Research on corporate governance is gaining momentum as corporate governancecompliance has been made mandatory. However, in the present scenario, corporate governance is not seen only as a compliance mechanism as it also enhances competitive advantages for the firms. Good corporate governance is expected to increase firm performance through more efficient management, better asset allocation, better monitoring and control practices, or similar other efficiency improvements.

Against this backdrop, the authors, Debi Prasad Satapathy and S R Mohapatra of the first paper, “Does Corporate Governance Influence Acquiring Firm Performance? Evidence from IT and ITES Industry”, have attempted to investigate the effect of corporate governance mechanism on acquiring firm performance of IT and ITES industries. The study examines a sample of 38 mergers of Indian firms in the IT sector during the period 2004-2014. The IT and ITES sector was the largest contributor to the Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) activity by deal value in 2014. The abnormal returns of the acquiring firm have been estimated by applying event study methodology and the impact of corporate governance mechanism is analyzed by using cross-sectional regression analysis. The study finds that leverage of the firm is a significant control variable that influences the acquiring firm performance. The result of the study shows that corporate governance variables, namely, board size, board independence, and CEO duality, do influence the acquiring firm performance. The study also shows that acquiring firm generates positive wealth effect to the shareholders during different window periods.

Following this, we have another interesting paper, “The Role of Corporate Governance in Determining IPO Survival”, wherein the author, Garima Baluja, has emphasized corporate governance as one of the prominent factors that leads to the financial distress of a firm. Most of the previous studies have examined the association between corporate governance attributes and firm’s performance as well as survival. However, it is observed that if corporate governance attributes influence the performance as well as survival of the firm, it surely will have some link with the survival of Initial Public Offering (IPO) in the aftermarket. Previous studies have taken several measures of corporate governance such as board size, board independence, ownership concentration and dual leadership structure, and found significant relationship for IPO survival. However, there still persists a huge gap in this area as far as Indian IPO market is concerned. Hence, this research attempts to explore the role of corporate governance in determining IPO survival and intensively reviews the existing literature on corporate governance and IPO survival.

In the last paper, “The Impact of CG and CSR Index on Profitability”, the authors, Neha Kumar and Parul Kumar, have explored how the two concepts—Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Governance (CG)—impact the firm’s performance and then how the two impact each other. CSR, in general, aims to think beyond the profitability of a company, i.e., to realize their duty and obligations to the society. The purpose of corporate governance is to facilitate the interest of stakeholders and ensure the effective running of the organization without any hindrances. Also, the way a company carries its business activities impacts the society and the environment at large. BSE-100 firms have been chosen as the sample for four years, viz., 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18. The final set of firms studied and analyzed on the financial and CG parameters consisted of 80 firms, after excluding banking firms and also firms where March was not the financial year-ending. The study investigates the impact of CG parameters and CSR score on the profit, return on net worth and return on capital of the firm. Board size, women directors, CEO duality and CSR score have been found to be the major factors in significantly impacting the return and profit earning capacity of the firm. It is concluded that with better CG compliance and CSR scores, firms can achieve greater returns on the capital invested.