WHY DOES BANGLADESH REQUIRE A CENTRALIZED SHARIAH GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK FOR ISLAMIC BANKS?

The main objective of this article is to describe the logical reasons why a Centralized Shariah Governance Framework (CSGF) provided by the Central Bank of Bangladesh (Bangladesh Bank) is essential for the country’s Islamic banks. In doing so, it identifies the major regulatory challenges (self-developed and disparate use of Shariah Governance (SG) practices) faced by Islamic banks in Bangladesh. It considers an analytical approach to explore the significance of a CSGF for Islamic banks in Bangladesh and examines the current diversified procedures of SG practices. This article reveals that the self-developed SG practices of Islamic banks in Bangladesh have created confusion and pessimism among the practitioners, bankers and even to the general people and regulators which is negatively affecting the overall image of Islamic banks. Such incongruent governance practices have led to inconsistencies in SG structures, implementation procedures, monitoring activities. In addition, this article reveals that these deficiencies usually exist due to weak monitoring systems of the Central Bank, ineffective functioning of individual Shariah Supervisory Boards (SSB) and the absence of comprehensive SGF. The article argues that the Central Bank of Bangladesh should initiate to reform its Islamic banking industry by introducing a CSGF aimed to identify the roles, responsibilities, powers, and functions of SSB; thereby improving governance, accountability, and overall Shariah compliance quality. This article is hoped to be beneficial for the regulators and practitioners to consider revising current practices. Keywords: Centralization, Bangladesh Bank, Islamic banks, Shariah governance framework. Cite as: Alam, M. K., & Thakur, O. A. (2022). Why does Bangladesh require a centralized Shariah governance framework for Islamic banks? Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 24-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp24-42

Towards responsible science and technology: How nanotechnology research and development is shaping risk governance practices in Australia

Incorporating perspectives of multiple stakeholders concerning the appropriate balance of risks and benefits of new and potentially disruptive technologies is thought to be a way of enhancing the societal relevance and positive impacts of those technologies. A risk governance approach can be instrumental in achieving balance among diverse stakeholders, as it enables decision-making processes informed by multiple dimensions of risk. This paper applies a risk governance approach to retrospectively examine the development of nanotechnology research and development (R&D) in Australia to identify how risk governance is reflected in the practices of a range of stakeholders. We identify ten risk-related challenges specific to nanotechnology R&D based on a review of the international literature, which provided the foundation for documenting how those working in the Australian nanotechnology sector responded to these global risk-related challenges. This case study research draws on a range of sources including literature review, semi-structured interviews, and a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches for data analysis to identify key themes and generate visualisations of the interconnections that exist between risk governance practices. The ability to visualise these interconnections from the qualitative data is a key contribution of this research. Our findings show how the qualitative insights and professional experiences of nanotechnologists provide evidence of how risk governance approaches have been operationalised in the Australian nanotechnology R&D sector. The findings generate three important insights. First, the risk research undertaken by Australian nanotechnologists is interdisciplinary and involves multiple stakeholders from various disciplines and sectors. Unlike traditional risk governance approaches, our findings document efforts to assess, not only physical risks, but also social and ethical risks. Second, nanotechnology risk governance is a non-linear process and practices undertaken to address specific challenges occurred concurrently with and contributed to addressing other challenges. Third, our findings indicate that applying a risk governance approach enables greater intersection and collaboration, potentially bridging any disconnect between scientists, policymakers, and the public to realise transdisciplinary outcomes. This research highlights opportunities for developing systematic methodologies to enable more robust risk governance of other new and emerging technologies.

A Critical Assessment of Pertinent Locus Standi Features of the Derivative Remedy under Zimbabwe's New Companies and Other Business Entities Act

The importance and contribution of derivative litigation to the effectiveness and credibility of a jurisdiction's corporate governance system is indisputable. There is a positive correlation between good corporate governance practices, which include shareholders’ rights, and investors’ return on their investments. On the one hand, an overly pro-shareholder derivative scheme is vulnerable to abuse and results in unnecessary interference with company management. This may, in turn, discourage directors from entrepreneurial risk-taking and undermine enterprise efficiency. On the other hand, a complex and ineffective system of derivative litigation protects errant directors and decreases investor confidence. This article is a critical assessment of Zimbabwe's recently adopted statutory derivative remedy. The analysis focuses on five locus standi-related aspects of the new statutory derivative regime. The article highlights some major weaknesses within Zimbabwe's statutory remedy and proposes pertinent legislative amendments.

What determines the progress of online information access to banking corporate governance practices? The case of Paraguay

This paper contributes to the lack of longitudinal studies concerning online information access to corporate governance (CG) practices in the banking sector of Latin American countries. In particular, this study aims to analyze the factors that influence information transparency, both mandatory and voluntary, related to CG practices of banks that operate in Paraguay via their websites from 2016 to 2019. Findings indicate the need to improve the level of information available on websites, with disclosure of voluntary information on CG practices being more prevalent than the disclosure of mandatory information. Likewise, banks that operate in Paraguay have made scant “progress” regarding online access to their governance information over the years analyzed. Moreover, the factors “Bank size” and “listed status” positively influence the information transparency regarding CG practices of Paraguayan banks. In contrast, “leverage,” “liquidity,” “size of the audit firm,” and “credit risk rating” are factors that have a negative relation with the extent of CG disclosure.

