Corporate governance and corporate performance : implications for transition economies

This study examines corporate governance modes in different international business systems: the Anglo-Saxon, the Communitarian, and the Asian/emerging business systems. The review of the literature covers the link between corporate governance and the agency problem on the basis that the latter is concerned with the conflicting interests between corporate managers and its financiers. In this respect, the literature has come up with mechanisms that can mitigate the negative effects of the agency problem such as incentive contracts. The study also addresses the conventional practices of corporate governance as equivalent to practices of corporate finance. In this respect, debt financing and equity financing are discussed as the two main financial tools that shape the financial phase of corporate governance. The management discretion, upon which financing mechanism(s) is (are) to be relatively relied upon, is inherent the certain institutional infrastructure that permits certain financing mechanism to relatively dominate the other(s). In this concern, the study discusses the political-legal perspectives of corporate governance. Considering that different international business systems result in different institutional structures and orientations, the financing mechanisms available in each system create certain economic institutions such as the stock markets, banks, ...etc. In this regard, the study discuses, from international business perspectives, the basic corporate governance mechanisms: the stock market governance, the banks governance and the role of the board of directors in corporate governance. The study extends the current domain of corporate governance to address non-financial issues drawn from the literature of social-business studies in international business context. These issues are corporate orientation towards its stakeholders interests and corporate identity as determinants to the corporate relative competitive position in the marketplace. In addition, from a transitional markets point of view, the study examines what information can be disclosed to company's stakeholders for monitoring its performance, thus providing an evidence that helps corporate stakeholders to certify the company's business affairs.