Business School

Governance and financing of business enterprises

Research into governance, regulation and taxation is concerned with the legal rules governing business entities, the regulation of the markets in which they raise equity and debt capital, and the laws on taxation, which affect both enterprises and individuals.

Research in these areas currently encompasses:

Corporate law and practice: the roles, responsibilities and liabilities of directors, the nature of the relationships between boards, shareholders, and wider stakeholders, and the legal controls that aim to protect the public, including consumers, investors and creditors, from inappropriate corporate behaviour. Visit our New Zealand Governance Centre website.
Family business and small and medium-sized enterprises: legal issues relating to small businesses and the development of strategies to overcome problems with the legal structure available to such entities.
Franchising: the law and practical issues relating to the establishment and regulation of business format franchises.
Insolvency regimes: the laws of liquidation, receivership and voluntary administration.
Secured transactions: the law on the use of personal property and land as security in the context of corporate financing arrangements.
State Owned Enterprises: future directions relating to the privatisation or partial privatisation of New Zealand State Owned Enterprises.