Globalization and the Study of Comparative Corporate Governance

Abstract

Globalization has fostered the study of comparative corporate governance. Most commentators focus on just the economics of globalization but the paper suggests a broader concept of globalization involving interconnectedness was also significant. The paper describes how the broader idea of globalization has contributed to the study and how the study has evolved. It looks at the current significant studies which compare the stakeholders' and shareholders' models of corporate governance, the development of the different ownership models of either concentrated or dispersed shareholdings and the debates about convergence and why they are now part of the globalization debate. Critics of globalization particularly in trade have argued among other things that there are considerable harms to labor, that it undermines national sovereignty, damages the environment and supports a particular cultural hegemony at the expense of local. These criticisms can also be directed at the comparative corporate governance scholarship.

Keywords: corporate governance, globalization, shareholders, stakeholders

JEL Classification: K22, K33