Responsible Corporate Governance ― Towards Sustainable and Effective Governance Structures

This book discusses the tasks and functions of corporate governance in the light of current challenges and the dynamics that arise from a broader approach to company management and the integration of corporate governance with corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. Addressing the corporate governance shortcomings that are believed to have contributed to the recent financial crisis, it explores the interplay between corporate governance and CSR, and includes examples of company practice to show how such changes affect the practices of shareholders, boards of directors and regulators. In particular, the book examines shareholders’ activities, their different investment strategies, specific reporting expectations and the submission of proposals to the annual meeting. Further, for boards of directors it explores the need to revise their tasks with respect to the criteria for executive appointments, their corporate strategy, performance measures and diversity recommendations, while for directors it provides recommendations to reconsider the structure of executive pay and performance incentives. Lastly, for regulators the book investigates the need to introduce new laws addressing, for instance, the need for integrated reporting, limiting the voice of short term oriented shareholders and providing guidelines for executive compensation.

Samuel O. Idowu is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Corporate Social Responsibility at the London Guildhall Faculty of Business & Law, London Metropolitan University, UK. He researches in the fields of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Corporate Governance, Business Ethics and Accounting and has published in both professional and academic journals since 1989. He is a freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. Samuel is a Vice President of the Global Corporate Governance Institute. He has led several edited books in CSR and is the Editor-in-Chief of two Springer’s reference books – the Encyclopaedia of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Dictionary of Corporate Social Responsibility. He is also a Series Editor for Springer’s books on CSR, Sustainability, Ethics and Governance. One of his edited books was ranked 18th in the 2010 Top 40 Sustainability Books by,Cambridge University, Sustainability Leadership Programme. Samuel is a member of the Committee of the Corporate Governance Special Interest Group of the British Academy of Management (BAM). He is on the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Business Administration, Canada and Amfiteatru Economic Journal, Romania. Samuel has delivered a number of Keynote Speeches at national and international conferences and workshops on CSR and has on two occasions 2008 and 2014 won Emerald’s Highly Commended Literati Network Awards for Excellence. To date, Samuel has edited several books in the field of CSR, Sustainability and Governance and has written four forewords to books. Samuel has served as an external examiner to the following UK Universities – Sunderland, Ulster, Anglia Ruskin and Plymouth. He is currently an external examiner at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen and Teesside University, Middlesbrough and Sheffield Hallam University.