Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Comparative Corporate
Governance
- CORPORATE GOVERNANCE : "describes the rules, practices, and processes through which firms are controlled."
- About the effectiveness of directing and controlling businesses.
- Obvious political question: Who is in charge of deciding how profits are going to be distributed?
- COMPARATIVE : comparing corporate governance across countries or types of countries
- SHAREHOLDER
ACTIVISM
- = Shareholders take on an active role in firm's operations + attempt to secure drastic
changes in the organisation when performance declines
- ex. They can engage in proxy fights, which are unfriendly contestations over the control of the firm
- COMPARING BOARD
SYSTEMS
- Unitary Board System
- Unification of Management + Control
- Board of Directors (Management +
Control)
- Common in most countries, especially Anglo-Saxon countries,
France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Singapore
- CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN UNITED STATES
- Two-Tier Board System
- Separation of Management + Control
- Management Board, Supervisory Board (Control)
- Common in Germany, AustrIa, Netherlands (only for big stock
companies), France (on voluntary basis)
- CORPORATE GOVERNANCE IN GERMANY
- RELATIONSHIP MODEL OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
- GERMANY
- Two-tier board system
- Relationships involve cross-shareholding +
relationships with labor representatives
- ex. Volkswagen
- JAPAN
- Banks = main relationship investors
- Offer internal voice + very stable shareholding,
virtually without exit - longterm view
- Can facilitate company restructuring in a liquidity crisis
- Keiretsus (set of companies with interlocking business relationships + shareholdings; type of informal business group)
are held together by cross-shareholdings + webs of supply linkages + other forms of cooperation
- Customers + Suppliers have significant voice in shaping how the firm operates
- WEAKNESSES
- Less pressures from stock market (market as a disciplining force)
- Without a realistic exit threat from shareholders + suppliers, there's a danger that their voices
aren't taken seriously
- Dual role of banks can be problematic: internal voice + possibly aiding
restructuring?
- FAMILY OWNERSHIP &
CONTROL
- Poorer investor protection associated with less liquid capital markets
- In illiquid financial markets, controlling family can be critical for providing financial resources
- Large proportion of listed companies in East Asia is under family control
- Many markets in EA = rather illiquid