This issue carries papers which are a mix of quantitative and qualitative research work on Corporate Governance (CG).

The need for CG mechanisms arises as the managers violate the ethical norms in fulfilling their responsibilities towards stakeholders, particularly the shareholders. Religion is the most important source of ethical norms in any society. On the other hand, love of money is the characteristic which motivates the managers to violate the ethical norms. The first paper "Is the Love of Money Universal Amongst Aspiring Malaysian Managers?", by Quah Chun Hoo, Wong Si-Maan and Joshua Ignatius, touches this core issue of `love of money' which has resulted in the need for CG mechanism in the modern corporations. The authors analyze the influence of the `love of money' and `religiosity' on the Machiavellian orientations of future managers of Malaysia, based on the data collected from undergraduate business students. They measure the `love of money', Machiavellianism and `religiosity' with instruments developed in earlier research works and use regression analysis and t-tests to understand the three way relationship. Their study finds that there exists a positive relationship between `love of money' and Machiavellianism among the Malaysian undergraduate business students. However, the relationship between `religiosity' and Machiavellianism is not significant against a prior expectation of a negative relationship. Though the relationship is not significant, the finding is significant as it corroborates the theory that major religions have lost their influence over many aspects of one's life because of the increasing materialism of the modern societies.

Managers, not being ethical in fulfilling their responsibilities, gave birth to CG and regulatory mechanisms. The second paper "Board Characteristics that Promote Effective Governance: A Perspective on Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica", by Rolph N S Balgobin, surveys the literature on the emergence of CG and its history. Given the fact that the board is the most visible face of internal CG mechanism in the modern corporations, the study leads itself into an analysis of board characteristics. The author explains the board characteristics which promote effective governance, using examples from 47 companies which are listed on the stock exchanges of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica. In the process, the author studies the level of adherence with internationally accepted CG standards by these 47 Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaican companies. The findings seem to be giving mixed results with compliance on some parameters and disparities in some other.

Though CG became a serious subject for both research and practice, it shot into prominence after the Enron Scam in 2001. Many countries, including India, have amended their CG regulatory systems to avoid scams like Enron, happening in their economies. The third paper "Strategic Corporate Governance: Looking Beyond Regulations", by Satheesh Kumar T N analyzes the CG practices of 30 top business firms in India which are a part of the Sensex, the prominent index of Bombay Stock Exchange. The author looks into the substance of CG practices rather than form, based on certain selective parameters. The findings suggest that the blue-chip Indian business firms and groups still have some way to go in following the CG norms in full spirit. The author further argues that focusing on CG practices will also help the firms strategically.

Not that, everything is bad with Indian blue-chip firms. The last paper "Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility : The Case of Three Indian Private Companies", by T N Rama Kumar on three prominent Indian firms, namely ITC Ltd., Reliance Industries Ltd. and Infosys Technologies Ltd., suggests that it is the other way round. The paper compares these three firms on four selective CG parameters`Approach to CG', `Governance Structure and Practices', `Board Committees', and `Corporate Social Responsibility Practices'. The study finds that these firms indeed follow good CG both in form and substance.

- S Subramanian
Consulting Editor