-financial firms from seven Asia Pacific countries during the period 2004-2014. Findings: This study finds that macroeconomic uncertainty has a significant negative impact on the capital structure decisions of firms. The results also reveal that the overall effect of macroeconomic uncertainty on capital structure among firms with better governance quality is significantly negative. The evidence suggests that corporate governance acts as an effective mechanism to curb the usage of leverage during times of high volatility. Further analysis shows that board independence, the separation between the roles of CEO and chairman of the board and blockholders' ownership are effective governance mechanisms, whereas similar observations do not hold for board size and institutional ownership. Research limitations/implications: The findings of this study may be useful to policy makers to formulate appropriate policies to mitigate the adverse effects caused by macroeconomic uncertainty. This is important because macroeconomic uncertainty may have potential destabilizing effects on a country's or region's development by jeopardizing the firms' ability to formulate sound investment, production and financing decisions. Additionally, the results suggest that good governance quality can act as a check and balance to ensure that firms use less leverage when they are facing volatility in the macroeconomic environment. These findings could help to reinforce the importance of good governance among policy makers of a country as well as managers of firms. Originality/value: The authors make the first attempt to examine the moderating effect of corporate governance on the relationship between macroeconomic uncertainty and corporate capital structure.

This research investigates the relationship between CEO duality and the performance of Brazilian firms in 2008. While CEO duality has been the dominant board leadership structure of US corporations, Brazilian firms typically separate the roles of CEO and chairperson. During 2008, some Brazilian firms such as Sadia S/A (a multinational food processing company) adopted a dual leadership structure in an attempt to respond to the global systemic crisis. Using agency and stewardship theory perspectives, we tested our hypotheses with data of Brazilian listed companies. The empirical results indicate that companies where the CEO and chairperson are the same person have significantly higher performance (ROE). We also found a positive association between CEO duality and all other firm performance measures (ROA, ROC, MTBV), although the results were not statistically significant for these.

Prior literature has provided inconclusive evidence on the effects of family involvement in management (FIM) on family business (FB) performance. However, so far in the literature, there have been very few attempts to investigate FIM and family essence simultaneously as antecedents of FB performance. Therefore, we address this gap by studying how a stewardship-oriented culture (being a feature of FB essence) moderates the relationship between FIM and FB performance. We test our hypotheses with the Structural Equation Modeling technique using survey data in combination with archival data on a sample of 69 medium and large private Brazilian FBs. We find that a stewardship-oriented culture makes the relationship between a family CEO and FB performance weaker and observe that a stewardship has no moderating effect on the relationship between FIM and FB performance. These findings contradict prior literature on the beneficial role of stewardship in family-managed FB. Only in case of a nonfamily CEO, a stewardshiporiented culture positively moderates the relationship with FB performance. In addition, our study reveals a U-shaped nonlinear relationship between the level of FIM and FB performance, which is consistent with recent literature on the existence of faultlines derived from heterogeneous TMT and the impact on firm outcome.

The stakeholder theory made popular during the 1980s suggested that corporations should look beyond the shareholder theory of profit maximisation, and take into consideration other stakeholder groups that the corporation is associated with, and who contribute to the company's achievements. This paper examines why the shareholder theory of the traditional Anglo-American model of corporate governance failed to overcome the problems of unethical business practices of corporate boards and their managements. Overall, this paper argues that the application of deontological and teleological ethical theories could help boards of directors manage their companies' stakeholder issues to the benefit of the company and its stakeholders

performance des sociétés cotées. En utilisant l'estimateur dynamique LSDVC sur les données de panel de 26 sociétés cotées sur la période de 2000 à 2014, des résultats significatifs sont obtenus. Ces résultats indiquent un effet négatif et significatif de la séparation des fonctions de PCA et de DG sur la performance des sociétés non-financières cotées. Ces résultats confirment ainsi la théorie stewardship et vont à l'encontre des préconisations qui sont souvent faites dans la logique de la sécurité financière.

