Corporate governance Singapore-style: practices and code compliance among smaller listed companies

Corporate governance Singapore-style is government-led and combines a punitive rule of law with a softer touch of non-statutory rules. One rule of relevance is the requirement to comply with the Code of Corporate Governance (the Code) or to explain non-compliance (Code compliance). The research objective in this study is to describe the corporate governance practices of, and Code compliance among, the smaller companies listed on the Singapore Exchange. Descriptions in past research were based on self-disclosures of listed companies, and theory was not considered as they were business rather than academic studies. Smaller companies had not been granted the attention they deserve in past research although they comprise more than 80% of all listed companies.

To fill these gaps, the study focused on smaller listed companies (SLCs) to collect the insiders’ views of social actors which the researcher reinterpreted to make the descriptions. Findings gathered on four research questions covered topics on attitudes and motivations; problems and difficulties; the Code’s impact on practices; and the actions and changes for improvement. The abductive research strategy along with the idealist ontology and the epistemology of constructionism consistent with the interpretivism paradigm was selected to answer the research questions. Sensitising concepts, derived from literature review of theories and a professional practice framework, were identified to guide the research and together with themes developed from research findings formed the basis for theory development.

Research findings contribute to corporate governance theory, policy, practice and future research. Regulators may find the comprehensive feedback from the social actors on the regulatory improvement actions and changes on their respective wish lists useful in future corporate governance policy deliberations. Managers in SLCs can benchmark their organisational experiences with corporate governance and Code compliance to the interpretations of the social actors for performance improvements. The methodological and theoretical considerations and further theorising on the attitudes and motivations among entrepreneurs in SLCs toward corporate governance in the study may interest academics in future research. Due to data collection difficulties, the descriptions are restricted to findings collected from a total of 24 persons of whom 21 participated in individual interviews and three in a focus group discussion, respectively. Another limitation may arise from the researcher’s reinterpretation of the social actors’ interpretations of the social reality.