Advanced
search

To read this content please select one of the options below:

Corporate Governance after Sarbanes‐Oxley: an Australian perspective

Fred Robins (BA and MA in economics and an MSc and PhD in marketing. After university he had public and private sector managerial experience. Now he teaches and researches at Adelaide Graduate School of Business, University of Adelaide, and is a Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute. He has lived and worked in a range of European and East Asian countries and regularly contributes to MBA programmes in Adelaide, Singapore and Hong Kong, and also to the European Summer School for Advanced Management. He researches business activity in both Northeast and Southeast Asia and writes on international business and international marketing topics. He has also written on contrasts between Asian and Australian trade and industry policies. He is a Board member of the Euro‐Asia Management Studies Association.)

Corporate Governance

ISSN: 1472-0701

Article publication date: 1 January 2006

9984

Abstract

Purpose

–

This paper aims to offer an Australian perspective on the recent crisis of confidence in corporate governance and its legislative and regulatory aftermath. It is informative because Australia's experience is directly comparable with that of the USA but its professional and regulatory traditions are much less prescriptive.

Design/methodology/approach

–

The author dissects the corporate scandal of recent years and analyses the several issues which have arisen. Problem elements, once identified, are evaluated separately, followed by an examination of the responses in each country. The main value of the paper lies in the separation and categorisation of these issues. For clarity, the author groups them as technical, political and cultural and uses these three labels to distinguish between problems which are the responsibility of the accounting profession, the responsibility of regulatory agencies, and those faced by managers individually. There is brief mention of some other groups, like suppliers of professional business services, who have also fallen under critical scrutiny. At the same time, other groups associated with contemporary financial scandal are omitted for lack of space.

Findings

–

The paper includes some observed contrasts between the consequences of scandal in the two jurisdictions and ends with a number of personal judgements.

Originality/value

–

It is hoped that the judgements made in this paper may offer food for thought and some guidance for those seeking to advance best practice in this important but delicate area.

Keywords

Citation

Robins, F. (2006), "Corporate Governance after Sarbanes‐Oxley: an Australian perspective", Corporate Governance, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 34-48. https://doi.org/10.1108/14720700610649445

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Related articles

Manage cookies

We’re listening — tell us what you think

Join us on our journey