IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v45y2020i4p549-578.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate governance and turnaround: Evidence from Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Seema Miglani
  • Kamran Ahmed

    (Department of Accounting and Data Analytics, La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia)

  • Darren Henry

    (Department of Economics and Finance, La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia)

Abstract

We examine the relationship between ownership and outside director attributes and corporate turnaround outcomes using matched samples of 99 turnaround and 99 non-turnaround listed Australian firms during the 2004–2015 period. Based on agency theory principles, we propose that key shareholder groups (block ownership, director ownership, institutional ownership) and outside directors are related to firm-level turnaround outcomes, and particularly changes in these attributes across decline to turnaround periods. Our results provide evidence that turnaround and non-turnaround firms differ in terms of their ownership and board composition structures, and that changes in director ownership and the degree of board independence are important in determining the likelihood of turnaround success. JEL Classification: G33, G34, M40

Suggested Citation

  • Seema Miglani & Kamran Ahmed & Darren Henry, 2020. "Corporate governance and turnaround: Evidence from Australia," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 45(4), pages 549-578, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:45:y:2020:i:4:p:549-578
    DOI: 10.1177/0312896220902225
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0312896220902225
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0312896220902225?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen P. Ferris & Murali Jagannathan & A. C. Pritchard, 2003. "Too Busy to Mind the Business? Monitoring by Directors with Multiple Board Appointments," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1087-1111, June.
    2. Clifford G. Holderness, 2003. "A survey of blockholders and corporate control," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 9(Apr), pages 51-64.
    3. Denis, David J. & Denis, Diane K. & Sarin, Atulya, 1997. "Ownership structure and top executive turnover," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 193-221, August.
    4. Agrawal, Anup & Mandelker, Gershon N., 1990. "Large Shareholders and the Monitoring of Managers: The Case of Antitakeover Charter Amendments," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(2), pages 143-161, June.
    5. Barker, Vincent III & Barr, Pamela S., 2002. "Linking top manager attributions to strategic reorientation in declining firms attempting turnarounds," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(12), pages 963-979, December.
    6. Gales, Lawrence M. & Kesner, Idalene F., 1994. "An analysis of board of director size and composition in bankrupt organizations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 271-282, July.
    7. P. S. Sudarsanam, 1995. "The role of defensive strategies and ownership structure of target firms: Evidence from UK hostile takeover bids," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 1(3), pages 223-240, November.
    8. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1986. "Large Shareholders and Corporate Control," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(3), pages 461-488, June.
    9. Mueller, George C. & Barker III, Vincent L., 1997. "Upper Echelons and Board Characteristics of Turnaround and Nonturnaround Declining Firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 119-134, June.
    10. Izan, H. Y., 1984. "Corporate distress in Australia," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 303-320, June.
    11. John A. Pearce & Shaker A. Zahra, 1992. "Board Composition From A Strategic Contingency Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 411-438, July.
    12. Stephen P. Ferris & Murali Jagannathan & A. C. Pritchard, 2003. "Too Busy to Mind the Business? Monitoring by Directors with Multiple Board Appointments," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1087-1112, June.
    13. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    14. Igor Filatotchev & Steve Toms, 2003. "Corporate Governance, Strategy and Survival in a Declining Industry: A Study of UK Cotton Textile Companies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 895-920, June.
    15. Garry D. Bruton & David Ahlstrom & Johnny C. C. Wan, 2003. "Turnaround in East Asian firms: evidence from ethnic Overseas Chinese communities," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 519-540, June.
    16. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation," Scholarly Articles 29407535, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    17. Becht, Marco & Bolton, Patrick & Roell, Ailsa, 2003. "Corporate governance and control," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 1-109, Elsevier.
    18. Kim, Jeong-Bon & Li, Leye & Lu, Louise Yi & Yu, Yangxin, 2016. "Financial statement comparability and expected crash risk," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 294-312.
    19. Miglani, Seema & Ahmed, Kamran & Henry, Darren, 2015. "Voluntary corporate governance structure and financial distress: Evidence from Australia," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 18-30.
    20. Jim Lai & Sudi Sudarsanam, 1997. "Corporate Restructuring in Response to Performance Decline: Impact of Ownership, Governance and Lenders," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 1(2), pages 197-233.
