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Voluntary corporate governance disclosure by post-apartheid South African corporations

Voluntary corporate governance disclosure by post-apartheid South African corporations
Voluntary corporate governance disclosure by post-apartheid South African corporations
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate as to whether post-Apartheid South African (SA) listed corporations voluntarily comply with and disclose recommended good corporate governance (CG) practices and, if so, the major factors that influence such voluntary CG disclosure behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper constructs a broad voluntary CG disclosure index containing 50 CG provisions from the 2002 King Report using a sample of 169 SA listed corporations from 2002 to 2006. The authors also conduct regression analysis to identify the main drivers of voluntary CG disclosure.

Findings – The results suggest that while compliance with, and disclosure of, good CG practices varies substantially among the sampled companies, CG standards have generally improved over the five-year period examined. The authors also find that block ownership is negatively associated with voluntary CG disclosure, while board size, audit firm size, cross-listing, the presence of a CG committee, government ownership and institutional ownership are positively related to voluntary CG disclosure.

Practical implications – These findings have important implications for policy-makers and regulators. Evidence of improving CG standards implies that efforts by various stakeholders at improving CG standards in SA companies have had some positive impact on CG practices of SA firms. However, the substantial variation in the levels of compliance implies that enforcement may need to be strengthened further.

Originality/value – There is a dearth of evidence on the level of compliance with the King Report. This study fills this gap by providing evidence for the first time on the level of compliance achieved, as well as contributing generally to the literature on compliance with codes of good governance and voluntary disclosure.
0967-5426
122-144
Ntim, Collins G.
1f344edc-8005-4e96-8972-d56c4dade46b
Opong, Kwaku K.
d0be5207-8d96-417d-9ef4-144d8056e0f3
Danbolt, Jo
2688d46f-2c9d-41c4-a581-1474bb755b21
Thomas, Dennis A.
094e07cf-9d77-4d26-96f1-89e88be840c7
Ntim, Collins G.
1f344edc-8005-4e96-8972-d56c4dade46b
Opong, Kwaku K.
d0be5207-8d96-417d-9ef4-144d8056e0f3
Danbolt, Jo
2688d46f-2c9d-41c4-a581-1474bb755b21
Thomas, Dennis A.
094e07cf-9d77-4d26-96f1-89e88be840c7

Ntim, Collins G., Opong, Kwaku K., Danbolt, Jo and Thomas, Dennis A. (2012) Voluntary corporate governance disclosure by post-apartheid South African corporations. International Journal of Management Accounting Research, 13 (2), 122-144. (doi:10.1108/09675421211254830).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate as to whether post-Apartheid South African (SA) listed corporations voluntarily comply with and disclose recommended good corporate governance (CG) practices and, if so, the major factors that influence such voluntary CG disclosure behaviour.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper constructs a broad voluntary CG disclosure index containing 50 CG provisions from the 2002 King Report using a sample of 169 SA listed corporations from 2002 to 2006. The authors also conduct regression analysis to identify the main drivers of voluntary CG disclosure.

Findings – The results suggest that while compliance with, and disclosure of, good CG practices varies substantially among the sampled companies, CG standards have generally improved over the five-year period examined. The authors also find that block ownership is negatively associated with voluntary CG disclosure, while board size, audit firm size, cross-listing, the presence of a CG committee, government ownership and institutional ownership are positively related to voluntary CG disclosure.

Practical implications – These findings have important implications for policy-makers and regulators. Evidence of improving CG standards implies that efforts by various stakeholders at improving CG standards in SA companies have had some positive impact on CG practices of SA firms. However, the substantial variation in the levels of compliance implies that enforcement may need to be strengthened further.

Originality/value – There is a dearth of evidence on the level of compliance with the King Report. This study fills this gap by providing evidence for the first time on the level of compliance achieved, as well as contributing generally to the literature on compliance with codes of good governance and voluntary disclosure.

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More information

Published date: 1 September 2012
Organisations: Centre of Excellence for International Banking, Finance & Accounting, Accounting

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 343006
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/343006
ISSN: 0967-5426
PURE UUID: 0015760e-d867-4763-bb97-c1d0af479898
ORCID for Collins G. Ntim: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1042-4056

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 19 Sep 2012 15:50
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:27

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Contributors

Author: Collins G. Ntim ORCID iD
Author: Kwaku K. Opong
Author: Jo Danbolt
Author: Dennis A. Thomas

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