The increasing globalisation of markets has generated new debates about the decision‐making role of MNC subsidiaries. Globalisation may be expected to result in greater centralisation of the decision‐making process. This study analyses the extent to which subsidiaries are being given control...

A number of Committees have been set up in recent years to investigate the governance of UK quoted companies. The key one was the Cadbury Committee, which recommended a number of governance structures as examples of best practice. These included the separation of the posts of CEO and chairman, a...

Purpose: This paper has two purposes. First, it evaluates the extent to which different failure processes are present in failed UK SMEs, by considering non-financial metrics including director characteristics, in addition to the financial ones. Second, it analyses the determinants of the...

Management buy‐outs bring about a change in status of the management team from employee to owner. According to the “agency model”, this change in status provides the financial incentives necessary to ensure that company performance will improve post‐MBO. The key financial incentive...

The vast majority of the acquisitions of UK‐quoted companies are friendly. This paper compares the accounting, financial and governance characteristics of firms that were acquired by friendly take‐over with those of firms that were not taken over. Evidence is found that targets exhibited...

The development of the large modern corporation, and the separation of ownership from control, has raised questions about the objectives these companies set themselves. Discusses the markets and hierarchies model of organizational structures. Analyses the claim that specific organizational...

In large firms the managers who run the business tend not to be large shareholders. In addition, managers are said to have objectives which differ from those of the owners. Aligning these conflicting interests is the basis of the agency problem. Various corporate governance schemes have been...