Globalization and Corporate Governance: Alseddig Ahmed Almadani
Globalization and Corporate Governance: Alseddig Ahmed Almadani
Globalization and Corporate Governance: Alseddig Ahmed Almadani
5, October 2014
II. COMPETITION
Abstract—Globalization is a leading concept which has Globalisation leads to increased competition and therefore
become the main factor in business life during the last few
decades. This phenomenon affects the economy, business life,
increased competition is a consequence of globalisation. This
society and environment in different ways, and almost all competition can be related to product and service cost and
corporations have been affected by these changes. We can see price, target market, technological adaptation, quick response
these changes mostly related with increasing competition and and quick production by companies, in addition to such
the rapid changing of technology and information transfer. This things as quality and customer satisfaction.
issue makes corporations more profit oriented than a long term When a company produces with less cost and sells cheaper,
and sustainable company. However, corporations are a vital
part of society which needs to be organised properly. Therefore
it will be able to increase its market share. Customers have
we need some social norms, rules and principles in society and too many choices in the market and they want to acquire
business life; this is the role of governance. goods and services quickly and in a more efficient way. Also
they are expecting high quality and a cheap price which they
Index Terms—About competition, corporative governance, are willing to pay 2.
business, globalization. All these expectations need a response from the company,
otherwise the sales of the company will decrease and they
will lose profit and market share. A company must be always
I. INTRODUCTION ready for price competitions for product and service and for
Globalisation can be defined as the free movement of changes in customer preferences because all of these are
goods, services and capital. Definition does not cover all the global market requirements.
aspects of globalisation or global changing.
Globalisation also should be a process which integrates
world economies, culture, technology and governance. III. EXCHANGE OF TECHNOLOGY
This is because globalisation also involves the transfer of One of the most striking manifestations of globalization is
information between developed countries and developing the use of new technologies by entrepreneurial and
countries. internationally oriented firms to exploit new business
Moreover globalisation has religious, environmental and opportunities. Internet and e-commerce procedures hold
social dimensions. In order to encompass this broad impact particular potential for SME’s seeking to broaden their
area globalisation covers all dimensions of the world involvement into new international markets.
economy, environment and society. Moreover, it is apparent Technology is also one of the main tools of competition
all over the world and the world is changing dramatically. and for enhancing the quality of goods and services. On the
Every government has a responsibility to protect all of other hand it necessitates quite a lot of cost for the company.
their economy and domestic market from this rapid changing The company has to use the latest technology for
1. The question is how a company will adapt to this increasing their sales and product quality. Globalisation has
changing. First of all, companies have to know different increased the speed of technology transfer and technological
effects of globalisation. Globalisation has some opportunities improvement. Customer expectations are directing markets.
and threats. A company might have learnt how to protect Mostly companies in capital intensive markets are at risk
itself from some negative effects and how to get and that is why they need rapid adapting concerning
opportunities from this situation. customer and market expectations. These companies have to
Globalization affects the economy, business life, society have efficient technology management and efficient R&D
and environment in different ways: management.
• Increasing competition,
• Technological development, A. Knowledge/Information Transfer
• Knowledge/Information transfer, Information is a most expensive and valuable production
• Portfolio investment, factor in the current environment. Information can be easily
• Regulation/deregulation, International standards, transferred and exchanged from one country to another.
• Market integration, If a company has a chance to use knowledge and
• Intellectual capital mobility, information then it means that it can adapt to this global
• Financial crisis-contagion effect-global crisis. changing. This issue is similar with the technology transfer
issue in global markets. The rapid changing of the market
Manuscript received March 10, 2014; revised Spetember 27, 2014. requires also quick transfer of knowledge and efficient using
Alseddig Ahmed Almadani is with the Department of Accountancy,
of that knowledge and information 3.
School of Business Studies, Megatrend University, Belgrade, Serbia (e-mail:
almadani_2022@yahoo.com).
