Corporate Governance Compliance Practices of Indian Companies

Abstract

Recent financial scandals associated to accounting and other frauds allegedly blamed to top company managers (e.g. Enron, Worldcom, Paramalt, Satyam) have brought into public light the recurring question of whether companies are managed on the best interests of shareholders and other company stakeholders such as workers, creditors and the general community. The paper studies compliance of Corporate Governance requirements by Indian Companies. A model is developed to calculate the Corporate Governance Score of companies and then it is related to company attributes like size, profitability, leverage, foreign ownership etc. No significant correlation exists between Corporate Governance and company Characterists however average compliance by Indian Companies has been satisfactory. Factor analysis of major sub-parameters of Corporate Governance Score, namely Composition of Board, Audit Committee, Number of Board Meetings and Remuneration Committee is done. Two factors namely Strength of Committee and Competency level of Board are identified as important factors.

Keywords: Corporate Governance Compliance, Disclosures & Transparency, Stakeholders, Factor Analysis