We aim to become a leading corporate governance research institute in the UK and globally.
Corporate governance has been on policymakers’ agendas since the late 1980s/early 1990s when the UK experienced a wave of corporate scandals, most of which were caused by powerful CEOs who faced little or no resistance from their fellow board members.
Overseas scandals such as Enron, Worldcom and Parmalat further fuelled the debate on how corporate governance should be designed and regulated. Finally, the 2008 financial crisis, which was brought about by weak corporate governance and perverse executive incentive schemes in the banking sector, highlighted the implications of corporate governance failures for the broader economy.
Aims
- Raise the visibility of Cardiff Business School as one of the leading centres for excellence in Europe for corporate governance research.
- Serve as a platform in Cardiff Business School that facilitates cross-disciplinary research across Sections and across University Schools in corporate governance.
- Pursue Cardiff Business School's Public Value Strategy by establishing links between the group’s members and outside stakeholders to disseminate the Group’s research on corporate governance, inform its research and pave the way for potential impact.
Research
Members of the group are studying a number of important issues and research questions in corporate governance.
These include:
- the design of executive compensation and incentive schemes
- the effect of board gender diversity on corporate decision making, innovation and firm value
- corporate social responsibility (CSR)
- the link between corporate control on the one side and dividend policy and insider trading on the other side
- corporate governance in initial public offerings and venture-capital backed companies
- the behavioural dynamics of boardrooms and corporate leadership
- corporate governance in banks
- the link between corporate governance and managers’ and investors’ decision making in the area of taxation
- the effect of anti-takeover provisions on corporate innovation
- corporate governance issues affecting family firms
- how women are framed in corporate discourse
- corporate governance in emerging markets, including China
- directors’ networks
Meet the team
Director
Dr Svetlana Mira
Reader in Finance, Deputy Head of Section (Learning and Teaching), Director of the Cardiff Corporate Governance Research Group
Co-director
Academic staff
Dr Onur Tosun
Reader (Associate Professor) in Finance, Director of Sustainable Finance Research Group
Postgraduate students
Associated Scholars
- Dr Basmah Aldarsi - Jazan University in Saudi Arabia
- Email: bdarsy@jazanu.edu.sa
Events
BAM Corporate Governance and Financial Management SIG Annual Conference 2026
5 June 2026
Online conference on Financial Resilience, Sustainable Governance and Risk Management, organised by Corporate Governance and Financial Management SIGs.
Two distinguished speakers will be joining on the day, Professor Konstantinos Stathopoulos, who will deliver the keynote speech, and Professor Geoffrey Wood, who will share insights into publishing.
Past events
| Date | Event type | About |
|---|---|---|
| 18 March 2026 | Hybrid seminar | Dr Shumiao Ouyang (University of Oxford) - ‘AI as Decision-Maker: Ethics and Risk Preferences of LLMs’ |
11 February 2026 | Online seminar | Associate Professor Vishal Baloria (University of Connecticut, USA) ‘Do voters inform managers’ capital allocation decisions?’ |
9 May 2025 | Workshop, Cardiff Business School | Dr Svetlana Mira ‘Workshop on Event Study’. |
2 April 2025 | Workshop, Cardiff Business School | Dr Svetlana Mira ‘Workshop on Endogeneity’. |
7-8 November 2024 | International Conference on "CSR, the Economy and Financial Markets", Cardiff Business School | Keynote speakers:
Conference co-organised by the Cardiff Corporate Governance Research Group and the Global Finance Journal. Significant sponsorship and organisational support received from Elsevier and Greenleaf Advisors (Chicago, US). The Conference was a great success, and two panel discussions further enhanced the contribution of the Conference. Ali Fatemi (Greenleaf Board Member), Tom Hill (Savills), Calvin Jones (Cardiff University), and Marylis Ramos (Savills) discussed social and economic frameworks and climate solutions in finance (Panel discussion on “Sustainable Finance and Future Generations Investing”). The second panel discussion (“Fire-side Chat with Journal Editors”) provided valuable advice from journal Editors, such as Amir Amel-Zadeh (European Accounting Review), Ali Fatemi (Global Finance Journal), Arman Eshraghi (International Review of Economics and Finance), Sabri Boubaker (Journal of International Financial Management & Accounting), and Kushti Westwood (Associate Publisher, Finance Journals, Elsevier). For more information on the conference, please take a look at the accompanying news story. |
