Impact of ownership structure and corporate governance on capital structure of Nepalese listed companies

Abstract

Corporate governance is a process that creates shareholder value by managing corporate affairs. Corporate governance is the system by which businesses are directed and controlled (Cadbury 1992). Melvin and Hirt (2005) described the concept of corporate governance as referring to corporate decision making and control, particularly the structure of the board and its working procedures. It is a set of relationships between a company’s management, its board, shareholders and stakeholders. Corporate governance is defined as the process and structure used to direct and manage business affairs of a company towards enhancing prosperity and corporate accounting with the ultimate objective of realizing long-term shareholder value. Corporate governance has become one of the most discussed topics in business administration due to balance sheet manipulations or even collapse of some public corporations like Enron, WorldCom and so on. After these financial crises, corporate governance has been undergoing a reform process. The enormous consequences, namely catastrophic losses of financial firms that almost led to a collapse of the financial system followed by the deep global recession, emphasize the importance of corporate governance (Lang and Jagtiani 2010).