1a. The value creation goal of corporate governance focuses on shareholder value creation and enhancement through the development of long-term strategies to ensure sustainable and enduring operational performance. The value protection goal of corporate governance concentrates on the accountability of the way a company is managed and monitored to protect the interests of shareholders and other stakeholders. These two concepts should be considered within every company.

• Discuss the significance and importance of investors (shareholders) as the first tier of the stakeholder hierarchy.

1b. External governance mechanisms are intended to monitor the company's activities, affairs, and performance to ensure that the interests of insiders (management, directors, and officers) are aligned with the interests of outsiders (shareholders and other stakeholders). Examples of external mechanisms are the capital market, the market for corporate control, and the labor market, as well as state and federal statutes, court decisions, shareholder proposals, and best practices of investor activists. These mechanisms may be helpful in aligning management incentives with shareholder interests, and controlling management behavior. Interestingly, the FBI state the rise of digital technology and internet file sharing has caused of intellectual property theft to cost U.S. businesses billions of dollars per year with loss of jobs and loss of tax revenues (Intellectual property theft, 2017).