Research by the Corporate Governance Research Initiative

All companies face challenges designing a governance system that works best for their particular situation and structure. Even the owners of privately held companies sometimes struggle with issues of separation and control. The challenges can be…

Firms with central boards of directors earn superior risk-adjusted stock returns. A long (short) position in the most (least) central firms earns average annual returns of 4.68%. Firms with central boards also experience higher future return-on-…

Over the last few decades, researchers have taken a thorough and critical look at corporate governance from various perspectives. For the most part, they have found that structural features of corporate governance have little or no relation to…

Proxy advisory firms are independent, for-profit consulting companies that provide voting recommendations to individual and institutional investors. Research shows that these firms have significant influence on voting outcomes. Given this…

Union pension funds are active in the proxy process, sponsoring approximately one-third of shareholder proposals each year. How do union pension funds determine which positions to advocate and which companies to target? Are their proposals made…

Americans tend to admire powerful leaders. However, it is not clear the extent to which having a powerful CEO is beneficial to an organization. How much power is too much power?

Recently, shareholder groups have sued companies for inadequate disclosure in the annual proxy. They allege that companies provide insufficient disclosure to determine how to vote on “say on pay.” If a company follows SEC guidelines, why is this…

New research finds a serious gap between executives’ knowledge about social media and its use at their companies.

Less than a third of companies today use social media to support their corporate strategy and risk management practices,…

The responsibility of corporate monitors is to safeguard assets and reduce agency costs. Should monitors be paid bonuses? If so, what form should they take and what performance targets should be used?

This study investigates the relation between corporate governance and CEO pay levels and the extent to which the higher pay found in firms using compensation consultants is related to governance differences. Using proxy statement disclosures from…

The public believes that “say on pay” reduces executive compensation and leads to improved compensation practices. The research evidence, however, shows this is not the case. Is it time to rethink say on pay? The Closer Look series is a…

We estimate linguistic-based classification models of deceptive discussions during quarterly earnings conference calls. Using data on subsequent financial restatements and a set of criteria to identify severity of accounting problems, we label…

Given the pervasiveness of social media, should the board of directors pay closer attention to the information exchanged on these sites? Can this information be used to improve oversight and risk management?

Study conducted by The Conference Board, NASDAQ, and the …

The sudden death of a CEO can provide insight into the quality of succession planning at a company. Why don’t more companies have a truly operational plan in place?

The topic of executive compensation elicits strong emotions but somewhat less critical analysis. How much value creation should be attributable to the efforts of the CEO? What percent of this value should be fairly offered as compensation?

Most corporate governance research focuses on the behavior of chief executive officers, board members, institutional shareholders, and other similar parties. Little research focuses on the impact of executives whose primary responsibility is to…

Executive compensation figures are not what they seem. Executive pay packages contain a diverse mix of incentives whose ultimate value is often quite different from their expected value. Why don’t companies clearly differentiate between expected…

Hewlett-Packard has faced numerous leadership and strategic changes over the last twelve years. It has also been involved in more than its fair share of controversies. Are these signs of governance failure at the board level?

Recent experience suggests that many CEOs and directors of failed companies are able to obtain or retain directorships at other companies after their departure. Should this be a concern for shareholders?

In this fictitious tale, we apply the governance provisions of Dodd-Frank to the world of college football. If they would not work in that setting, should we expect them to work in business?

Survey from Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance and Heidrick & Struggles has uncovered surprises…

By many measures, current CEOs should be the best candidates to serve on the board of directors. However, recent survey evidence suggests this may not be the case. Should companies reassess the importance of this criteria when looking for new…

This paper investigates the market reaction to recent legislative and regulatory actions pertaining to corporate governance. The managerial power view of governance suggests that executive pay, the existing process of proxy access, and various…