2,517 research outputs found
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C Day-Lewis: A Life
By Peter Stanford. London: Continuum. 2007. x + 368 pp. ÂŁ25. ISBN 978-0-8264-8603-5
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Book review: Andrew Zurcher, Spenser's Legal Language: Law and Poetry in Early Modern England
Book review of this monograph
Local taxation, spending and poverty : new choices and tax justice
In the environment of the 2014 Independence Referendum, a number of key questions have been raised about the future Scotland we want to see and live in. Core to such discussions have been the interventions on wealth creation and benefits, by the leaders of the Conservatives and Labour Parties in Scotland, respectively. However, and as rigorously debated in the Whose Economy? Seminar Series (Danson and Trebeck, 2011), such questions need to be considered in their wider contexts to identify and analyse fully all aspects of âwho pays?â and âwho benefits?â. Indeed, several of the papers to that seminar series echoed previous classical work on poverty and the welfare state by Townsend, Abel-Smith and others which confirmed there are some long-standing myths to be addressed. These commentaries have suggested that all is not what it seems in the review of statistics of income and benefits, and robust, objective and clinical assessment of the dat
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Governance of Banking Institutions in Africa: Perceptions of Leading Players Within the Kenyan Banking Industry
Following an agency theoretic approach, this study sets out to investigate how banking institutions in Kenya are governed, using primarily semi-structured interview data. The study is incentivised by inadequate research on corporate governance of financial institutions within emerging economies. Accordingly, the study adopts an exploratory research design seeking to understand how governance is perceived and practiced within banks, together with the impact of corporate governance on performance of the Kenyan banking industry. The findings suggest that corporate governance is perceived differently within various banking institutions. It also emerges that corporate governance is practised along four broad lines within banks in Kenya: (a) board governance; (b) influences from global stage; (c) auditing; (d) shareholders. The results also reveal that corporate governance as considered by participants, boosts the performance of the Kenyan banking industry along three performance yardsticks: (a) going concern value; (b) cost-income ratio; (c) return on earnings. The results evidence some differences between the local institutional characteristics and assumptions founding the Anglo-American corporate governance model adopted in Kenya; where banks with concentrated ownership exhibit mainly principal-principal conflicts rather than principal-agent problems. The study recommends two mandatory independent audits - half-year and end-year audits, in order to enhance the corporate governance mechanism of disclosure, and improve governance and financial performance
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Investigating Factors Which Influence the Practice of Corporate Governance within the Kenyan Corporate Sector
This thesis examines the compatibility of Kenyaâs (Anglo-American-originated) CG code with the countryâs institutional environment. Its inspiration arises from researcherâs observation that Kenyan firms continue to experience various CG challenges despite the adoption of an international code of CG practices. The study is further motivated by analysis of existing literature, which identifies three important gaps in literature addressed in this thesis, namely: (a) scanty understanding concerning the applicability of foreign CG codes within LDCs institutional environments, (b) limited literature on CG in the context of Africa, and (c) insufficient qualitative CG research notwithstanding mixed results from quantitative studies. A multi-method approach was utilised in gathering data including: twenty-one interviews with representative CG stakeholders, field observations of six listed firmsâ AGMs, and archival evidence (annual reports and corporate websites, records of AGM proceedings, official documents and policy publications). The study then employs thematic and content analysis to investigate factors which influence the practice of Kenyaâs CG code within the corporate sector. This thesisâs findings demonstrate that despite the merits of the Anglo-American governance model, the present code of CG practice in Kenya is incompatible with the countryâs institutional environment. Analysis of data establishes the source of this incompatibility as arising from various ambits including: highly concentrated ownership structure of firms, absence of shareholder activism, powerful traditional norms and culture, outdated corporate statutes and weak regulatory environment, and uncertainties within the countryâs economy. Contrary to expectations following adoption of Kenyaâs CG code, this thesis finds that Kenyan firms continue to experience severe CG challenges. These include erosion of shareholder wealth, bankruptcy risk, and conflicts between firms and local communities. This thesis makes as least two contributions to the theory and practice of corporate governance in developing countries, such Kenya. Firstly, it develops and tests a theoretical framework for examining the practice of CG in Kenya. The framework demonstrates that to understand the way CG codes are practiced in a developing country, requires awareness of factors which characterised the development of the code(s) along with the country-specific implementation process. Secondly, by providing empirical evidence of the incompatibility of the Anglo-American CG model in Kenya, the study reveals how the actions of CG practitioners are defined by a powerful institutional environment, including traditional customs and culture, notwithstanding the existence of explicit CG regulations developed internationally (e.g. in western countries). This was also found to be the principal cause for variance between the provisions of the CG code and actual practice. Finally, this thesis provides both immediate and long-term suggestions for policy. Immediate policy intervention may include a review of conflicting corporate sector regulations and adequate resourcing of relevant regulatory bodies. Long-term policy consideration should focus on reviewing the current CG code with due regard to the âecosystemâ of firms to avoid tensions occasioned by the institutional environment; including conflicts with non-shareholding constituencies
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