Corporate Governance Around The World

The last Asian financial crisis, coupled with the western series of corporate scandals, has caused investors and citizens to doubt mangers’ ability to guarantee credible financial information about organizations. Consequently, legislators all over the world have come to realise the necessity of legislating in the area of corporate governance. This book explores several national corporate governance reform experiences from around the world (including Canada, China, the United States, and the European Union) and offers an explanatory theory with regard to national systems of corporate governance. It also underlines corporate governance as a management tool and principle. The author argues that each country should be encouraged to build its own system of corporate governance which should be harmonized with its history, culture and the level of its economic development.

For many Americans, capitalism is a dynamic engine of prosperity that rewards the bold, the daring, and the hardworking. But to many outside the United States, capitalism seems like an initiative that serves only to concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a few hereditary oligarchies. As A History of Corporate Governance around the World shows, neither conception is wrong. In this volume, some of the brightest minds in the field of economics present new empirical research that suggests that each side of the debate has something to offer the other. Free enterprise and well-developed financial systems are proven to produce growth in those countries that have them. But research also suggests that in some other capitalist countries, arrangements truly do concentrate corporate ownership in the hands of a few wealthy families. A History of Corporate Governance around the World provides historical studies of the patterns of corporate governance in several countries-including the large industrial economies of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States; larger developing economies like China and India; and alternative models like those of the Netherlands and Sweden.

The last Asian financial crisis, coupled with the western series of corporate scandals, has caused investors and citizens to doubt mangers’ ability to guarantee credible financial information about organizations. Consequently, legislators all over the world have come to realise the necessity of legislating in the area of corporate governance. This book explores several national corporate governance reform experiences from around the world (including Canada, China, the United States, and the European Union) and offers an explanatory theory with regard to national systems of corporate governance. It also underlines corporate governance as a management tool and principle. The author argues that each country should be encouraged to build its own system of corporate governance which should be harmonized with its history, culture and the level of its economic development.

Why does corporate governance--front page news with the collapse of Enron, WorldCom, and Parmalat--vary so dramatically around the world? This book explains how politics shapes corporate governance--how managers, shareholders, and workers jockey for advantage in setting the rules by which companies are run, and for whom they are run. It combines a clear theoretical model on this political interaction, with statistical evidence from thirty-nine countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America and detailed narratives of country cases. This book differs sharply from most treatments by explaining differences in minority shareholder protections and ownership concentration among countries in terms of the interaction of economic preferences and political institutions. It explores in particular the crucial role of pension plans and financial intermediaries in shaping political preferences for different rules of corporate governance. The countries examined sort into two distinct groups: diffuse shareholding by external investors who pick a board that monitors the managers, and concentrated blockholding by insiders who monitor managers directly. Examining the political coalitions that form among or across management, owners, and workers, the authors find that certain coalitions encourage policies that promote diffuse shareholding, while other coalitions yield blockholding-oriented policies. Political institutions influence the probability of one coalition defeating another.

The current crisis has rocked the financial system worldwide and has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the existing regulatory regime. Thousands of firms have gone bankrupt and many financial institutions were bailed out by governments. The effects of the crisis have shaken emerging and developing markets alike and have not spared neither small nor large businesses. Many scholars and practitioners attribute the roots of the crisis to failures and weaknesses in the way corporate governance has been practiced since the mid-1990s. Lax board oversight of top management, short-termism and self-interested behavior have been fingered as the culprits behind recent financial turmoil. This book highlights the recent developments and new trends in corporate governance. The eighteen chapters, written by leading academics and experts, can assist corporate executives, governance bodies, investors, market regulators, and policymakers in having a global picture of major corporate governance issues. This book highlights the recent developments and new trends in corporate governance. The eighteen chapters, written by leading academics and experts, can assist corporate executives, governance bodies, investors, market regulators, and policymakers in having a global picture of major corporate governance issues.

These principles of corporate governance, endorsed by the OECD Council at Ministerial level in 1999, provide guidelines and standards to insure inclusion, accountability and abilit to attract capital.

This research handbook provides a state-of-the-art perspective on how corporate governance differs between countries around the world. It covers highly topical issues including corporate purpose, corporate social responsibility and shareholder activism.

Thomas Clarke's International Corporate Governance offers a comprehensive guide to corporate governance forms and institutions and examines the recurring crises in corporate governance and the resulting corporate governance reform around the world. While the popular structure of the original text has been retained, significant changes have been made to take account of the global financial crisis, ever-changing regulations and worldwide governance developments. Key topics include: The governance failures of international corporations such as Enron and Lehman Brothers Diversity in corporate and institutional forms across the world The role of international corporate governance standards Digital disruption in capital markets and proposals for rebuilding commitment to long-term investing The impact of financialization and corporate governance practices on increasing inequality The links between corporate governance, corporate social responsibility and sustainability This textbook contains a wealth of pedagogical material to guide the reader through this complex subject, including student questions to help with assessments, and a new companion website. There are also thirteen forensic case studies which scrutinize the governance failures seen at RBS, UBS, BP, Volkswagen and many other international corporations. International Corporate Governance will be an essential text for anybody studying corporate governance at the advanced undergraduate, master's or executive level.