A Study of Corporate Governance in Selected Small and Mid-Cap Companies in India

The concept of corporate governance which is now an indispensable component of the regulatory system governing corporations worldwide, gained its popularity in the eighties and nineties. Its genesis lies in business scams and failures which took place in many countries. In response to such scams, the issue of corporate governance has risen to prominence amongst the policy makers and researchers. Most of the theories in the literature have accepted the positive association between good governance and superior performance of the firm. However, the focus has mostly been on large listed companies which are more visible. The lack of research on the governance practices of small and mid-cap companies is the key motivating factor behind this study.

The focus of the study is to analyze the extent to which small cap and mid cap companies comply with the best practice corporate governance norms and to empirically study the impact of corporate governance practices on the performance of such companies. Investigations are made to determine whether they are simply 'box ticking' in complying with Corporate Governance norms or are they really going beyond the minimum standard mandated by the company laws and exchange regulations.