M51CLS Corporate Governance Failure Analysis: Toys 'R' Us Case Study

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the corporate governance failure of Toys 'R' Us. It begins with an introduction to corporate governance and its significance, followed by a discussion of the company's history and its dominance in the toy industry. The core of the report focuses on the factors that led to Toys 'R' Us's downfall, including the impact of its e-commerce strategy, the role of the Board of Directors, and the application of corporate governance theories such as agency theory, stewardship theory, and stakeholder theory. The report examines how these theories relate to the company's failures and concludes with a summary of the conditions that contributed to the company's decline, offering valuable insights into the importance of effective corporate governance in maintaining a company's success. The report also includes a discussion on the various theories of corporate governance and their relevance to the case study.

Running head: CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Introduction
Corporate Governance is considered to be the method by which the companies or any
kind of organizations are governed or regulated. The companies or organizations have certain
rules and regulations. They follow certain guidelines which would help them in maintaining an
order within the organization. Therefore, companies follow certain guidelines where they need to
be governed by the directors of the organization or the companies. Corporate Governance is the
method by which the companies or the organizations are governed and regulated1. The
companies or the organizations are regulated or governed by the directors who are a part of that
organization. The directors of a company ore an organization has certain rules and guidelines,
which they need to follow, and the directors are responsible for the working of the company or
organization. The shareholders of the company or an organization select the Board of Directors.
Therefore, the directors have the authority to regulate and govern the working of an
organization2. The Board of directors govern and regulate the working of an organization by
setting up strategic aims and implementing new schemes and methods and trying to execute
them, which would make the organization gain profit and would help them in creating a better
future for the company or the organization3. Therefore, corporate governance is the process by
which the day-to-day functional or operational activities of an organization are valued and this
process helps in regulating or governing the management of an organization by the executives of
that company.
1 Bevir, Mark. Governance: A very short introduction. OUP Oxford, 2012.
2 Farber, David B. "Restoring trust after fraud: Does corporate governance matter?." The Accounting
Review 80.2 (2005): 539-561.
3Murphy, Patrick E., and Bodo B. Schlegelmilch. "Corporate social responsibility and corporate social
irresponsibility: Introduction to a special topic section." Journal of Business Research 66.10 (2013): 1807-
1813.

2CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
This paper discusses one of the biggest corporate failures around the world and it tries to
relate the theories which led to the downfall of that company or organization. The company on
which the paper is based has been one of the most dominant company in the industry. The
company which would be dealt with in this paper would be Toys ‘R’ Us. The thesis statement of
this paper discusses the various aspects and the issues relating to corporate governance failure
and what role the Board of Directors played which led to the failure of the company or
organization. In conclusion, it summarizes the conditions that led to the downfall of the company
and discusses the impact regulation or governance has on a company or an organization.
Discussion
The organizations or companies are legal entities that employ or appoint group of people
with a specific motive or objective. Companies or organizations that act as corporations,
institutions have a separate legal identity and is considered to be artificial persons that are
governed or regulated by Board of Directors with the objective of gaining profits4. The
shareholders or the shareowners of the company owns the shares and select the Board of
Directors who would carry out the duties on behalf of the company as they are considered to be
artificial persons. If an organization fails to work and carry on duties that incurs losses for the
organization then the company needs to be wound up since it is not able to function properly or
in an effective manner5.
Brief Overview on Toys ‘R’ Us
Toys ‘R’ Us is a popular company which was created by Charles Lazarus in the year 1948. At
first it was a small furniture store which was created to sell baby furniture. After a while Lazarus
4Chang, Chen-Shan, Shang-Wu Yu, and Cheng-Huang Hung. "Firm risk and performance: the role of
corporate governance." Review of Managerial Science 9.1 (2015): 141-173.
5 Burke, W. Warner. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications, 2017.

3CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
thought of expanding its business by selling toys for children. As children were supposed to play
with toys. The instinct of Lazarus was correct as it became one of the greatest toy store that used
to sell toys for kids and it washed away the existence of other toy stores in America. It created
dominance in the market and were one of the biggest competitors in the whole market. After its
huge success of selling toys it tried branching out by selling clothes for kids and babies which
also caught on. The toy store became so popular that it even had its own mascot which was
known as Geoffrey the Giraffe. The company dominated the toy industry and the majority of the
kids were associated with the company name and its brand. While Japan was rebuilding its
economy, it started selling its low-priced toys that were bought by Lazarus in bulk6. It had also
been open to the idea of advertising the products and its brand on television which was beneficial
for them. The concept of toys being sold like groceries in a departmental store style was a new
strategy which was implemented by the company which helped them earn the brand value of that
company and captured the market completely. The company became publicly listed and it
dominated the toy industry for years7. The cause of the downfall for the company was when they
made a decision to sign a contract with Amazon to enter the e-commerce market and gave
exclusive rights to Amazon for selling their toys. Amazon breached the contract and violated the
conditions of that deal by allowing other retailers to sell toys. The company sued Amazon for the
breach but it was not able to establish an e-commerce presence for itself. Therefore, this led to
the downfall of the company along with other reasons that were also considered to be the reason
for the failure of the company8.
6 Thomison, Ethan S. "A strategic marketing and financial analysis of Toys R Us." (2016).
7HISTORY (2019). Inside the Rise and Fall of Toys ‘R’ Us. [online] HISTORY. Available at:
https://www.history.com/news/toys-r-us-closing-legacy [Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].
8 FinSMEs (2019). Toys R Us: From Industry Titan To Happy Childhood Memory | FinSMEs. [online]
FinSMEs. Available at: http://www.finsmes.com/2019/01/toys-r-us-from-industry-titan-to-happy-childhood-
memory.html [Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].

4CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Theories of Corporate Governance
Corporate Governance is one of the significant factors which governs the operations of a
company or organization. The companies are becoming a powerful institution as they have the
power to influence the economy of the nations9. Therefore the organizations or the companies
need to be regulated and governed in order to benefit the economy of a nation. There are various
theories related to Corporate Governance that are mentioned below:
Agency Theory: This theory discusses and demonstrates the relationship or connection
between a principal or agent and in this case the executives of a company or an organization and
its shareowners10. In this particular theory the principals or the shareowners of an organization
imposes duties and responsibilities on the agents which are the executives of the company or the
organization whereby the executives of the company acts in accordance to the duties and
responsibilities laid down by the shareowners of the organization11.
Stewardship Theory: This theory discusses the maximization of profits and the wealth of
a company or organization brought for the shareowners by the stewards for performing their
duties. The directors or the executives’ of a company or an organization performs their activities
that helps in maximizing the profits and the overall wealth of the company. The utility of the
executives are also maximized in return12. Unlike the agency theory this theory does not
9Pdfs.semanticscholar.org (2019). [online] Pdfs.semanticscholar.org. Available at:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/886d/c63d287375c54f5143225243a5edecddbf59.pdf [Accessed 30 Aug.
2019].
10 Mitnick, Barry M. "Agency theory." Wiley encyclopedia of management (2015): 1-6.
11 Shi, Wei, Brian L. Connelly, and Robert E. Hoskisson. "External corporate governance and financial
fraud: Cognitive evaluation theory insights on agency theory prescriptions." Strategic Management
Journal 38.6 (2017): 1268-1286.
12 Madison, Kristen, et al. "Viewing family firm behavior and governance through the lens of agency and
stewardship theories." Family Business Review 29.1 (2016): 65-93.

5CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
concentrate on the fact of self-interest of the shareowners but it rather focuses on the
performance of the duties done by the executives of the organization or the companies13.
Political Theory: This theory discusses the political influence the government has on the
organization or the company. The government does not purchase the voting rights of the
company but the voting power of the shareowners are influenced. It influences the corporate
governance of the company and how it is to be regulated. It is much reserved as the authorities
involve the government in the decision making of the company or organization. Therefore, in
this theory the government’s influence in a company or organization is taken into
consideration14.
Transaction Cost Theory: In this theory the organization or the firm has people who are
having different perspectives and views. This theory is based on economics, law and
organizations. The organizations or the companies are of that view that the effect of the
companies costs are so huge in the market that it substitutes the market for distribution of
resources. The way of evaluating or assessing the transaction cost theory is through transaction.
Thus, in this theory it determines that the executives and the shareowners are opportunists and
the focus is on self-interests of the shareowners15.
Stakeholder Theory: In this theory the main focus is on any kind of group which is
considered to be affected or any group which might affect some other individual. It is different
from that of the agency theory because in the agency theory the emphasis is on the shareowners
13 Glinkowska, Beata, and Bogusław Kaczmarek. "Classical and modern concepts of corporate
governance (Stewardship Theory and Agency Theory)." Management 19.2 (2015): 84-92.
14Scherer, Andreas Georg, Guido Palazzo, and Dirk Matten. "The business firm as a political actor: A new
theory of the firm for a globalized world." Business & Society 53.2 (2014): 143-156.
15O'Brien, Jonathan P., et al. "How capital structure influences diversification performance: A transaction
cost perspective." Strategic Management Journal 35.7 (2014): 1013-1031.

6CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
and executives relationship16. In case of the stakeholder theory the focus is on the employer,
employee, management, owners relationships. The interests of the management are also of equal
concern in this theory. The purpose or the objective of an organization is to create profits and
wealth for the people involved in functioning of the company. It concentrates on several groups
for individual’s betterment17.
Resource Dependency Theory: This theory mainly focuses on the board of directors role
in a company or an organization. The role of the directors in a company or an organization is to
create availability of resources by connecting and creating relations with other individuals who
would provide benefits to the particular organization or companies. In this theory the main
emphasis is on selecting representatives from organizations which are independent in order to
create connections which would give them the availability of resources which would determine
the success of the company or organization18.
The stewardship theory would be appropriate in this case since the theory discusses the
maximization of the profit and wealth of the organization instead of the self-interests of the
shareowners. In the case of Toys ‘R’ Us the company or the organization’s objective was to
create maximization of wealth and earn profits by implementing new techniques and concepts
which were helping them get new customers. There was a continuous development in the part of
the company’s profits as the organization was implementing techniques and concepts that were
new and innovative which grabbed several customers interest. Therefore, this helped them create
a customer base and gave customer satisfaction. The downfall happened after they tried to enter
16Andriof, Jörg, and Sandra Waddock. "Unfolding stakeholder engagement." Unfolding stakeholder
thinking. Routledge, 2017. 19-42.
17Ayuso, Silvia, et al. "Maximizing stakeholders’ interests: An empirical analysis of the stakeholder
approach to corporate governance." Business & society 53.3 (2014): 414-439.
18 Pugliese, Amedeo, Alessandro Minichilli, and Alessandro Zattoni. "Integrating agency and resource
dependence theory: Firm profitability, industry regulation, and board task performance." Journal of
Business Research 67.6 (2014): 1189-1200.

7CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
the e-commerce market which they wanted to enter to acquire a dominant position in that arena.
Therefore, the stewardship theory could be used to analyze the company’s condition among the
other theories.
Failure of the regulatory framework
According to the corporate governance framework the rules and regulations which
govern the company or organizations have a separate framework which specifically looks after
the rules and guidelines of that particular company or organization. In The UK Corporate
Governance Code19, according to Section A of the code it has been stated that the regulations that
are laid down in the company states that there needs to be Board of Directors present to govern
the activities of the company and its employees. One person cannot carry on the regulatory
activities of the company and one person cannot be given such power to control. Thus, it has
been stated in the code that an effective board of directors need to be appointed who would be
responsible collectively for the organization’s long-term success20. The functions carried out by
the Board of Directors in a company or organization needs to be effective which has been laid
down in Section B of the code. The directors of the company or the organization should function
in an effective manner that is stated by the code. The accountability of the directors and its
shareowners are also taken into consideration and it has been laid down in Section C of the code.
The remuneration policies of the employees of the company or organization should be set
according to the long-term success and profit of the company as stated in Section D of the code.
Lastly, the relation with the shareholders according to Section E of the code is where the main
19 Frc.org.uk (2019). [online] Frc.org.uk. Available at: https://www.frc.org.uk/getattachment/ca7e94c4-
b9a9-49e2-a824-ad76a322873c/UK-Corporate-Governance-Code-April-2016.pdf [Accessed 30 Aug.
2019].
20 Veldman, Jeroen, and Hugh Willmott. "The cultural grammar of governance: The UK Code of Corporate
Governance, reflexivity, and the limits of ‘soft’regulation." human relations69.3 (2016): 581-603.

8CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
principle of this section is to have dialogue with the shareowners or the shareholders of that
organization or the company21.
In the case of the company or the organization in question there was a failure of the
regulatory framework of the company as the board of directors could not effectively carry out the
functions after Lazarus who was the chairman resigned. The decision making and the leadership
was mainly concentrated on one person and after the founder resigned the Board of Directors
could not function effectively and thus, the company saw a downfall because of the failure of the
regulatory framework22.
Issues related to the Board of Directors
According to Section A of The UK Corporate Governance Code it states that a company
or an organization has to be regulated and governed by its Board of Directors and the power of
the company cannot be given to a person for governing the operations of the company.
Therefore, there are a set of rules and regulations for the role of Board of Directors of the
company that they have to abide by23. Toys ‘R’ Us had a huge brand value and recognition but its
downfall came as it failed to keep up with the changing trends and the competition from different
other brands. There were issues with the management as the executives failed to adapt to the
changes in the society and the choices of the customers24. Their downfall came as they signed a
ten year deal with Amazon in order to enter the e-commerce market which was becoming a trend
during that period. They signed a deal which gave Amazon the exclusive rights to sell their toys
21Eling, Martin, and Sebastian D. Marek. "Corporate governance and risk taking: Evidence from the UK
and German insurance markets." Journal of Risk and Insurance81.3 (2014): 653-682.
22 Tricker, RI Bob, and Robert Ian Tricker. Corporate governance: Principles, policies, and practices.
Oxford University Press, USA, 2015.
23 McCahery, Joseph A., Zacharias Sautner, and Laura T. Starks. "Behind the scenes: The corporate
governance preferences of institutional investors." The Journal of Finance 71.6 (2016): 2905-2932.
24 García-Sánchez, Isabel-María, Luis Rodríguez-Domínguez, and José-Valeriano Frías-Aceituno. "Board
of directors and ethics codes in different corporate governance systems." Journal of Business
Ethics 131.3 (2015): 681-698.

9CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
but Amazon did not follow the conditions of the contract and it sold toys from other brands as
well. The company or the organization sued Amazon but nothing fruitful came out of it25. The
company recently filed for liquidation of its stores in the United States as well as United
Kingdom in order to pay debts. There are no interested buyers. The issues were the executives
were not able to carry out the duties effectively and the accountability of the company or the
organization was also in question. The company had a huge debt to pay26. The downfall mainly
started taking place after the resignation of the founder Charles Lazarus27. Under the leadership
of Lazarus the company blossomed and dominated the market by implementing new concepts
and strategies. Therefore, after the resignation of the founder the company started losing its
market and slowly could not adapt to the changing trend28.
Role of shareholders and stakeholders in the organization
The shareholders or the shareowners of a company or organizations are individuals who
have shares invested in a company or an organization. The shareholders or the shareowners of a
company or an organization selects or appoints the directors of the company and their role in the
company is to regulate and govern the functions of the company. The stakeholders of the
company or an organization are the ones who would be affected by the profits or the losses of the
company. Some of the shareholders or the shareowners of a company or an organization are also
stakeholders of the company as they have the voting rights along with the shares of the
25 Dou, Ying, Sidharth Sahgal, and Emma Jincheng Zhang. "Should independent directors have term
limits? The role of experience in corporate governance." Financial Management44.3 (2015): 583-621.
26 Grossi, Giuseppe, Ulf Papenfuß, and Marie-Soleil Tremblay. "Corporate governance and accountability
of state-owned enterprises: relevance for science and society and interdisciplinary research
perspectives." International Journal of Public Sector Management 28.4/5 (2015): 274-285.
27 Eisner, Alan B., et al. "Toys-R-Us (A) in the online toy business & Toys-R-Us (B) forms an online
alliance." Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management 4.2 (2016): 1071.
28Bolton, Jacob, Jacob Farmer, and Heath Pennington. "An Unwrapping of the Toys “R” Us Chapter 11
Bankruptcy." (2019).

10CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
company29. Thus, if a company gains profit then the stakeholders of the company benefit from
them and if the company incurs losses then the stakeholders are the ones who are affected by its
loss. Therefore, the stakeholders and the shareholders of a company or an organization plays a
significant role. In the case of Toys ‘R’ Us the stakeholders benefitted from the company’s profit
for years as the company or the organization had created a name for itself and captured the
market. The company or the organization in question had dominated the market for a long period
of time with the new concept and new techniques which were constantly being implemented in
order to create profits in the industry30. It was being able to drive its competitors away by those
new techniques. As a reason the shareholders or the stakeholders of the company or an
organization were benefitting from it but after a while the company could not adapt to the
changing trend and changing taste of the consumers or their customers31. Other companies were
coming into existence which had new ideas or concepts which were grabbing the eyes of the
customers and the company in question tried alternative ways to get hold of the customers but
failed to do so which became the reason for the downfall of the company. Recently the company
filed for liquidation of its stores. The physical stores, which were still open, are being shut down
as the company has become bankrupt. Therefore, this has created a huge drawback for the
company which dominated the toy industry for decades. Thus, it affects the shareholders and the
stakeholders of the company as they had to incur huge amount of losses due to it32.
29 Garcia-Torea, Nicolas, Belen Fernandez-Feijoo, and Marta de la Cuesta. "Board of director's
effectiveness and the stakeholder perspective of corporate governance: Do effective boards promote the
interests of shareholders and stakeholders?." BRQ Business Research Quarterly 19.4 (2016): 246-260.
30Staff, Rose Thorn. "Volume 53-Issue 4-September 25, 2017." (2015).
31Way, One Geoffrey. "TOYS “R” US, INC."
32 Stowell, David P., and Matthew Raino. "The toys “r” us LBO." Kellogg School of Management
Cases (2017).

11CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Recommendations
The above-mentioned organization Toys ‘R’ Us was one of the most dominating
organization in the toy industry. They drove away their competitors with the new concepts and
innovative techniques, which they implemented that helped them in acquiring the market. The
company’s downfall was after they tried to capture the e-commerce market by signing a deal.
The company needed to adapt to the changing trends of the society as well as the changing needs
of the customers. They had become monotonous in a way that made them lose connection with
their customers. They could not come with new varieties that also effected their sale. The
company tried to come up with new techniques but failed to grab the attention of the customers
after a period of time. In order to create a place in the online market they hastily signed a ten
year of deal which was the main reason or cause for their downfall. Therefore, the company or
the organization should not have signed a ten year deal with Amazon and it should have come
with new varieties and strategies which would grabbed the attention of the customers. They
needed to adapt to the changing trend and taste of the customers.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded, that Corporate Governance is
the process or the method in which the companies or the organizations are governed or regulated
by the Board of Directors or the executives of the company. The Board of Directors are selected
or appointed by the shareholders or the shareowners of the company or organization. The
shareowners of the company are also considered to be the stakeholders as they are the people
who get affected by the profits or the losses of the company and they invests in the shares of the
company. The company that has faced one of the biggest corporate failures around the world and
has been the topic for this particular paper was Toys ‘R’ Us which ruled and dominated the toy

12CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
industry in the world for a long period of time. The various issues that led to the downfall of the
company has been dealt with and discussed in this paper. The issues related to the failure of the
company or the organization in relation to corporate governance had been discussed. Therefore,
to summarize this paper discusses the definition of Corporate Governance and the role of
directors or the executives in a company along with the impact the shareholders or the
shareowners have on a particular company or organization. The recommendations are also
provided which states the various ways the company or the organization that has had the biggest
corporate failure around the world and the topic for this paper would have benefitted in a way
which would have helped them or prevented them from this downfall. Thus, to conclude, a
company or an organization has specific rules and guidelines which are laid down by the
executives which are to be governed and regulated by the board of Directors who have been
appointed or selected by the shareholders or the shareowners of the organization with a specific
purpose or objective which is to gain profits. Thus, the board of directors regulate the
organizational and operational activities of the company or the organization.

13CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Bibliography ( Secondary Sources)
Bevir, Mark. Governance: A very short introduction. OUP Oxford, 2012.
Farber, David B. "Restoring trust after fraud: Does corporate governance matter?." The
Accounting Review 80.2 (2005): 539-561.
Murphy, Patrick E., and Bodo B. Schlegelmilch. "Corporate social responsibility and corporate
social irresponsibility: Introduction to a special topic section." Journal of Business
Research 66.10 (2013): 1807-1813.
Burke, W. Warner. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications, 2017.
HISTORY (2019). Inside the Rise and Fall of Toys ‘R’ Us. [online] HISTORY. Available at:
https://www.history.com/news/toys-r-us-closing-legacy [Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].
FinSMEs (2019). Toys R Us: From Industry Titan To Happy Childhood Memory | FinSMEs.
[online] FinSMEs. Available at: http://www.finsmes.com/2019/01/toys-r-us-from-industry-titan-
to-happy-childhood-memory.html [Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].
Pdfs.semanticscholar.org (2019). [online] Pdfs.semanticscholar.org. Available at:
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/886d/c63d287375c54f5143225243a5edecddbf59.pdf [Accessed
30 Aug. 2019].

14CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Shi, Wei, Brian L. Connelly, and Robert E. Hoskisson. "External corporate governance and
financial fraud: Cognitive evaluation theory insights on agency theory prescriptions." Strategic
Management Journal 38.6 (2017): 1268-1286.
Glinkowska, Beata, and Bogusław Kaczmarek. "Classical and modern concepts of corporate
governance (Stewardship Theory and Agency Theory)." Management 19.2 (2015): 84-92.
Scherer, Andreas Georg, Guido Palazzo, and Dirk Matten. "The business firm as a political
actor: A new theory of the firm for a globalized world." Business & Society 53.2 (2014): 143-
156.
O'Brien, Jonathan P., et al. "How capital structure influences diversification performance: A
transaction cost perspective." Strategic Management Journal 35.7 (2014): 1013-1031.
Ayuso, Silvia, et al. "Maximizing stakeholders’ interests: An empirical analysis of the
stakeholder approach to corporate governance." Business & society 53.3 (2014): 414-439.
Pugliese, Amedeo, Alessandro Minichilli, and Alessandro Zattoni. "Integrating agency and
resource dependence theory: Firm profitability, industry regulation, and board task
performance." Journal of Business Research 67.6 (2014): 1189-1200.

15CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Frc.org.uk (2019). [online] Frc.org.uk. Available at:
https://www.frc.org.uk/getattachment/ca7e94c4-b9a9-49e2-a824-ad76a322873c/UK-Corporate-
Governance-Code-April-2016.pdf [Accessed 30 Aug. 2019].
Veldman, Jeroen, and Hugh Willmott. "The cultural grammar of governance: The UK Code of
Corporate Governance, reflexivity, and the limits of ‘soft’regulation." human relations69.3
(2016): 581-603.
Eling, Martin, and Sebastian D. Marek. "Corporate governance and risk taking: Evidence from
the UK and German insurance markets." Journal of Risk and Insurance81.3 (2014): 653-682.
Tricker, RI Bob, and Robert Ian Tricker. Corporate governance: Principles, policies, and
practices. Oxford University Press, USA, 2015.
McCahery, Joseph A., Zacharias Sautner, and Laura T. Starks. "Behind the scenes: The corporate
governance preferences of institutional investors." The Journal of Finance 71.6 (2016): 2905-
2932.
García-Sánchez, Isabel-María, Luis Rodríguez-Domínguez, and José-Valeriano Frías-Aceituno.
"Board of directors and ethics codes in different corporate governance systems." Journal of
Business Ethics 131.3 (2015): 681-698.

16CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Dou, Ying, Sidharth Sahgal, and Emma Jincheng Zhang. "Should independent directors have
term limits? The role of experience in corporate governance." Financial Management44.3
(2015): 583-621.
Grossi, Giuseppe, Ulf Papenfuß, and Marie-Soleil Tremblay. "Corporate governance and
accountability of state-owned enterprises: relevance for science and society and interdisciplinary
research perspectives." International Journal of Public Sector Management 28.4/5 (2015): 274-
285.
Eisner, Alan B., et al. "Toys-R-Us (A) in the online toy business & Toys-R-Us (B) forms an
online alliance." Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management 4.2 (2016): 1071.
Bolton, Jacob, Jacob Farmer, and Heath Pennington. "An Unwrapping of the Toys “R” Us
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy." (2019).
Chang, Chen-Shan, Shang-Wu Yu, and Cheng-Huang Hung. "Firm risk and performance: the
role of corporate governance." Review of Managerial Science 9.1 (2015): 141-173.
Thomison, Ethan S. "A strategic marketing and financial analysis of Toys R Us." (2016).
Mitnick, Barry M. "Agency theory." Wiley encyclopedia of management (2015): 1-6.

17CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Garcia-Torea, Nicolas, Belen Fernandez-Feijoo, and Marta de la Cuesta. "Board of director's
effectiveness and the stakeholder perspective of corporate governance: Do effective boards
promote the interests of shareholders and stakeholders?." BRQ Business Research Quarterly 19.4
(2016): 246-260.
Staff, Rose Thorn. "Volume 53-Issue 4-September 25, 2017." (2015).
Way, One Geoffrey. "TOYS “R” US, INC."
Stowell, David P., and Matthew Raino. "The toys “r” us LBO." Kellogg School of Management
Cases (2017).
Madison, Kristen, et al. "Viewing family firm behavior and governance through the lens of
agency and stewardship theories." Family Business Review 29.1 (2016): 65-93.
Andriof, Jörg, and Sandra Waddock. "Unfolding stakeholder engagement." Unfolding
stakeholder thinking. Routledge, 2017. 19-42.