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cooperative problem-solving arrangements. protection, human rights and social principles. Participation
These may be formal, taking the shape of laws or formally is entirely voluntary, and there is no enforcement of the
constituted institutions to manage collective affairs by a principles by an outside regulatory body.
variety of actors – including states, intergovernmental Companies adhere to these practices both because they
organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), make economic sense, and because their stakeholders,
other civil society actors, private sector organisations, including their shareholders (most individuals and
pressure groups and individuals. The system also includes of institutional investors) are concerned with these issues and
course informal (as in the case of practices or guidelines) or this provides a mechanism whereby they can monitor the
temporary units (as in the case of coalitions). compliance of companies easily. Mechanisms such as the
Thus global governance can be considered to be the Global Compact can improve the ability of individuals and
complex of formal and informal institutions, mechanisms, local communities to hold companies accountable.
relationships, and processes between and among states, As stated previously, good governance is of course
markets, citizens and organizations, both inter- and essential for good corporate performance and one view of
non-governmental, through which collective interests on the good corporate performance is that of stewardship.
global plane are articulated, rights and obligations are Good governance is of course important in every sphere of
established, and differences are mediated 7, 8. the society whether it be the corporate environment or
Global governance is not of course the same thing as world general society or the political environment 9.
government: indeed it can be argued that such a system
would not actually be necessary if there was such a thing as a
world government 8. V. HOW GLOBALISATION AFFECTS GOVERNANCE
Currently however the various state governments have a The question might be how globalisation affects
legitimate monopoly on the use of force – on the power of governance. But the answer to this question is not only
enforcement. Global governance therefore refers to the related to the last quarter of the 20th century but also related
political interaction that is required to solve problems that to previous centuries. John Maynard Keynes calculated that
affect more than one state or region when there is no power of the standard of living had increased 100 percent over four
enforcing compliance. thousand years. Adam Smith had a seminal idea about the
Improved global problem - solving need not of course wealth of communities and in 1776. He described conditions
require the establishing of more powerful formal global which would lead to increasing income and prosperity.
institutions, but it would involve the creation of a consensus Similarly, there is much evidence from economic history to
on norms and practices to be applied. demonstrate the benefit of moral behaviour; for example,
Robert Owen in New Lanark, and Jedediah Strutt in
Derbyshire – both in the UK – showed the economic benefits
of caring for stakeholders.
More recently, Friedman has paid attention to the moral
impact of the economic growth and development of society.
It is clear that there is nothing new about economic growth,
development and globalisation. Economic growth generally
brings out some consequences for the community.
This is becoming a world phenomenon.
One of the most important reasons is that we are not taking
into account the moral, ethical and social aspects of this
process. Some theorists indicated the effect of this rapid
changing more than a hundred years ago. Economic growth
and economic development might not be without social and
moral consequences and implications.
Fig. 1. Model of corporate governance. Another question is who is responsible for this ongoing
process and for ensuring the wellbeing of people and
Steps are of course underway to establish these norms and safeguarding their prosperity.
one example that is currently being established is the creation Is this the responsibility of governments, the business
and improvement of global accountability mechanisms. world, consumers, shareholders, or of all people?
In this respect, for example, the United Nations Global Government is part of the system and the regulator of
Compact1 – described as the world’s largest voluntary markets and lawmakers. Managers, businessmen and the
corporate responsibility initiative2 – brings together business world take actions concerning the market structure,
companies, national and international agencies, trades unions consumer behaviour or commercial conditions.
and other labour organisations and various organs of civil Moreover, they are responsible to the shareholders for
society in order to support universal environmental making more profit to keep their interest long term in the
company. Therefore they are taking risk for their
1
benefit/profit. This risk is not opposed to the social or
See www.unglobalcompact.org
2
Possibly the newly introduced ISO 26000 will become bigger and more moral/ethical principles which they have to apply in the
important in this respect. company. There are many reasons for ethical and socially
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responsible behaviour of the company 9, 10. However, have increased attention to the role of business ethics.
there are many cases of misbehaviour and some illegal Managers and CEOs of these companies must be considered
operations of some companies. responsible for all of these failures and these are cases of
Increasing competition makes business more difficult than ―corporate irresponsibility‖. Many people have the opinion
before in the globalised world. The good news and our that if corporations were to behave responsibly, most
expectations are that competition will not have any longer probably corporate scandals would stop.
bad influence on company behaviour. Corporate governance protects firms against some long
According to international norms, (practice) and term loss. When corporations have social responsibilities,
expectations, companies have to take into account social, they calculate their risk and the cost of failure.
ethical and environmental issues more than during the last Firstly, a company has to have responsibility to
two decades. One of the reasons is more competition and not shareholders and also all stakeholders which means that it has
always more profit; another reason is consumer expectation responsibility to all society. Corporate failures have an
is not only related to the cost of products but also related to important impact on all society also. In particular, big
quality, proper production process and environmental scandals such as Enron have sharply affected the market and
sensitivity. the economy. Various stakeholders as well as shareholders
Moreover shareholders are more interested in long term and regulators of the firm have a responsibility to ensure
benefit and profit from the company. The key word of this good performance.
