The Antecedents of Corporate Governance Deviance: A Moderator Data Evidence From Ghana

Abstract This chapter (which emerged from an original study) examines entrepreneurial identity centrality (EIC) and corporate governance discretion (CGD) as antecedents of corporate governance deviance from an emerging market perspective. It further explores the moderating role of regulatory environment (RE) and corporate governance capacity (CGC) in the hypothesised relationship between the independent variables and corporate governance deviance. Quantitative data were collected (through a survey) from 500 employees (working in 37 companies listed on the stock exchange) with a stratified random sampling technique. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical multiple regression. EIC and CGD are strong antecedents and have a direct relationship with corporate governance deviance. It also emerged that both RE and CGC positively moderate the relationship between CGD and corporate governance deviance while community orientation fully mediates the same relationship. To effectively address issues of corporate governance deviance, organisations must face situations where entrepreneurial decision-making and the general control and management of a firm are highly centred on one individual. Further, this chapter also advocates an efficient RE that will supervise, control and direct firms with regard to their corporate governance activities. This chapter introduces RE and CGC as moderating variables to investigate the hypothesised relationship between the independent variables and corporate governance deviance. It offers a developing country insight into EIC and CGD as antecedents of corporate governance deviance.