I'd love to go to Davos, just to watch all the networking at the WEF. That thought was prompted by reading Robert Peston's blog
  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16702449
I'm not very keen on Peston, something about his style and strange inflection - I much prefer Stephanie Flanders' interpretation of the economic situation (and her dad was a lot more entertaining than Robert's...) But he's spot on in his comments about the impact on NEDs of encouraging investors to take more responsibility for corporate governance issues, although I think "castrating" is a bit over the top. Since the focus shifted to owners and stewardship some years ago I've asked this question at a couple of presentations by leading scholars but it's always been dismissed. I had a very interesting conversation once with an experienced NED who told me stories about the fatal effect of activist investors on boards she had sat on. Of course, there's a subtle difference between activist and active investors.

Much comment on executive pay after yesterday's statement by Vince Cable - decided that the best way of keeping up would be to put it in one of my lectures to force me to assimilate the developments.

I have been struggling to catch up with a to-do list that lengthened alarmingly when I was again hit by a bug - the cottonwool brain effect took a long time to clear and I seemed to become embroiled in meetings but this week I've recaptured some space and made some progress with more interesting things. I've managed to read and comment on two PhD theses, one for a colleague and the Belgian one - as I can't attend the private defence I have to send in my questions. I also have the new post-doc's to read which I am looking forward to. Marking a late MSc dissertation and a resit took time. Completing a REF impact statement took even longer!
I've managed to prepare my two guest lectures: the undergraduate one involves providing an exam question as well which took some time. And, as moderator for another assessment, I'll have some work to do on that shortly.

The ECGI conference at the Said was very interesting but the first day was in a room in the Law Faculty that was so cold I was shivering. Just as well that I'd read some of the papers beforehand - I could just about keep up with the fascinating discussion. The lawyers and economists really seem to work well with each other on these issues. I had a couple of useful conversations but didn't have the energy for my usual bouncing about and networking.

Am now pondering a paper that draws together my thoughts about independence and diversity with a title like "Be careful what you wish for". Crunch time for the Cadbury project next week.

Friday 6 Jan

An interesting paper ( Michael C. Withers, Amy J. Hillman and Albert A. Cannella, Jr. "A Multidisciplinary Review of the Director Selection Literature" Journal of Management 2012 38: 243) raises the question about how directors make decisions about serving on boards which I identified as an important lacuna in NED research in the paper I presented in Brussels (Dec 2010, can't believe it was more than a year ago and I still haven't found the time to write it up properly). The authors don't answer it, of course, but it's good to see it flagged up as an issue that needs to be investigated.

Their review seems very comprehensive and well-organised. I like the way they use Mace, and Lorsch and Maciver, two classic texts on directors, as ways to classify the literature. Their discussion of the bifurcated market for directors - broadly,some sought for monitoring, some for resource provision, as I understand it - raises another point. The UK literature suggested that there was a tension for NEDs between the roles of monitor and advisor (Ezzamel and Watson used the nice metaphor of wearing two hats) but the work done by Roberts, Stiles and McNulty which underpinned the Higgs report seemed to contradict that, or at least indicate that NEDs didn't see this as a problem. The difference hinges on whether a single individual is expected to perform both roles or whether the numbers of NEDs on the board is sufficient to allow the appointment of individuals to fulfil more specifically one of the two roles. As UK boards became predominantly non-exec - a later development than in the US - this could have been a factor in reducing that potential tension.

One thing that I shall certainly do if the NEDs in the public/third sector research gets off the ground is ask NEDs why they are doing the job and, if possible, investigate the appointment process.


Watching this

http://corpgov.proxyexchange.org/2012/01/video-friday-no-legal-duty-to-maximize-shareholder-value/

sent me to see what Lynn Stout has published recently and I found her 2010 book  "Cultivating Conscience: How Good Laws Make Good People", so I've ordered a second hand copy from Amazon (inter-library loan takes such a long time!)

I picked up the link from one of James McRitchie's useful tweets (@corpgovnet) and realised that as well as following up email and Google Reader alerts I spend quite a lot of time following up Twitter links from people like James. I've left the LinkedIn Boards and Advisors group: the traffic was very heavy and I found myself reading far too much anecdotal information posted by consultants, some with some tenuous academic connections, who have no time for rigorous academic analysis and really just want to sell their services.

But I haven't written anything other than emails today...

Thursday 5 Jan 2012

Finding it very difficult to get back into a routine and not sleeping well which makes concentration even more difficult. Spent some of this morning's very early hours literature scanning which is useful but I still have to read all the new stuff I've found. Sometimes I wish I could just shout "Stop!" like the voice on the 1950s radio programme "In Town Tonight" used to so that the flood of material on corporate governance would stop long enough for me to sort out some of the accumulation I have. My filing has been very random which doesn't help. I'm not sure if I dare ask Thom, the new post doc, to do anything quite so menial as put stuff on Endnote...

Yes, the good news is that he starts in a couple of weeks so I am busy working out which projects can be dusted off the shelf and passed on to him. I wonder if I can get him interested in visual metaphors? I've just acquired an interesting book, Visual Methodologies by Gillian Rose, which could be helpful in developing the images paper, although it doesn't have much to say on the copyright problem which is likely to be a stumbling block for publication.

The other good news is that one of our Cadbury interviewees has found some papers which may be useful. When we talked to him he promised to look and I then reminded him a year ago: we'd rather given up so it was a pleasant surprise to hear from him. Of course it may be material that's already in the archive but it will be useful to see. It also provides us an excuse to give the publishers for further delay...

Today I have managed to sort out some admin stuff like expense claims (the online system at ICAEW is very time-consuming, especially as I forget how to do it each time). I've also had a first stab at completing the REF "impact case study template" although the evidence of impact for my work is insubstantial to say the least. The paper on regulation by disclosure is in a 1* journal but it has been cited (three times!) in a recent ICAEW publication and I have an email that says that that publication is part of a pack of information circulated for discussion to members of the Financial Stability Board. Now I need to sort out material for sessions on corporate governance on the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes - at least the constant flow of events means that there are plenty of suitable topics to discuss which they may - perhaps - have heard about.