Programme

PhD

Term

IV

Academic Year

2021-22

Course title

Corporate Governance

Area

Strategy

Credits

1.25

Instructor(s)

Prof. Chitra Singla

Course Description & Objectives

Introduction & Objectives: The objective of this course is to introduce you to the domain of corporate governance. The course introduces both theoretical and empirical work done in the literatures of various fields/disciplines like Strategic Management, Finance, and Public Policy. The course is spread over 13 sessions of 2.5 hours each. It starts with a background of Corporate Governance, its origin and history in different countries. Then it introduces the main theoretical perspective “Agency Theory” used to study various issues of corporate governance. The literature suggests different mitigation mechanisms like boards, executive compensation, ownership structure, and the market for corporate control to deal with corporate governance issues/agency issues. Subsequent few sessions discuss these mitigation mechanisms in detail. This is followed by sessions on Business groups and family business firms emphasizing on unique governance issues in an emerging economy context. Finally, the course ends with alternative perspectives on governance issues.

Pedagogy

As this is a doctoral seminar course, the onus of learning is on the participants. This entails that everyone should come prepared to class. The instructor will primarily be a facilitator.

Class Preparation

For each session, every student will be asked to comment on the core readings (generally, 4-5 articles)1 and present some research ideas that derive from them. The focus should be on a critical reading of the various assignments and on the discovery of unanswered questions that may provide fruitful avenues for research. For each session, a different student will be assigned to present an introductory overview of the material and this student will act as the discussion leader for this class. This introduction will be followed by an in-class discussion, during which students are expected to critically evaluate the readings. Particular emphasis should be placed on directions for future research. The instructor will act as moderator of these discussions.