The Importance of Considering Context when Developing a Global Theory of Corporate Governance

摘要

The mission of CGIR is to identify and/or create a rigorous and relevant theory of corporate governance that applies equally well throughout the global economy. The predominant theory for a long time in the field of corporate governance was agency theory, which postulates that the fundamental governance problem is moral hazard created by the separation of ownership from control. It assumes that the agents of the firm will pursue their own self-interests in the absence of external monitoring and incentive management systems, and that shareholder value is the pre-eminent economic objective. For an excellent overview of agency theory, I highly recommend an extensive review article published in the Academy of Management Annals (Dalton, Hitt, Certo, & Dalton, 2007).