The impact of corporate governance and the cost of capital in shipping

Purpose - The main aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of corporate governance and the cost of capital in shipping industry. The present study grasps on a doctoral thesis aiming to analyze the above developments in the shipping industry in general and mostly in the Greek owed shipping companies and how these developments have been evaluated by the top executives based on a market research we have conducted. Design/methodology/approach - The main idea for the consolidation of the results of the regression methodology used is to analyze research hypotheses related to effects of Corporate Governance in the shipping industry, emerged in a previous article by Zampeta (2011) and Thalassinos and Zampeta (2012). The research hypotheses will be explored with econometric methodology to be confirmed or rejected depending on the statistical significance of the coefficients of the factors-variables selected and express their respective cases. The specific way of analyzing the answers from the questionnaires used sufficiently cover the concept of triangulation (triangulation) because they use primary research data (sample analysis questionnaires), with acceptable bibliography concerning the impact of globalization and the evolution international trade financing cost of shipping enterprises. There is a need to exploit the results of the factorial analysis used by Zampeta (2011), Thalassinos and Zampeta (2012) and Thalassinos and Zampeta (2015) to the methodology of regression to analyze research hypotheses related to the Factor of the Cost of Capital and the Factor of Corporate Governance and their impacts in the Shipping Industry. Findings - The results of the subject research confirm the views of the top executives that specific explanatory variables are forming the factors referring to corporate governance and the cost of capital in the shipping industry. In addition, they have influenced the decision of the shipping companies to adopt the Corporate Governance structure in order to exploit the benefits of international integration of capital markets. Based on this result, more and more maritime firms have adopted the principles of Corporate Governance as an effective tool to deal with globalization and the cost of capital in the subject industry. Research limitations/implications - Lack of statistical data with respect to financial indexes in addition to the small number of companies indexed in stock exchanges. The structure of the questionnaire has some limitations with respect to the total number of sub-questions describing the exact nature of the financial system followed by each company. Very limited bibliography on the issue. Originality/value - The approach followed in this study gives a particular interest in the results and create originality because it combines different methodologies aimed at similar research hypotheses as presented in the paper.