Understanding Employee Ownership in the Context of French Family Firms

Family firms, in which a family controls a majority stake in the organisation, are often considered characteristically different from non-family firms. However, our understanding of employee ownership in the specific context of family firms suffers from the concerns raised by owners of several family firms about such ownership. The decision to open the capital to its employees goes beyond the question of the ownership of family business. Nevertheless, it impacts the governance of the company and raises several concerns including the transmission of information, transparency, increased formalism, and taxation. This study aims to analyze how family firms benefit from an employee ownership plan and how governance practices impact the mechanism of employee ownership plans. This study examines the financial communication of French family firms in terms of mployee ownership activities.

Corporate Governance and Reliability of Financial Reporting in Central Government Agencies

The objective of this paper is to determine the effects of the corporate governance practices of central government agencies on the reliability of financial reporting. There has been a considerable growth of these agencies across countries, and there are no studies about the relationship between the features of their corporate governance and the level of reliability of their financial reports. This paper provides evidence of systematic upward earnings management by agencies that apply the Private Sector Chart of Accounts to improve their financial performance and to compensate for the reduction of revenues during the worst years of the financial crisis. The results also show that abnormal accruals have a significant and inverse relationship with the percentage of independent directors and women on the boards, i.e., diversity improves the reliability of the financial information of these entities. El objetivo de este trabajo es determinar los efectos que tienen las prácticas de gobierno corporativo de las agencias públicas estatales sobre la fiabilidad de su información financiera. Se ha producido un considerable aumento de estas agencias en muchos países; sin embargo, no hay estudios sobre la relación entre las características de su gobierno corporativo y el nivel de fiabilidad de sus estados financieros. Este artículo proporciona evidencia de que hay una estrategia de aumentar el resultado entre las agencias que aplican el Plan General de Contabilidad, para mejorar su rendimiento financiero y compensar la reducción de ingresos durante los peores años de la crisis financiera. En relación al gobierno corporativo, los resultados también muestran que los devengos discrecionales tienen una relación inversa significativa con el porcentaje de consejeros independientes y mujeres en los consejos, esto es, la diversidad del consejo mejora la fiabilidad de la información financiera de estas entidades.

Enhancing Research Mechanisms and Institutional Processes in Malaysia: A Case Study of Universiti Malaya (UM)

Malaysia’s research and development landscape has grown tremendously over the last decade. The growth of scholarly output in Malaysia has also risen significantly compared to countries such as China, Singapore and Australia. Malaysia has made it a target that research output and quality will increase through an expenditure of 1.3% of the GDP allocated to Research and Development (R&D). Thus far, Malaysia has achieved phenomenal growth within the research sector, with a four-fold increase in the number of citations and has generated approximately RM1.25 billion through 11% yearly growth in the number of patents from Malaysian Universities. This case study aims to provide, firstly, an overview of research governance in Malaysia, and secondly, a discussion of research governance practices at Universiti Malaya (UM). Data is obtained from the 11th Malaysian Plan (2016-2020) and linked to the Malaysian Transformation Program. The Malaysian Education Blueprint for Higher Education (2015-2025) launched in 2015 also outlined a comprehensive transformation for research in higher education programmes. In addition, other published documents on research governance practices by agencies providing research funding were also reviewed. This case study highlights best practices in research management and governance to strengthen and further enhance the current research management and governance in support of the Malaysian government’s initiative towards achieving a high-income nation status.

Women Participation in School Governance in Lalitpur, Nepal: A Participatory Development Practice

Participation is an important dimension of good governance. In Nepal, there seem positive changes in women's participation in School Management Committees (SMC), Parent Teachers Association (PTA), and school administration but the participation of women has become a far-reaching goalin public school governance. This article is about exploring how women's participation could contribute to promoting good governance practices in community schools. Authors have applied an interpretative inquiry and participation and feminist standpoint theories to make out the meaning in this study which was carried in two public schools in Lalitpur, Nepal. The finding reveals that his meaningful representation of women in school governance is likely to minimize the governance challenges such as absenteeism, low parents’ participation, poor resource mobilization, transparency, and accountability.These positive transformations contribute to the community development process. However, enabling environment for women is needed to ensure their meaningful representation in school governance structures. This study is beneficial to educationists, planners, and development workers in Nepal.

Sustainable Community Forestry: Insights from Rural Thailand

Community participation in forest management has evolved as the new paradigm of natural resource governance in recent decades. Focusing on community participation in local forest resource management, this article examines the evolution and working of community forestry in Thailand from a socio-historical perspective. It narrates the social history of forest governance practices in Thailand and explores the community’s response towards deforestation, resource degradation and rising livelihood insecurity. Drawing insights from three case studies of community participation in forest governance from the provinces of Lampang, Lamphun and Kanchanaburi, this article highlights the potentials of community forestry in evolving as an alternative institution for sustainable livelihood security and forest governance. The article maps out the social history of forest governance practices in Thailand by identifying three successive stages: (a) influence of early European colonial rule in the neighbouring territories, (b) the American influence of 1960s, and (c) social uprisings and a visible ‘community’ in forest management practice.