Factors influencing corporate governance of state owned enterprises in Nigeria: the case of Imo State

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to study the corporate governance and its influenced factors of state-owned enterprises in Imo State, Nigeria. To achieve this, thirty (30) SOEs from both federal and state government were selected in Imo State of Nigeria and were divided into two groups, namely A and B. The top fifteen (15) SOEs with the highest revenue in 2013 were categorized as group A, along with the other fifteen (15) SOEs that did not declare in terms of revenue generation in 2013 were also categorized as group B. Mixed method approaches were utilized. Questionnaire was developed and tested in 30 SOEs including 30 semi-structured interviews with the top management of firms/establishments were chosen to achieve the objectives. The response rate was 75 per cent. The results reveal that political influence, board leadership, board committees, protecting stakeholders’ interest, setting strategic directions and customer satisfaction have a heavy influence on corporate governance of SOEs. Human resource recommendations were offered based on the research findings.