African American Entrepreneurs

CHAPTER 1

Financial Markets, Investor Confidence, and Corporate Governance

Introduction

This chapter presents the importance and dynamics of relationships between capital markets and businesses as perceived by the investors and transformed through corporate governance. A wave of financial scandals at the turn of the twenty-first century and the 2007–2009 global financial crises eroded public trust and investor confidence in corporate America and its financial reports. Several initiatives and reforms, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) of 2002, the Dodd-Frank Act (DOF) of 2010, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-related implementation rules and regulations, as well as listing standards of national stock exchanges, and ...