Hosted by Lloyds Banking Group Centre for Business Prosperity a special workshop on Revisting Governance & Institutions took place on 25 November 2020 which included presentations by Professor Sumon Bhaumik (University of Sheffield) and Professor Tomasz Mickiewicz (Aston University).
Chair: Professor Jun Du (Director LBGCBP, Aston University)
Speaker: Professor Sumon Bhaumik (University of Sheffield)
Title: Governance: Some Observations
Abstract: It is well understood that good governance is correlated with economic growth and development. The academic literature and international organisations such as UNESCAP and the World Bank have also identified the elements of governance, good or otherwise, and these elements include familiar constructs such as the rule of law and accountability. However, while we often recognise good and bad governance when we see them, there should be greater reflection on (a) how a certain governance quality emerges or evolves in a particular context, and (b) how different context-specific characteristics combine to generate a certain level of governance. Despite a rapid growth in the literature on governance, these issues are yet to be addressed satisfactorily. The aim of this research is to develop an integrated framework that captures the process that determines governance quality and to explore some of the related issues empirically.
Speaker: Professor Tomasz Mickiewicz (Aston University)
Title: Institutions: Alternative Theoretical Frameworks
Abstract: Institutions became a popular topic in business, economics, and management research. Yet, there is a wide variety of theory frameworks that are used. Some differences are little more than differences in language; some result from focusing on different aspects; yet there are also genuine deeper differences in underlying propositions; these often remain implicit in applied work, but it is worthwhile to spell them out. This is because concepts we use close some doors and open some other for our analysis. What we name is what we can see, and what we do not name is what we cannot see. It is worth spending some time therefore trying to understand the concepts of institutional voids, market supporting institutions, institutional quality, institutional competition, hierarchy of institutions, sociological institutionalism, and the implications of stress on structure, culture, or history.
