Enabling better port governance in developing countries: The role of information technology: The role of information technology

Corporate governance refers to "a set of relationships between a company's management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders. Corporate governance also provides the structure through which the objectives of the company are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance are determined" (OECD, 2004, p. 11). Nowadays, corporate governance has become very topical, thanks to the series of scandals that took place over the last two decades. To mention but a few of these scandals, one would refer to the following: Maxwell (1991), Barings Bank (1995), Enron (2001), WorldCom (2002), Parmalat (2003), Jones (2005). Moreover, the global financial crisis has recently placed corporate governance reforms at the top of policy makers' agendas both in developed and developing countries to avoid further corporate governance-related failures (Kirkpatrick, 2009). That said, in the case of developing countries, corporate governance reform can also occur as part of a broader structural reform. This can offer politicians better legitimacy to the liberalisation efforts they initiate, attract higher foreign direct investment and facilitate borrowing from international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (Reed, 2002; Sorour, 2014).