Exploring the Dynamics of Corporate Governance Change: A Multi-Level Study of Processes and Mechanisms in Corporate Governance Reforms in Nigeria.
Creators: name: John, Judith
Publisher: name: University of Lincoln
Year: 2023
Subjects: N120 - International business studies

description: Amidst significant research on corporate governance, empirical studies of Corporate Governance (CG) reforms have been hindered by an exclusive focus on macro-level institutions, overlooking the vital role of actors in shaping CG reform initiatives. This research delves into the implementation of the National Code of Corporate Governance in Nigeria (NCCG) developed between 2013 and 2016, providing a specific context to explore the institutionalisation of a new corporate governance system. The study offers insights into the dynamic processes and relational dynamics of Corporate Governance change in complex contexts and the reasons behind the success or failure of CG reforms in different contexts.To comprehend the complexity of these processes, sociological institutionalism and Archerian critical realism are employed to analyse the implementation of the new corporate governance improvement programmes, examining both macro and micro-level processes of change. This approach uncovers the processes and mechanisms that led to the emergence of the NCCG through interactions across multiple layers of context. A critical realist case study methodology is then used to describe and explain the conditioning influences that framed the NCCG's implementation. The research employs triangulation of data from organisational documents and semi-structured interviews to gain insight into the institutional and social processes that shaped the NCCG's present state. The findings are analysed using Archer's Morphogenetic Approach (MA), explicitly considering time and temporal dynamics, as well as the broader context surrounding the NCCG projects.This study demonstrates the value of Archer's morphogenetic approach (MA) in uncovering unique change factors within the NCCG case and illuminates the complexities of implementing corporate governance reforms in developing countries. The analysis identifies intense global normative pressures, global events impacting the case site, state-transnational agency relations, political advocacy, socio-cultural dynamics, and the role of actors and networks with collective identity as key forces influencing the evolutionary process of the NCCG. Moreover, the explicit treatment of context as relational, conditioned, stratified, and stretched across time is crucial in understanding the mechanisms underpinning the NCCG's evolutionary process.The findings highlight how specific configurations of factors across multiple layers of context influenced the outcomes of the NCCG reform, including the role of champions in driving change. Local contexts significantly affect agents' subjectivity and subsequent actions. Actors employ multiple interpretive schemes that impact the NCCG's implementation, shaped by their placement within the broader context, roles, vested interests, concerns, and agendas. The study provides insights into how individuals or groups, faced with contextual conditions across various layers, draw upon different logics to support their goals, individually or collectively.The research contributes novel knowledge on corporate governance reform in national contexts, revealing that variations in CG practices across different institutional and organisational contexts cannot be fully understood through analytical perspectives emphasising managerial rationality based on agency theory and principal-agent relationships. The thesis establishes a new methodological and theoretical framework for future CG research, emphasising the utility of morphogenetic analytical framework and Archerian Critical Realism Social Theory for a more nuanced and critical perspective in corporate governance research. It enables a broader range of causes and influences on CG reform to be considered and evaluated beyond the scope of agency theory and rational choice models.