Updating corporate governance in Saudi Arabia: influence of company law reforms

Corporations maximize results when objectives are achieved while controlling the use of resources and complying with legal and ethical requirements. However, high-profile corporate scandals over recent decades involving the likes of WorldCom, Enron and International News Corporation among others indicates a failure to strike the right balance in many cases.

Such scandals and subsequent collapse of big players has naturally raised question marks about the rigor and effectiveness of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms. On the one hand, governance serves to monitor relations between firm representatives like board of directors (BODs), managers and investors. But a more expansive view of governance...