ABSTRACT

The market reforms of the former centrally planned economies, corporate scandals around the world and the financial crisis in Asia, the United States, Europe and Russia have led to reforms in corporate governance practices around the world (Aguilera et al., 2012). The heightened interests are reflected in the issue of over 435 corporate governance codes and principles in 91 countries and the formation of numerous independent committees to assess and make recommendations on how national corporate governance systems could be improved (Weimer and Pape, 1999; Collier and Zaman, 2005; Cuomo et al., 2015). While emerging countries are quick to adopt the best corporate governance systems from developed countries (Dharwadkar et al., 2000; Dahya et al., 2003), we lack clear understanding on whether the forces of globalisation have bridged the differences in corporate governance models and practices around the world. The goals of this chapter are twofold: (i) to review and compare the varieties of corporate governance systems and assess whether recent developments in corporate governance practices may lead to an integrative model; and (ii) to suggest which of the models might be better for developing and emerging markets.