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Internal governance structures and voluntary public accountability disclosures by UK higher education institutions

Internal governance structures and voluntary public accountability disclosures by UK higher education institutions
Internal governance structures and voluntary public accountability disclosures by UK higher education institutions
The international higher educational institutions (HEIs) environment has experienced rapid changes and/or reforms over the past decades. Specifically, the HE sector has been characterised by increasing student numbers, declining government funding, but tighter external regulation, increasing competition, and greater accountability through increased ‘managerialism’, ‘commoditisation’, ‘commercialisation’ and ‘corporatisation’ of academics and HEIs. These changes have brought to the core the issue of sound financial management through good internal governance, increased public accountability and transparency, and stronger performance within HEIs. This paper, therefore, investigates why and how HEIs internal governance structures might influence their voluntary public accountability and transparency disclosures (PADs). Using a 2012 cross-sectional sample of 130 UK HEIs, we find that audit committee quality, governing board diversity, independent or lay governors, and the presence of a corporate governance committee impact positively in PADs. By contrast, we do not find any evidence that audit firm size, governing board size, and the frequency of governing board meetings have any significant effect on PADs. The central tenor of our findings remains unchanged across a number of econometric models that sufficiently account for different kinds of endogeneities, as well as alternative internal governance mechanisms and PADs measures. Our results are generally in line with the predictions of our multi-theoretical framework that incorporates insights from agency, institutional, legitimacy, public accountability/stewardship, resources dependence, and stakeholder theories.
Ntim, Collins G.
1f344edc-8005-4e96-8972-d56c4dade46b
Soobaroyen, Teerooven
6686e2f8-564f-4f7f-b079-9dc8a2f53a48
Broad, M.J.
81955ffa-a9d3-42cd-99c8-52e06cd67424
Ntim, Collins G.
1f344edc-8005-4e96-8972-d56c4dade46b
Soobaroyen, Teerooven
6686e2f8-564f-4f7f-b079-9dc8a2f53a48
Broad, M.J.
81955ffa-a9d3-42cd-99c8-52e06cd67424

Ntim, Collins G., Soobaroyen, Teerooven and Broad, M.J. (2014) Internal governance structures and voluntary public accountability disclosures by UK higher education institutions. 2014 EFMD Higher Education Conference, Stockholm, Sweden. 14 - 15 May 2014. 50 pp .

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

The international higher educational institutions (HEIs) environment has experienced rapid changes and/or reforms over the past decades. Specifically, the HE sector has been characterised by increasing student numbers, declining government funding, but tighter external regulation, increasing competition, and greater accountability through increased ‘managerialism’, ‘commoditisation’, ‘commercialisation’ and ‘corporatisation’ of academics and HEIs. These changes have brought to the core the issue of sound financial management through good internal governance, increased public accountability and transparency, and stronger performance within HEIs. This paper, therefore, investigates why and how HEIs internal governance structures might influence their voluntary public accountability and transparency disclosures (PADs). Using a 2012 cross-sectional sample of 130 UK HEIs, we find that audit committee quality, governing board diversity, independent or lay governors, and the presence of a corporate governance committee impact positively in PADs. By contrast, we do not find any evidence that audit firm size, governing board size, and the frequency of governing board meetings have any significant effect on PADs. The central tenor of our findings remains unchanged across a number of econometric models that sufficiently account for different kinds of endogeneities, as well as alternative internal governance mechanisms and PADs measures. Our results are generally in line with the predictions of our multi-theoretical framework that incorporates insights from agency, institutional, legitimacy, public accountability/stewardship, resources dependence, and stakeholder theories.

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More information

Published date: May 2014
Venue - Dates: 2014 EFMD Higher Education Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 2014-05-14 - 2014-05-15
Organisations: Centre of Excellence for International Banking, Finance & Accounting, Accounting

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 377531
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/377531
PURE UUID: 43754142-5fbb-4e9a-9475-e1372e5b2d25
ORCID for Collins G. Ntim: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1042-4056
ORCID for Teerooven Soobaroyen: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3340-1666

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 01 Jun 2015 11:40
Last modified: 12 Dec 2021 03:46

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Contributors

Author: Collins G. Ntim ORCID iD
Author: Teerooven Soobaroyen ORCID iD
Author: M.J. Broad

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