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Program on Corporate Governance Advisory Board
- Peter Atkins
- David Bell
- Kerry E. Berchem
- Richard Brand
- Daniel Burch
- Paul Choi
- Jesse Cohn
- Arthur B. Crozier
- Renata J. Ferrari
- Andrew Freedman
- Ray Garcia
- Joseph Hall
- Jason M. Halper William P. Mills
- David Millstone
- Theodore Mirvis
- Philip Richter
- Elina Tetelbaum
- Sebastian Tiller
- Marc Trevino
- Steven J. Williams
Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation
Public Entrepreneurial Finance around the Globe
In recent decades, governments around the world have been increasingly interested in boosting innovation and the “knowledge economy,” as opposed to the manufacturing sectors that were the traditional focus of industrial policies. One manifestation of this trend has been through public efforts to boost financing for early-stage ventures. Given the important role played by the […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research, International Corporate Governance & Regulation
Tagged Capital formation, Entrepreneurs, Information environment, International governance, Private firms, Public finance, Subsidies, Venture capital firms
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Tackling the Climate Crisis
Despite the challenges, Ceres continued to expand our networks of powerful investors and companies, adding 44 new members in 2020. Just before the year began, we released the new Ceres Roadmap 2030, a 10-year action plan to help companies navigate and succeed in the accelerated transition to a just, inclusive, net zero emissions future. And […]
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Posted in ESG, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Asset management, Climate change, Engagement, Environmental disclosure, ESG, Index funds, Institutional Investors, Sustainability
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CEO Tenure and Firm Value
Among academics and practitioners, there is an ongoing debate over whether CEOs stay in office too long. Empirically, a mosaic of evidence suggests that corporate outcomes – such as earnings management (Ali and Zhang, 2015), firm-customer and firm-employee relationships (Luo et al., 2014), innovation (Wu et al., 2005), net investments (Pan et al., 2016), and […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Comparative Corporate Governance & Regulation, Empirical Research
Tagged Executive turnover, Firm performance, Management, Manager characteristics, Succession
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Effective Disclosure Controls Concerning Cybersecurity Breaches and Risks
In yet another important signal of the SEC’s increasing focus on how public companies respond to, and issue disclosures concerning, significant cyber breaches, the Commission announced yesterday that it had entered into a settled administrative order with Pearson plc, finding violations of the negligence-based antifraud provisions of the Securities Act and imposing a $1 million […]
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Posted in Accounting & Disclosure, Practitioner Publications, Securities Litigation & Enforcement, Securities Regulation
Tagged Cybersecurity, Risk, Risk assessment, Risk disclosure, SEC, SEC enforcement, SEC rulemaking, Securities enforcement, Securities regulation
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Board Diversity Deliberations
Director support among U.S.-listed companies is dropping this year as investors expect boards to accelerate their diversity commitments for not only gender, but also racial and ethnic diversity. Average support for director elections at S&P 500 companies dropped to 96.1% in the first half of 2021, and a similar decline has also been exhibited in […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, ESG, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged BlackRock, Boards of Directors, Diversity, ESG, Index funds, Institutional Investors, Pension funds
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The Need to Validate Exogenous Shocks: Shareholder Derivative Litigation, Universal Demand Laws and Firm Behavior
As researchers in finance and accounting seek to identify causal relationships in “real-world” data, they often turn to legal changes to provide a quasi-exogenous shocks. As a recent example, a growing number of academic use the adoption of universal demand (UD) laws to examine the causal effect of litigation risk on various firm outcomes (e.g., […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Empirical Research, Securities Litigation & Enforcement
Tagged Boards of Directors, Derivative suits, Management, Risk, Securities litigation, Shareholder suits, Shocks
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What Boards Need to Know Before, During, and After an Acquisition
Making an acquisition is a major step for a company. For all the possible benefits, however, there are many challenges that can derail a deal and destroy the anticipated shareholder value. Navigating those pitfalls is vital to an acquisition delivering on its potential. Here are the steps boards should take at each stage of an […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Mergers & Acquisitions, Practitioner Publications
Tagged Boards of Directors, Capital allocation, Corporate culture, Cybersecurity, FCPA, Human capital, Management, Mergers & acquisitions, Risk assessment
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Blackrock Flexes Its Muscles During the 2020-21 Proxy Period
Although BlackRock, which manages assets valued at over $9 trillion, and its CEO, Laurence Fink, have long played an outsized role in promoting corporate sustainability and social responsibility, BlackRock has also long been a target for protests by activists. As reported by Bloomberg, “[e]nvironmental advocates in cities including New York, Miami, San Francisco, London and […]
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Posted in Boards of Directors, Corporate Elections & Voting, ESG, Institutional Investors, Practitioner Publications
Tagged BlackRock, Boards of Directors, Climate change, Environmental disclosure, ESG, Index funds, Institutional Investors, Proxy season, Proxy voting, Say on climate, Shareholder proposals, Shareholder voting, Stakeholders, Sustainability
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Business Groups: Panics, Runs, Organ Banks and Zombie Firms
Unlike in the US, large firms in many foreign stock markets come in business groups: sets of seemingly distinct firms—each with its own stock price, annual reports, public shareholders, board of directors and CEO—but all effectively controlled by on apex firm, often itself controlled by a tycoon of wealthy family. Business groups were commonplace in […]
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Posted in Academic Research, Banking & Financial Institutions, International Corporate Governance & Regulation
Tagged Bailouts, Banks, Business groups, Financial institutions, International governance, Risk, Shocks, Systemic risk
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