دانلود رایگان مقاله حاکمیت شرکتی و نخبگان

ABSTRACT

Using a qualitative methodology (interviews), we examine the relationship between the effectiveness of corporate governance mechanisms and elitist interventions. In doing this, we identify three elitist groups – political, cultural and religious, and investigate how they shape the legitimacy and effectiveness (or otherwise) of the institutional drivers of corporate governance in Nigeria. We caution the widely-held notion in the literature which suggests that institutions act as a check on the behaviour of elites and influence how elites compete and emerge. Alternatively, we argue that elites, in the presence of institutional voids, can invent, circumvent and corrupt institutions.

1. Introduction

In the last two decades, the institutional theory has contributed to a richer understanding of the behaviour and reactions of stakeholders to issues of corporate governance (Aguilera & Jackson, 2003; Judge, Douglas, & Kutan, 2008). It has stimulated research towards understanding the macro and micro institutional influences on corporate governance in varieties of capitalism (Adegbite & Nakajima, 2011; Filatotchev, Jackson, & Nakajima, 2013; Lien & Li, 2013). However, given the promising prospects of the institutionalism-based corporate governance discourse, its usefulness in explaining corporate governance, especially in weak institutional contexts, has suffered from an important limitation. This relates to the role of elites (see Domhoff, 1990; Vergara, 2013) in shaping corporate governance through their influences on institutional (e.g. regulatory) mechanisms.

‘Elite’ was used in the 17th century to describe items of particular excellence, but the usage has been extended to refer to superior social groups (Bottomore, 2006). Elites represent a small group of influential people that control a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege or power in society (Mills, 2000). Elites, in each sphere of activity, have succeeded or arrived at a higher echelon in the hierarchy (Aron, 1999). They include business (corporate) elites (Sikka, 2017), community elites, religious elites (Barro & McCleary, 2003), political elites (Aplin & Hegarty, 1980; Hadani, 2012) and professional elites (Aron, 1999). Essentially, elites have no restriction regarding their locale. They dictate the governance process in institutional settings, be it religious, military, academic, professions, community, or industry (Rizvi, 2015). In doing this, they use power and domination to influence the governance networks that promote institutional and organisational goals (Maclean, Harvey, & Chia, 2010).