    21. Matthew A. Rutherford & Ann K. Buchholtz, 2007. "Investigating the Relationship Between Board Characteristics and Board Information," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(4), pages 576-584, July.
    22. Denis, Diane K. & McConnell, John J., 2003. "International Corporate Governance," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 1-36, March.
    23. Zmijewski, Me, 1984. "Methodological Issues Related To The Estimation Of Financial Distress Prediction Models," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22, pages 59-82.
    24. Demsetz, Harold & Lehn, Kenneth, 1985. "The Structure of Corporate Ownership: Causes and Consequences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(6), pages 1155-1177, December.
    25. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2003. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    26. Rajeswararao S. Chaganti & Vijay Mahajan & Subhash Sharma, 1985. "Corporate Board Size, Composition And Corporate Failures In Retailing Industry[1]," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 400-417, July.
    27. Weisbach, Michael S., 1988. "Outside directors and CEO turnover," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 431-460, January.
    28. Vincent L. Barker Iii & Irene M. Duhaime, 1997. "Strategic Change In The Turnaround Process: Theory And Empirical Evidence," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 13-38, January.
    29. Chou, Hsin-I & Li, Hui & Yin, Xiangkang, 2010. "The effects of financial distress and capital structure on the work effort of outside directors," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 300-312, June.
    30. Ugur Lel & Darius P. Miller, 2008. "International Cross‐Listing, Firm Performance, and Top Management Turnover: A Test of the Bonding Hypothesis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1897-1937, August.
    31. Jensen, Michael C & Murphy, Kevin J, 1990. "Performance Pay and Top-Management Incentives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(2), pages 225-264, April.
    32. Charles W. L. Hill & Scott A. Snell, 1988. "External control, corporate strategy, and firm performance in research‐intensive industries," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(6), pages 577-590, November.
    33. Fama, Eugene F & Jensen, Michael C, 1983. "Separation of Ownership and Control," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(2), pages 301-325, June.
    34. Juliana Yim & Heather Mitchell, 2007. "Predicting Financial Distress In The Australian Financial Service Industry," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 375-388, December.
    35. Ira C. Harris & Katsuhiko Shimizu, 2004. "Too Busy To Serve? An Examination of the Influence of Overboarded Directors," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 775-798, July.
    36. Andrew Wild, 2010. "Learning the wrong lessons from history: Underestimating strategic change in business turnarounds," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(4), pages 617-650.
    37. Yawson, Alfred, 2009. "Interaction effects of restructuring decisions on operating profit following performance shocks," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 216-237.
    38. Yasemin Kor & Joseph Mahoney & Sharon Watson, 2008. "The effects of demand, competitive, and technological uncertainty on board monitoring and institutional ownership of IPO firms," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 12(3), pages 239-259, August.
    39. Morck, Randall & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W., 1988. "Management ownership and market valuation : An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1-2), pages 293-315, January.
    40. Ma, Xufei & Yiu, Daphne W. & Zhou, Nan, 2014. "Facing global economic crisis: Foreign sales, ownership groups, and corporate value," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 87-100.
    41. John, Kose & Lang, Larry H P & Netter, Jeffry, 1992. "The Voluntary Restructuring of Large Firms in Response to Performance Decline," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(3), pages 891-917, July.
    42. Vincent L. Barker & Mark A. Mone, 1994. "Retrenchment: Cause of turnaround or consequence of decline?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 395-405, June.
    43. Chowdhury, Shamsud D. & Lang, James R., 1996. "Turnaround in small firms: An assessment of efficiency strategies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 169-178, June.
    44. Claessens, Stijn & Djankov, Simeon, 1999. "Enterprise performance and management turnover in the Czech Republic," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4-6), pages 1115-1124, April.
    45. G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), 2003. "Handbook of the Economics of Finance," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 2.
    46. Michael Carney & Eric Gedajlovic, 2002. "The Coupling of Ownership and Control and the Allocation of Financial Resources: Evidence from Hong Kong," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 123-146, January.
    47. Smith, Michael P, 1996. "Shareholder Activism by Institutional Investors: Evidence for CalPERS," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(1), pages 227-252, March.
    48. Henry, Darren, 2010. "Agency costs, ownership structure and corporate governance compliance: A private contracting perspective," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 24-46, January.
