New Paradigms for Corporate Governance Discussed at 20TH EIASM WORKSHOP in St. Gallen

Corporate governance is changing its paradigm to the new financial and economic reality which is oriented towards sustainable development. The central pillars of corporate governance moved towards ESG which imposed to consider new factors such as Ethical AI and managing the people's data, gender diversity etc. that were captured into the concept introduced by President of the Swiss Institute of Directors, called “Diversity Optima”: these were among the main discussed topics at the 20TH EIASM WORKSHOP ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE.

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The recent developments in technology and ESG has moved the central pillars of corporate governance towards new factors such as for example Ethical AI and responsible management of the people's data. These topics were among the main discussed at the 20TH EIASM WORKSHOP ON CORPORATE GOVERNANCE. Among other interesting topics, the President of the Swiss Institute of Directors, introduced the concept called “Diversity Optima” regarding the establishment of the balanced structure for the corporate governance.  The team from school of finance led by Professor Irina Ivashkovskaya and represented also by Artyom Anilov and Ion Frecautan presented its reports on the importance of corporate governance mechanisms for green bonds performance in the emerging markets, and remuneration policies of the board of directors.

Among the discussed papers on Corporate Governance, it is worth mentioning the one titled "Governance in the Digital Era" especially considering the Ethical AI and data management. The dilemma of this research is that companies should find the right balance between making a profit, collecting, and managing data, and protecting people. The authors emphasized the importance of including in the corporate governance framework the Ethics of Managing the People's Data. In addition to this topic another paper titled “Cyber security and risks disclosure: a literature review for theory and practice” revealed the current academic contribution from the perspective of theory and practice. The main idea is that within digital era this research topic is still not studied enough as organizations started to “look beyond tech-centric and threat focus towards positive outcomes” by using AI, blockchain etc.

The duality of digitalization and corporate governance was analyzed under the ESG research theme therefore the ESG topic and governance was the centric pillar of the analysis and discussions during the workshop. Additionally, two contrasted papers about ESG titled “Do CEO and Board characteristics matter in the ESG performance of their firms?” and “Irresponsible ESG, earnings management and the moderating role of corporate governance?” are analyzing the role of corporate governance characteristics for both, achieving the ESG performance and further creating added-value for companies, and the negative effects of “irresponsible ESG” driven by corporate governance mechanisms on the destroying the corporate and business value.  

During the workshop, the President of the Swiss Institute of Directors who also was the coordinating chairperson talked about the "New Corporate Governance". He introduced new perspectives on the corporate governance mechanisms through "reversed KISS principles" (Keep it controlled, Integrated, Strategic, and Situational - KISS) and presented the assessment methodology through "Diversity Optima". The gender diversity topic and role of females in the board and CEO position were approached from the perspective of investor’s perceptions of board gender diversity and the valuation of family firms presented Prof. Basak TANYERI and Farah MEJRI. In fact, gender diversity is also a component of analysis that relates to the general research theme about ESG and corporate governance.