7 – 8 September 2023 | 3rd International Corporate Governance Conference, “Challenges and Opportunities in Corporate Governance”, Cardiff Business School | Keynote speakers:
The main focus on the conference was on the role of corporate governance in the broader economy and the challenges in the field brough by the climate change, geopolitical risk, including the Ukraine-Russia war, and the recent pandemic. In addition, the recurrent corporate scandals have sparked a series of revisions to governance policies and initiating reforms on a global scale. Designing and regulating corporate governance is ever more challenging in a fast-moving and globalised corporate environment. |
28 June – 1 July 2023 | 3rd International Corporate Governance Conference, “Challenges and Opportunities in Corporate Governance”, Cardiff Business School | The 2023 European Financial Management Association Conference, was co-organised by the EFMA and Cardiff University. This is an international and world-renowned association and members of the Cardiff Corporate Governance Research Group played a vital role in organising and supporting the event. Dr Svetlana Mira, the Director of the Research Group, was the co-chair of the 2023 EFMA Conference and she has benefitted from valuable support from colleagues. |
25 April 2023 | Women Angels of Wales. Networking event, Cardiff Business School | Organised in collaboration with Women on Board UK, Women Angels of Wales, Development Bank of Wales, and the Development Bank of Wales. This was an externally sponsored event attracting more than 60 practitioners to improve the network and collaboration of women investors and helping to develop a market for corporate directors in Wales. |
8 June 2022 | Workshop, Cardiff Business School | Dr Svetlana Mira ‘Workshop on Endogeneity’. |
17 September 2021 | 2nd International Corporate Governance Conference,“Emerging Challenges and Opportunities in Corporate Governance”. Online | Keynote speakers:
The focus of the conference was on the role of corporate governance in dealing with the consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the main themes trends developing in the in the field. Professor Marc Goergen conversed about the governance through ownership and sustainable corporate governance whilst Professor Konstantinos Stathopoulos focused on the role of corporate governance in a post-Brexit and post-pandemic world. A more practical and policy discussion was led by Mr Ken Skates MS. The Conference Programme comprised of five sessions on:
This was a highly successful event enjoyed by national and international participants. |
10 – 12 May 2018 | 1st International Corporate Governance Conference,“Corporate Governance”. Cardiff Business School | Keynote speaker: Professor Brian Cheffins, S.J. Berwin Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Cambridge. Professor Cheffins talked about the Transformation of the American Public Company. The keynote speech by Professor Brian Cheffins focused on the transformation of public companies and the impact this transformation has on the corporate governance. The Conference Programme contained four sessions:
The Conference culminated in an active panel discussion with Adrian Coles (non-executive director), Nigel Davies (practitioner), Profession Silke Machold (chair), Professor Nadia Massoud and Professor Annie Pye. |
12 December 2016
| Inauguration of the Cardiff Corporate Governance Research Group, Cardiff Business School | The Cardiff Corporate Governance Research Group (CCGRG) is a multi-disciplinary group. It includes academics from Cardiff Business School (Business, Economics, Management, Operations) and the School of Law and Politics. The members of the CCGRG explore a number of important issues and research questions in corporate governance, including, boards of directors, international corporate governance, executive compensation, corporate governance in new ventures, corporate social responsibility amongst other topics. |
Resources
Conference Programme - CCGRG 2023.pdf
3rd International Corporate Governance Conference, theme: “Challenges and Opportunities in Corporate Governance".
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