Impacts of COVID-19 on corporate governance and assurance, international finance and economics, and non-fiction book publishing: some personal reflections

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to share personal reflections on impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on corporate governance and assurance, international finance and economics and non-fiction book publishing. The paper is intended both as a time capsule and as input for future governance and assurance reform and crisis response planning and related research. Design/methodology/approach This paper is an informal capturing and distillation of some personal experiences and insights relating to corporate governance and assurance, international finance and economics and non-fiction publishing in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings A key insight from the essay is that the pandemic has had diverse and wide-ranging impacts, many of which are likely to persist beyond the immediate response and recovery periods. The impacts have been felt across the public and private sectors, the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors and different industries. Originality/value The author, based in Melbourne, Australia, had an unusually diverse and multi-faceted experience of the pandemic. The essay concludes with directions for further research.

Firms’ performance during the COVID-19 outbreak: international evidence from 13 countries

“…On the other hand, while the economic downturn has adversely impacted many enterprises, certain companies have been able to continue operationsand even prosperduring the COVID-19 pandemic (Obrenovic et al, 2020). Early research has also reported that the corporate performance of organisations is profoundly affected on the revenue side, bringing their sustainability into question (Kells, 2020;Larcker et al, 2020). Companies which continue to be j CORPORATE GOVERNANCE j agile and to adapt and change production and sales proactively, will arguably have higher chances of thriving in the next normal reality (Mather, 2020).…”

“…Organisations often face crises, but the COVID-19 pandemic may be unique given its speed of change and the scale of its impact on both private and public segments of the economy (Mather, 2020;Kells, 2020). The COVID-19 outbreak has triggered a $2.2tn bailout package in the USA versus that country's $750bn package during the previous global financial crisis (Bongini et al, 2019).…”

“…Thirdly, the COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of the importance of multiple factors that impact firms' performance (Kells, 2020;Obrenovic et al, 2020). Accordingly, we respond to this call by investigating the link between company performance and firmspecific characteristics; financial sources; and country-specific factors.…”

Corporate governance and COVID-19: a literature review

“…Auditors should therefore be alert given the challenges ahead as audit risk increases (Albitar et al , 2020, Deliu, 2020a, 2020b). In the same vein, Nurunnabi (2020) recognizes the going concern principle as one of the main challenges for an audit committee, whereas Kells (2020) underlines that the COVID-19 crisis has allowed due consideration to business continuity, which was previously considered abstract and was widely ignored.…”

Covid-19, Fiscal Policies, and Small-and-Medium-Sized Firm Survival: Evidence From the Cross-Country Matching Analysis

“…While the current literature on COVID-19 has expanded rapidly, very few studies examine the effect of COVID-19 on firm survival (Alhawal et al, 2020; Bartlett & Morse, 2020; Calabrese et al, 2021; Clampit et al, 2022; Corredera-Catalán et al, 2021; Cowling et al, 2020; Gourinchas et al, 2020, 2021; Granja et al, 2020; Kells, 2020; Kuchakov & Skougarevskiy, 2021; Nurunnabi, 2020; Wang et al, 2020).…”