    49. David, Parthiban & Kochhar, Rahul, 1996. "Barriers to effective corporate governance by institutional investors: Implications for theory and practice," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 457-466, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pamela Kent & Richard Kent & Robyn McCormack & Julie‐Anne Tarr, 2023. "Disclosure of liquidity and cash flow statements by Australian superannuation funds before Covid‐19," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(2), pages 2653-2675, June.
    2. Alberto Tron & Maurizio Dallocchio & Salvatore Ferri & Federico Colantoni, 2023. "Corporate governance and financial distress: lessons learned from an unconventional approach," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(2), pages 425-456, June.
    3. Tariq H. Ismail & Mohamed El-Deeb & Yasser Tawfik Halim, 2022. "Do related party transactions affect the relationship between political connections and firm value? Evidence from Egypt," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Szu-Hsien Lin & Tzu-Pu Chang & Huei-Hwa Lai & Zi-Ying Lu, 2022. "Do Social Networks of Listed Companies Help Companies Recover from Financial Crises?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-23, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lars Schweizer & Andreas Nienhaus, 2017. "Corporate distress and turnaround: integrating the literature and directing future research," Business Research, Springer;German Academic Association for Business Research, vol. 10(1), pages 3-47, June.
    2. Sheeba Kapil & Rakesh K Mishra, 2019. "Corporate Governance structure and firm performance in Indian context: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach," Working Papers 1937, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
    3. Maureen Muller-Kahle, 2015. "The impact of dominant ownership: the case of Anglo-American firms," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 19(1), pages 71-89, February.
    4. Yuan George Shan, 2019. "Managerial ownership, board independence and firm performance," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(2), pages 203-220, July.
    5. Hussein Abedi Shamsabadi & Byung-Seong Min & Richard Chung, 2016. "Corporate governance and dividend strategy: lessons from Australia," International Journal of Managerial Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(5), pages 583-610, October.
    6. Adel BOUBAKER & Mediha MEZHOUD, 2012. "Impact Of Internal Governance Mechanisms On The Ipo Long Term Performance," Review of Economic and Business Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, issue 10, pages 129-146, December.
    7. Franco Ernesto Rubino & Paolo Tenuta & Domenico Rocco Cambrea, 2017. "Board characteristics effects on performance in family and non-family business: a multi-theoretical approach," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 21(3), pages 623-658, September.
    8. Naeem Tabassum & Satwinder Singh, 2020. "Corporate Governance and Organisational Performance," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-030-48527-6, November.
    9. Pursey Heugens & Marc Essen & J. Oosterhout, 2009. "Meta-analyzing ownership concentration and firm performance in Asia: Towards a more fine-grained understanding," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 481-512, September.
    10. Benson, Bradley W. & Chen, Yu & James, Hui L. & Park, Jung Chul, 2020. "So far away from me: Firm location and the managerial ownership effect on firm value," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    11. Trojanowski, G., 2004. "Ownership structure as a mechanism of corporate governance," Other publications TiSEM 5dbc874d-d1d0-44a5-9717-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    12. Julan Du & Charles Ka Yui Leung & Derek Chu, 2014. "Return Enhancing, Cash-rich or simply Empire-Building? An Empirical Investigation of Corporate Real Estate Holdings," International Real Estate Review, Global Social Science Institute, vol. 17(3), pages 301-357.
    13. Loureiro, Gilberto & Makhija, Anil K. & Zhang, Dan, 2011. "Why Do Some CEOs Work for a One-Dollary Salary?," Working Paper Series 2011-7, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.
    14. Sun, Jerry & Cahan, Steven F. & Emanuel, David, 2009. "Compensation committee governance quality, chief executive officer stock option grants, and future firm performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1507-1519, August.
    15. Zeineb Barka & Taher Hamza, 2020. "The effect of large controlling shareholders on equity prices in France: monitoring or entrenchment?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(3), pages 769-798, September.
    16. Wiem Elmanaa Madani & Wafa Khlif, 2005. "Effets De La Structure De Propriete Sur La Performance Comptable : Etude Empirique Sur Les Entreprises Tunisiennes Indistruelles Non Cotees," Post-Print halshs-00581192, HAL.
    17. Börsch-Supan, Axel & Köke, Jens, 2000. "An applied econometricians' view of empirical corporate governance studies," ZEW Discussion Papers 00-17, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    18. Kun Wang & Greg Shailer, 2015. "Ownership Concentration And Firm Performance In Emerging Markets: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 199-229, April.
    19. Gupta, C.P. & Bedi, Prateek, 2020. "Corporate cash holdings and promoter ownership," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    20. Henrique Castro Martins & Cristiano Machado Costa, 2020. "Does control concentration affect board busyness? International evidence," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(3), pages 821-850, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Board composition; corporate governance; non-turnaround; outside director interlocks; ownership; turnaround;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:45:y:2020:i:4:p:549-578. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.