What happened at Talvivaara Five discourses of Corporate Governance

Abstract

Abstract-Talvivaara was a mining company located in Sotkamo, in the east of Finland. This is the story of what happened at Talvivaara starting from 2006 and ending with bankruptcy in November 2014. The data was gathered from Helsingin Sanomat (HS), the leading daily newspaper in Finland. The aim of this study is to explore how corporate governance (CG) of Talvivaara was constructed in the articles to public. The results show that the media built up five discourses of CG. In the governance discourse the role and behavior of the CEO was dominant. The financing discourse highlighted the fact that investors and creditors who trusted the company lost their money. The market discourse related how the company could not adapt to the changes in the global market. The nature and people discourse focused on the exploitation of the environment, workers, and local residents. The discourse labeled as controlling relate to the attempts at control by shareholders, politicians, and authorities, which was described in terms of being too late and somewhat naïve. The study contributes to previous research on fallen companies that have shown ethical reasoning to be a cause of organizational failure.