Authors: John Nowland
Publish Date: 2007/04/18
Volume: 79, Issue: 1-2, Pages: 133-150
Abstract
Since the Asian crisis East Asian nations have strived to introduce corporate governance codes directing companies how to best improve their corporate governance practices However these codes have not been universally accepted by East Asian companies This study examines the adoption of major boardrelated corporate governance recommendations by large nonfinancial companies in seven East Asian nations and investigates whether improvements in these board governance mechanisms have been associated with increased operating performance and market value The results indicate that familyowned companies started with worse board governance and have been least likely to improve their board governance since the crisis Overall bigger faster growing nonfamilyowned companies with less concentrated ownership have been more likely to improve their board governance Splitting of the positions of Chairman and CEO creation of audit and nomination committees and improvements in overall board governance were found to have a positive relationship with subsequent operating performance and/or market valueJohn Nowland is a Finance Lecturer at Queensland University of Technology in Australia He holds a research masters degree and is completing his PhD at the University of Queensland His current research focuses on corporate governance and capital markets in Asia
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