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PurposeThis study aims to examine the impact of corporate governance on firm performance for a large representative sample.Design/methodology/approachThis empirical analysis focuses on a large number of companies covering 20 important industries of the Indian manufacturing sector for the period 2001-2010. Several alternative specifications and estimation techniques are used for analysis purposes, including system generalized methods of moments, which effectively overcomes the problem of endogeneity and simultaneity bias.FindingsOn one side, the findings indicate that larger boards are associated with a greater depth of intellectual knowledge, which in turn helps in improving decision-making and enhancing the performance. On the other side, the results indicate that return on equity and profitability is not related to corporate governance indicators. The results also suggest that CEO duality is not related to any firm performance measures for the sample firms.Practical implicationsThe outcomes of the analyses advocated that companies that comply with good corporate governance practices can expect to achieve higher accounting and market performance. It implies that good corporate governance practices lead to reduced agency costs. Hence, it is concluded that firms of the developing world can possibly enhance their performance by implementing good corporate governance practices.Originality/valueDeparting from the conventional system of the prior studies and instead of focusing on a single measure framework, a range of measures of corporate governance and firm's performance variables are used. Also, several alternative specifications and estimation techniques are used for analysis purposes. Furthermore, the sample also covers a large sample of manufacturing firms.

Abstract
This article is a report on part of a larger research on student participation in school governance in the Hong Kong context. It addresses the question 'Is the Student Union a tokenism of student participation in school governance in the context of Hong Kong?'. The research adopts a mixed methodology comprising both quantitative and qualitative methods. For the quantitative study, 3209 valid student questionnaires from 51 secondary schools of different backgrounds were collected. For the qualitative study, four schools of different levels of student participation were involved in in-depth case studies. Semi-structured interviews and field observations with teachers and students were conducted to collect qualitative data. The study revealed that from the questionnaire, the 'one student, one vote' policy was an apparently fair, transparent and democratic procedure for Student Union elections, and gave the Student Union a positive image in relation to student participation. However, the in-depth case studies revealed that these were superficial perceptions. Instead, it was found that schools shared very limited powers with their Student Unions, where the Student Union would have power only in trivial school operational matters. The ultimate, real power was in the hands of school authorities, seriously limiting the influence of student participation. Our studies further revealed that whether students were satisfied with this disempowering situation or not, most of them had become 'positive and passive'. This was because they had been socialized to accept the status quo, without expressing dissident voices, as they did not want to oppose the caring school ethos that they valued. In summary, Student Unions in Hong Kong are, in general, close to tokenism, a representative mechanism that cannot take meaningful action to bring forth genuine changes in important school matters. This may have negative impacts on students' citizenship development, and ends up with cultivating students to be non-questioning, non-participatory, cynical, passive and docile citizens.

This contribution introduces our symposium by highlighting four distinctive aspects of transnational governance from a bureaucratic politics perspective: the emergence of transnational institutions, their functioning, their impact on the domestic level, and the diffusion of regulatory standards. The general argument is that many accounts of transnational governance seem to be overly optimistic about the conditions for effective problem‐solving and fail to take into account that institutional rivalry may either support or constrain the implementation of supranational policies. The aim of this piece is to review existing research, to highlight the contribution of the symposium articles in furthering an institutional rivalry perspective on transnational governance, and to sketch pertinent areas for further research building upon this perspective.