The prevalence of corporate governance theories in the South Afrian platinum mining industry

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to test the theoretical framework relating to three major Corporate Governance (CG) hypotheses by means of reviewing cited literature and testing it in the corporate field. These are the Agency, stakeholder and shareholder theories. Many scholars have recognised the predominance of agency theory compared to the others. The literature demonstrates that the agency theory is substantially more established in practice with limited discussions and debate around other two theories. The research adopted a two-phase research approach, which employed qualitative and quantitative methods to collect empirical data. The findings from the field reveal that the Agency Theory indeed succeeds; however, the respondents’ opinions are that academic writers have unnecessarily overstated it. Concurring with claims by writers that the relationship between senior managers and shareholders does not exist, it is found in this research that there is no need for the relationship to exist. The study also found no evidence that senior managers are treated as agents, which is the basis of agency theory. Copyright