The problem of corporate governance has been one of the key issues of economic reform in the world. There have been a lot of debates on corporate governance issue and it is still the subject of social controversy. In order to look at the issue in a ne ...
The problem of corporate governance has been one of the key issues of economic reform in the world. There have been a lot of debates on corporate governance issue and it is still the subject of social controversy. In order to look at the issue in a new direction, this study attempts a comparative study on the corporate governance in the West and in the East Asia.
In general, a company reflects not only the interests of stockholders but also the interests of various stakeholders - including workers, financial institutions, and the state. However, one actor’s degree of influence of in the corporate decision making process differs in each country. Thus, this study starts with the theoretical point of view that market and corporation are socio-political constructions which are imbedded in the politics of a society.
This study analyzes how social, political, and cultural factors have influenced the historical process which produced a certain type of corporate governance in each country. This study has been carried out in four subfield studies: the formation of the corporate governance of the West, the formation of the Japanese corporate governance, the formation of the Chinese corporate governance, and the corporate governance legislation.
In our study of the corporate governance of the West, it is revealed that the British-American corporate governance type, which is also called the shareholder model, is started from the stakeholder model and that there exist diverse international standards of corporate governance. In addition, our study found that the modern Swedish corporate governance type has been developed through the negotiation among the diverse social forces in each historical period.
In order to understand the history of Japanese corporate governance, this study investigated how Japanese politicians and bureaucrats have been involved in the emergence of Japanese conglomerates and industrial rationalization in the 1930s. In addition, this study analyzed the Japanese employment system which is one of the essential parts of the corporate governance in the post-1945 Japan. Furthermore, our research analyzes how labor relations affected the formation of Japanese corporate governance especially through the case study of economic societies and media.
As to the Chinese corporate governance, our study analyzes the formation of corporate governance of the state owned enterprises (SOEs) as well as private corporations. The corporate governance of SOEs has been formed out of "danwei" system and a big chance followed after the joining the WTO system in 2001. This study tries to analyze the corporate govern of private companies through the stakeholder model. In addition, we found that the corporate governance of the township village enterprises in rural China also transformed. Recently, they have been privatized and the relationship among the villagers became far more complicated.
In our study of the legal system of the corporate governance, we not only introduced corporate governance related legislations in the U.S., Germany, Japan, and China but also analyzed how these legislations have been transformed by certain external factors or domestic events.
In all, the corporate governance in each country has been formed and transformed under the influence of market, political, social, and cultural factors throughout its history. The corporate governance in East Asian countries is also diverse and each country has its own corporate governance model. The comparative study of corporate governance will also provide a new perspective understanding the Korean corporate governance in a new direction.