Strategic orientation and corporate governance: the role of ownership

Challenging universal perspectives that directed previous mainstream research, this theoretical paper addresses the potential influence of contextual variables on corporate governance. The main purpose is to contribute to the development of recent perspectives investigating the corporate governance effectiveness in terms of fitting into the firm’s strategic orientation. This paper points out how different arrangements may support the enterprise or the accountability function and how differently they work, according to their specific context. Potential influences stemming from ownership structure are then considered, addressing relationships between the firm’s strategic dynamics and corporate governance effectiveness. Understanding the association between the strategic orientation and corporate governance functions and their consistent changes along the firm’s life cycle is a useful premise to a dynamic view of corporate governance effectiveness and its contribution to value creation