This volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the development of corporate governances across a range of countries, including Australia, Germany, Spain and the UK. It also gives insight into its evolution in countries with diverse cultural, economic and legal systems.

The behavior of managers-such as the rewards they obtain for poor performance, the role of boards of directors in monitoring managers, and the regulatory framework covering the corporate governance mechanisms that are put in place to ensure managers' accountability to shareholder and other stakeholders-has been the subject of extensive media and policy scrutiny in light of the financial crisis of the early 2000s. However, corporate governance covers a much broader set of issues, which requires detailed assessment as a central issue of concern to business and society. Critiques of traditional governance research based on agency theory have noted its "under-contextualized" nature and its inability to compare accurately and explain the diversity of corporate governance arrangements across different institutional contexts. The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Governance aims at closing these theoretical and empirical gaps. It considers corporate governance issues at multiple levels of analysis-the individual manager, firms, institutions, industries, and nations-and presents international evidence to reflect the wide variety of perspectives. In analyzing the effects of corporate governance on performance, a variety of indicators are considered, such as accounting profit, economic profit, productivity growth, market share, proxies for environmental and social performance, such as diversity and other aspects of corporate social responsibility, and of course, share price effects. In addition to providing a high level review and analysis of the existing literature, each chapter develops an agenda for further research on a specific aspect of corporate governance. This Handbook constitutes the definitive source of academic research on corporate governance, synthesizing studies from economics, strategy, international business, organizational behavior, entrepreneurship, business ethics, accounting, finance, and law.

Rev. ed. of : The handbook of international corporate governance / Chris Pierce and Kerrie Waring. 2004.

The urgent and sustained interest in corporate governance is unprecedented, with the connections between corporate governance and economic performance being emphasized by the World Bank, the IMF and others in the global economic community. In this timely and definitive intellectual analysis of a key discipline, The SAGE Handbook of Corporate Governance offers a critical overview of the key themes, theoretical controversies, current research and emerging concepts that frame the field. Consisting of original substantive chapters by leading international scholars, and examining corporate governance from an inter-disciplinary basis, the text highlights how governance issues are critical to the formation, growth, financing, structural development, and strategic direction of companies and how corporate governance institutions in turn influence the innovation and development of industrial and economic systems globally. Comprehensive, authoritative and presented in a highly-accessible framework, this Handbook is a significant resource to those with an interest in understanding this important emerging field.

Corporate law and corporate governance have been at the forefront of regulatory activities across the world for several decades now, and are subject to increasing public attention following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Law and Governance provides the global framework necessary to understand the aims and methods of legal research in this field. Written by leading scholars from around the world, the Handbook contains a rich variety of chapters that provide a comparative and functional overview of corporate governance. It opens with the central theoretical approaches and methodologies in corporate law scholarship in Part I, before examining core substantive topics in corporate law, including shareholder rights, takeovers and restructuring, and minority rights in Part II. Part III focuses on new challenges in the field, including conflicts between Western and Asian corporate governance environments, the rise of foreign ownership, and emerging markets. Enforcement issues are covered in Part IV, and Part V takes a broader approach, examining those areas of law and finance that are interwoven with corporate governance, including insolvency, taxation, and securities law as well as financial regulation. The Handbook is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary resource placing corporate law and governance in its wider context, and is essential reading for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in the field.

'Throughout the world there is conflict between the desire to reap wealth from strong corporate functioning and the imperative of preserving the integrity of the sovereign state. Christine Mallin has assembled a collection of delightful essays describing the current circumstances of corporate governance in a variety of different countries. The volume reads like a story, fascinating, accessible and informative. The book can be read for information in each article or as a totality giving insight into the critical balancing of interests required in particular countries. Anyone buying this book – and you should – will have a fine experience.' – Robert Monks, Lens Governance Advisors, US The second edition of this major Handbook provides a thoroughly revised and extensive analysis of the development of corporate governance across a broad range of countries including Australia, China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and the UK. Additional coverage in this second edition includes Brazil, Hungary, Malaysia, and Norway. The Handbook reveals that whilst the stage in the corporate governance life cycle may vary from country to country, there are certain core features that emerge such as the importance of transparency, disclosure, accountability of directors and protection of minority shareholders' rights. With contributions by leading academics and practitioners in the field of corporate governance, this important Handbook provides a comprehensive insight into the evolution of corporate governance in countries with diverse cultural, economic and legal systems.

The current economic situation has highlighted deficiencies in corporate governance while also showing the importance of stakeholder relations. It has also raised the profile of the debates regarding corporate social responsibility and shown the inter-relationship with governance. And the two together are essential for sustainable business. The social and environmental contexts of business are generally considered to be as significant as the economic and financial contexts and good governance will address all of these aspects. The combination of these aspects offers long term benefits for a firm, such as reducing risk and attracting new investors, shareholders and more equity as well as sustainable performance. Written by experts from all over the world, A Handbook of Corporate Governance and Social Responsibility is the most authoritative single-volume guide to the relationship between good governance and social responsibility and the reality of managing both. In addition to the theory and practice of governance and CSR, the book includes case studies from large and small organizations and NGOs to highlight examples of good and bad practice, and to show international and cultural similarities and differences while at the same time furthering the debate regarding the relationship between good governance and social responsibility.