The Proceedings of Textile Institute 83rd World Conference, Shanghai, P.R. China

The paper explores the issues of corporate governance in the light of the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation passed in the USA. Corporate governance is a major issue in business globally and though it has received much attention in the business press there has been nothing specific about the apparel industry and little to draw attention to its importance for such a significant global industry. The paper contrasts the UK approach to corporate governance with its comply or explain ethic and the new legislative approach adopted by the US, more of a comply or go to jail ethic. It also outlines the widening power of the US legislation and its impact on companies and businesses outside of the US. The paper makes an analysis of apparel/textile companies registered on the New York Stock Exchange to show how many are non-US and how many are of US origin with operations outside the US - making the point that all these operations all fall within the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. The results of this analysis show that for the apparel industry it does not encompass huge numbers of companies it does, however, include some significant players, like TK Maxx, GAP and Asda (George at Asda) etc. The paper was published in the proceedings of the 83rd Textile Institute World Conference, and presented at that conference in Shanghai May 2004. The Textile Institute has a Royal Charter and its conference proceedings are refereed internationally. This research led the author to invitations to give a seminar at the Association of International Accounts in Manchester. This research also led the author to invitations to give guest MBA lectures at Hochschule Albstadt-Sigmaringen, Germany