Abstract
Employing Bourdieu’s practice theory, this paper explores factors that influence corporate executives’ behaviour towards corporate governance regulation. Drawing insights from a weak institutional environment (Nigeria) and relying on a qualitative research methodology (semi-structured interviews with 31 executives), this research uncovers how nine nuanced situational and cultural field factors determine executives’ regulatory response to the severity of punishment, the certainty of penalties, and the cost–benefit compliance considerations. The study further explains how sequential rationalisation between the severity and certainty of punishment contributes to the regulatory apathy that executives exhibit. Theoretically, this study demonstrates how practice theory components (habitus, capital, and field) blend to establish executives’ regulatory practice.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 73-98 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | Accounting Forum |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 5 Dec 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Jan 2023 |
Bibliographical note
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.Funder
The authors wish to thank the Journal's editor (Professor Carol Tilt) and the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments in helping us to improve the quality of the paper. We are also highly indebted to the participants of this study who cannot be identified due to confidential reasons. Early versions of this paper were presented at the International Conference on Corporate Governance and Business Ethics held in Singapore in July 2018 and the Global Regulatory Governance Research Network Conference held in Hong Kong in July 2019. The authors appreciate the comments and feedback received from participants at these conferences. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Keywords
- Carol Tilt
- Corporate governance
- certainty
- practice theory
- regulation
- regulatory habitus
- severity
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Accounting
- Finance