ABSTRACT
Recent years have shown that large and powerful companies can collapse very suddenly causing great damage to national economies and the livelihoods of the people who work and invest in them. As a consequence, corporate governance has become a regular issue on most government policy agendas. Corporate governance regulation, which can include both hard law and softer forms of regulation, has been through several cycles of reform and yet collapses continue to occur. Codes of corporate governance have been implemented in most developed countries recommending detailed governance frameworks for publicly listed companies, yet our understanding of how these codes influence behaviour is still limited. This book explores the development and reform of corporate governance regulation over the last two decades, particularly the impact of corporate governance codes on organisational behaviour.
