{"title":"The Emergence of ‘Comply or Explain’ as a Global Model for Corporate Governance Codes","authors":"Iain Macneil, Irene-Marié Esser","doi":"10.54648/eulr2022001","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The introduction of the Cadbury Code in the UK in the early 1990s marked an important turning point in the evolution of corporate governance around the world. The ‘comply or explain’ approach pioneered by the Cadbury Code prioritised flexibility and the role of market discipline in its approach. While those characteristics can be linked to earlier trends in the evolution of corporate governance in the UK, it is more difficult to explain why the Cadbury Code has exerted so much influence over systems which differ from the UK in their approach and evolution. In this article we focus on the extent to which the ‘comply or explain’ approach has been adopted in other countries and attempt to explain why this has occurred. We propose three explanations for the diffusion of ‘comply or explain’ codes around the world and undertake qualitative and quantitative (leximetric) analysis to test these propositions.\nCorporate governance, codes, ‘comply or explain’, listed companies, disclosure, transplantation","PeriodicalId":53431,"journal":{"name":"European Business Law Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"5","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"European Business Law Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.54648/eulr2022001","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 5
Abstract
The introduction of the Cadbury Code in the UK in the early 1990s marked an important turning point in the evolution of corporate governance around the world. The ‘comply or explain’ approach pioneered by the Cadbury Code prioritised flexibility and the role of market discipline in its approach. While those characteristics can be linked to earlier trends in the evolution of corporate governance in the UK, it is more difficult to explain why the Cadbury Code has exerted so much influence over systems which differ from the UK in their approach and evolution. In this article we focus on the extent to which the ‘comply or explain’ approach has been adopted in other countries and attempt to explain why this has occurred. We propose three explanations for the diffusion of ‘comply or explain’ codes around the world and undertake qualitative and quantitative (leximetric) analysis to test these propositions.
Corporate governance, codes, ‘comply or explain’, listed companies, disclosure, transplantation
期刊介绍:
The mission of the European Business Law Review is to provide a forum for analysis and discussion of business law, including European Union law and the laws of the Member States and other European countries, as well as legal frameworks and issues in international and comparative contexts. The Review moves freely over the boundaries that divide the law, and covers business law, broadly defined, in public or private law, domestic, European or international law. Our topics of interest include commercial, financial, corporate, private and regulatory laws with a broadly business dimension. The Review offers current, authoritative scholarship on a wide range of issues and developments, featuring contributors providing an international as well as a European perspective. The Review is an invaluable source of current scholarship, information, practical analysis, and expert guidance for all practising lawyers, advisers, and scholars dealing with European business law on a regular basis. The Review has over 25 years established the highest scholarly standards. It distinguishes itself as open-minded, embracing interests that appeal to the scholarly, practitioner and policy-making spheres. It practices strict routines of peer review. The Review imposes no word limit on submissions, subject to the appropriateness of the word length to the subject under discussion.