concept is long term which represents also a sustainable Therefore, corporate governance is not only related to
firms but also related to all society. So changing the role of
company. Shareholders want to get long term benefit with a
corporate responsibility shifts the focus from the real
sustainable company instead of only short term profit.
problem that society needs to address. One of the reasons for
This is not only related to the company profit but also
this result is increasing competition between the company
related to the social and environmental performance of the
and the market. Managers tend to become much more
company. Thus, managers have to make strategic plans for
ambitious than before in their behaviour and status in the
the company concerning all stakeholder expectations which
globalised world.
are sustainable and provide long term benefit for the
The question is how to behave as a socially responsible
companies with their investments 10. manager and how to solve this vital problem in business life
However, Sustainability can be seen as including the and in society. In the business world there are always some
requirement that whatever justice is about – fair distribution rules, principles and norms as well as regulations and some
of goods, fair procedures, respect for rights and social justice, legal requirements.
and is capable of being sustained into the future indefinitely. However, to be socially responsible one must be more than
Globalisation has had a very sharp effect on company simply being a law abiding person who has to be capable of
behaviour and still we can see many problems particularly in acting and being held accountable for decisions and actions.
developing countries. This is one of the realities of the The problem is the implication for all of these directions for
globalisation process. However, we are hoping to see some company and managerial behaviour.
different approaches and improvements to this process with On the other hand, one perspective is that a corporation is a
some of them naturally related to some international ―legal person‖ and has the rights and duties that go with that
principles, rules and norms. But, most of them are related to status—including social responsibility.
the end of this flawed system and the problems of In the case of Enron, managers were aware of all
capitalisation. regulations, even though they have known all irresponsible
The challenge of governance in a globalizing world is to and unethical problems in the company management; they
engage in a process of political deliberation which aims at did not change their approach and behaviour.
setting and resetting the standards of global business The conclusion is that it is not always possible to control
behaviour. behaviour and corporate activity with regulations, rules and
While stakeholder management deals with the idea of norms. So another question arises in this situation, that if
internalising the demands, values and interests of those actors people do not know their responsibility and socially
that affect or are affected by corporate decision-making, responsible things to do and if they do not behave socially
Scherer & Palazzo, 2000, argue that political CSR3 can be responsibly then, who will control this problem in business
understood as a movement of the corporation into life and in the market.
environmental and social challenges such as human rights, The concern is that the social responsibility implication of
global warming, or deforestation. the company cannot be controlled through legal means.
This is the only social contract between mangers and
A. Globalisation, Corporate Failures and Corporate
Governance society and stakeholders of the company and for responsible
and accountable behaviour 8, 9. Firms will consciously
Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat, and various other failures of
need to focus on creating value not only in financial terms,
global corporations bring out some governance issues and
but also in ecological and social terms.
The challenge facing the business sector is how to set
3
Corporate social responsibility - CSR, also called corporate conscience, about meeting these expectations. Firms will need to change
corporate citizenship, social performance, or sustainable responsible
business. Responsible Business is a form of corporate self-regulation
not only in themselves, but also in the way they interact with
integrated into a business model. their environment.
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Alseddig Ahmed Almadani was born on 14th
regulation just as much as failures in governance. September 1983 in Libya and studied at Hafed Al
Indeed this has been a focus of much attention and some Madani high school ―Bani Walid-Libya‖ (1998-2001).
have argued that the regulators are more culpable even than He has a BA in accounting business from the
University Musrata University in Bani Walid-Libya
the perpetrators and should be sanctioned accordingly. (2002-2006) and master degree at the University
As we can see, globalisation has an enormous effect on Singidunum in Belgrade, Serbia (2011-2012). He
society and business life which can be manifest in a number obtained his second master degree at Belgrade
Banking Academy, Faculty for Banking, Insurance
of different ways. So, business life needs more regulation and and Finance (2012), Belgrade, Serbia.
proper and socially responsible behaviour than before. He worked as an accountant in the Alhajer Almashid company ―Tripoli,
Libya‖ (2010-2011). English language course at Colchester English Study
REFERENCE Center, England, IELTS exam (4.5), 2010.
Mr. Alseddig Ahmed Almadani is currently a PhD student in the
[1] J. Cramer, ―From financial to sustainable profit,‖ Corporate Social Department of Accountancy at Megatrend University, Belgrade, Serbia. The
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[2] N. Dower, ―Global economy, justice and sustainability,‖ Ethical
Theory and Moral Practice, vol. 7, pp. 399-415, 2004.
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