This paper studies the relationship between personal stock donation by top executives and board of directors (insiders) of publicly traded corporations and their personal tax, shareholders' returns, and social responsibility. The study finds evidence that the timing of stock donations is driven by personal tax gain. The study further shows, comparing stock gift corporations relative to their non-stock gift cohorts, that personal stock gifts are associated with lower short-term and long-term stock returns to shareholders. This implies that stock donation driven by insiders' personal gain adversely affects shareholder wealth. However, the likelihood and intensity of insiders to make personal stock donation is reduced when firms have strong corporate social responsibility (CSR). Agency theory explains insiders' opportunistic behavior, stakeholder theory is also supported by evidence that stock donation is negatively related to CSR, and stewardship theory offers a different view to explain the rationale behind insiders' stock donation and shareholders' reactions to stock gifts.

The authors study the effect on performance of family endowment on the business from the perspective of socioemotional wealth (SEW), i.e. the stock of affect-related value which the family attaches to the business. The researchers analyze the impact of ownership and board characteristics on profitability, taking into account the possible moderating factors of the family generational stage, firm size, qualified presence of non-family shareholders and firm risk. The authors analyze 2,884 medium-large Italian private firms comparing 1,944 family and 940 non-family firms using correlation and pooling GLS regressions during 2001-2010. It is shown that in the first generational stage family firms outperform non-family businesses. A family CEO, together with a board including numerous family members, positively affects performance in the first generational stage, but the effect is reversed in the later generational stages. The findings suggest developing by further research the relationshi...

Common to many research studies on the governance of family firms, they often rely on classical theories to explain and show their distinctive features. In particular, agency theory and stewardship theory. Although these two theories both address the same phenomena, namely behaviors at the individual level and governance mechanisms at the corporate level, many researchers treat these two theories as two distinct and opposing theoretical fields for the family business. As well, these two theoretical streams have been widely used to examine a myriad of issues within family firms. In this regard, the purpose of this research is to present a review of the theoretical and empirical literature of these two streams in order to understand the behavior of agents, governance, and unique aspects of family firms.

The purpose of this paper is firstly to determine whether the International Integrated Reporting (IR) Framework is sufficiently robust to act as the guide for the IR movement. The secondary purpose is to speculate on the constraints that IR will face on its journey towards achieving the aims and vision of the IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council). The paper is written in the form of a critical viewpoint, and will engage with the relevant academic literature and industry-led initiatives to achieve its objectives. The main finding of this paper is that the potential of the International Framework towards achieving its objectives lies more with the way it is applied than the way it was written. Academic literature does however highlight a number of potential constraints that will have to be overcome if integrated reporting is to achieve its long-term vision of financial stability and sustainability.

In this paper, we present the evolution of integrated reporting and organizations playing an active role in this process. As a result of the changes, corporate reports including only historical financial information have become insufficient. It has started to be important for the firms to be sensitive towards environment, social capital and governance. For these reasons, authorities started to search for new reporting types. Their aim was to form a report giving detailed (prospective and retrospective) information about the total performance of the firm. Sustainability reports, the starting point of integrated reporting, were established and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards were formed to increase the popularization. Integrated reports aim to supply full disclosure about the firms' strategies, goals and performances. They also respond to the demands and needs of key stakeholders. In order to actualize the financial stability and sustainability, they are necessary. Integrated reports also put related groups into play. So, decision makers become a participant instead of watching the system from outside. In addition, integrated thinking philosophy provides systematic disclosure of value creation, namely how organizations made resource allocations in the past and how they will create value in the future according to their business models.

Integrated Reporting (IR) is a fairly new form of corporate reporting that is believed to hold promises for both financial and sustainability reporting. IR goes beyond a mere change in information disclosures and has the potential to influence internal communication processes, strategic considerations and, as a result, decision-making. The simultaneous portrayal of sustainability concerns alongside financial considerations might lead to socially and ecologically advantageous company decisions. A thorough understanding of those factors that potentially mediate the relationship between integrated reporting on one side, and company performance on the other, allows for conclusions on whether integrated reporting substantially affects the way in which companies deal with sustainability issues. To address this question, this article provides a structured review of empirical studies on the implications of integrated reporting within as well as outside of the organization. We reviewed evidence from 32 studies suggesting that integrated reporting has some positive implications, such as an improvement in data quantity and quality as well as an improved collaboration on sustainability issues within the firm. In contrast, our review provided inconclusive results on whether IR advances sustainability performance. We discuss these findings and offer avenues for further research in the field.