Offshore corporate governance

This project is aimed at removing some of the secrecy and opacity surrounding variously so-called offshore financial centres or offshore tax havens through a corporate governance investigative lens. It focussed on the Caribbean region which hosts some of the biggest offshore havens in the world and involved extensive travel across the region to collect unique data in form of annual reports of every local stock exchange listed firm (there are over ten national securities exchanges across the Caribbean). It has been funded through (1) self-funding via additional consultancy teaching, (2) Southampton Business School research development fund, and (3) Sussex Business School Research Development Fund as well as (4) Faculty research funding budgets ad-hoc basis
The project involved a data collection phase of over 5 years culminating in a unique database of every listed firm in Caribbean region from 2000 to 2017 with 3,000 values and several hundred variables covering corporate governance, balance sheet, performance, ownership, and various attributes of directors - such as background etc. This initial phase was completed with database in June 2019. Thereafter, the database provided the foundation for 7 published journal articles and another 7 which are currently under revision or submission with leading international journals. It has also led to dozens of conference and invited seminar presentations all over the world ranging from Tonga in South Pacific, Australia and New Zealand to United States, Norway and across continental Europe and Asia. It has also attracted international media attention with lead PI Professor Bruce Hearn having been interviewed by Australia's prestigious Australian Financial Review
It should be noted this is part of a much bigger project on Caribbean and offshore emerging financial markets with details as below:

Data collection: Extensive travel for interviews with national/offshore stock exchanges of
Gibraltar: Offshore financial centre, Gibraltar [9/2021]
Guernsey, International Stock Exchange, St Peter Port, Channel Islands 8/2021
The Bahamas: BISX, Bahamas International stock exchange, Nassau [11/2016]
Cayman Islands: CSX, Cayman stock exchange, Georgetown [05/2019]
Bermuda: BSX, Bermuda stock exchange, Hamilton [05/2019]
Bermuda: BSX, Bermuda stock exchange, Hamilton [11/2016]
Trinidad & Tobago: TTSE, Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange [7/2016]
Barbados: BSE, Barbados stock exchange, Bridgetown [7/2016]
Jamaica: JSE, Jamaica stock exchange, Kingston [7/2016]
Trinidad & Tobago: Scarborough financial centre, Tobago [6/2016]
Trinidad & Tobago: TTSE, Trinidad & Tobago Stock Exchange [6/2016]
Gibraltar: Offshore financial centre, Gibraltar [4/2014]
St Kitts & Nevis: Eastern Caribbean Securities Exchange [11/2011]
St Kitts & Nevis: Nevis financial district, Nevis [11/2011]
Barbados: BSE, Barbados stock exchange, Bridgetown [11/2011]
St Lucia: Castres financial district, Castres, St Lucia [11/2011]

Data: Led acquisition of individual firm annual reports and annual financial statements from each individual national stock exchange, national regulatory agency and individual firms for:
- 179 listed firms for 17 years per firm (from 2000 to 2017)
- Approximately 3,000 firm-year observations
Duration: Data collection took 3-4 years from 2015 to 2019
Database construction took 6 months, working 10 hours per day, 7 days per week

Teams: Assembled and led collaborative teams of world-renowned professors including:
Professor/Dean Igor Filatotchev (Kings College London, UK),
Professor Lars Oxelheim (Lund, University, Sweden),
Professor Trond Randoy (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark),
Professor Venancio Tauringana (University of Southampton, UK),
Professor Collins Ntim (University of Southampton, UK),
Professor Kate Phylaktis (Emerging Markets Group, Cass/City University, UK)