COMPARATIVE CORPORATE GOVERNANCE - COMPETITIVE IMPLICATIONS OF AN EMERGING CONVERGENCE

Corporate governance scholarship posits that the governance structure of a firm affects its competitive performance. As governance structure s and systems initially developed, differing legal, financial, and cul tural factors caused them to vary. Divergent paths resulted in multipl e governance forms. Presently, evidence is growing that these governan ce systems are changing and are beginning to look more alike. This con vergence can be viewed as the adoption of the best practices of the ex isting systems. During convergence, some firms can gain competitive ad vantage by altering their governance structures to incorporate element s that global stakeholders appear to value. This is true for companies in both emerging and established economies.