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Book Review:  
Raval, V. (2020), Corporate Governance. A Pragmatic Guide for Auditors, Directors, 
Investors and Accountants, New York, Auerbach Publications. 
https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003031796 
 
 

 
Corporate governance, defined as the system by which companies are directed and controlled, 
in order to protect stakeholder interests and ensure reasonable return on investments, has 
evolved to address the dynamics of the markets and this evolution followed different routes and 
reached different destinations in corporate practice, company law, and associated institutional 
development of corporate enterprise.  

The book “Corporate Governance. A Pragmatic Guide for Auditors, Directors, Investors 
and Accountants”, of Professor Vasant Raval, first published in 2020, part of the Internal Audit 
and IT Audit Series of books that publishes leading-edge books on critical subjects facing audit 
executives as well as internal and IT audit practitioners, brings a clear understanding of this 
complex scenario. 

The book, divided into four parts, that is, cornerstones, governance roles and structure, 
governance in action, and other topics, provides a picture of the current state of corporate 
governance in the USA. The book started with the foundation of governance, evaluating the 
reasons and the nature of corporate governance, indicating its significance and purpose, the 
main principles and its framework, underling why governance is an extremely relevant factor 
for the life of the company. This first part continues taking into consideration operational, 
strategic, and tactical risks linked to corporate governance and defining the main risk 
management approaches ending with the analysis of the ethical dimensions of corporate 
governance, and its code of conduct.  

The second section of the book continues identifying the key players in the area, and 
discussing their roles. The main figures analyzed are shareholders, the board and the 
management, but also the government and the regulators that apply to the conduct of the 
company and coregulators, facilitators, and consultants as assisting those in charge of 
governance with their actions which contribute to the governance process. In this scenario, the 
stock exchange is also taken into consideration, with a dual role of facilitating transactions and 
listing the company stock for trading on the exchange. This part takes into consideration also 
the role of the Internal Auditing Function (IAF) that has the primary function of managing 
business’ risks and of the figure of the external auditor, as an outside, independent provider of 
assurance about fairness of financial results. 

Subsequently section three discusses the relationship between shareholder, the board and 
the management, analyzing their dynamics, with a specific focus on organizational wrongdoing 
considered as an improper or unethical act on the part of any member or members of the 
organization and the explanation of the Disposition-based Fraud Model (DFM). 

In the final section, the book defines the key issues in two main aspects of corporate 
governance, that is governance of nonpublic organizations, including nonprofit organizations, 
and future directions in corporate governance. When analyzing the governance of private 
organizations, the book makes a specific focus on family-owned businesses, as particular 
entities whose owners belong to a single family, highlighting the difficulties in the governance 
of a structure where family and business should be two separate entities, but this demarcation 
is not always so simple to maintain.  

International Journal of Economic Behavior, vol. 11 n. 1, 2021, 129-130. 
https://doi.org/ 10.14276/2285-0430.2896 



 130 

 

Finally, as future directions of corporate governance, the business environment has been 
taken into consideration, evaluating factors such as the global competition and the difficulties 
related to the different cultures in which companies want to do their business. But also, the 
variable of technology, seen as a disrupter of the existing mode of doing business, causing a 
redefinition of jobs, shift in business model, and even displacement of older competitors; 
cybersecurity connected with the problem of cyber-attacks that can result in loss of data, 
unavailability of systems and programs, and disruption of services, and the issue of integrating 
sustainability practices in corporate strategy. 

This book is structured to be a helpful map to enter the world of corporate governance, 
since it merges theory and practices, thanks to the personal experience of the Author as an 
Auditor and board member. The book provides practical insights illustrating theory with recent 
cases, proving to be a great source of information for anyone that has to do with the ecosystem 
of corporate governance such as professional accountant, securities lawyer, economist, 
financial analyst, and auditors. I would strongly recommend this book as a quick guide for a 
greater understanding of the dynamics of corporate governance; it is easy to read and certainly 
approachable by figures with transversal skills to corporate governance.  

 
 
 
 
 

Laura Bravi 
Carlo Bo University of Urbino, Italy