Aleš Kubíček

University of Economics,

Prague, Czech Republic

ales.kubicek@vse.cz

CROSS-COUNTRY ANALYSIS OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

CODES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Petra Štamfestová

University of Economics,

Prague, Czech Republic

 petra.stamfestova@vse.cz

Jiří Strouhal

Škoda Auto University Mladá Boleslav,

Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic

ystrouhal@is.savs.cz

Abstract.The purpose of  this paper is to  analyse corporate governance codes in the member states of the European Union (EU) and to examine to what extent is their contents shaped by the EU. Building on study of diffusion in organizational settings, we examine whether exogenous forces in the form of the European Commission recommendations have impact on the contents of corporate governance codes or contents is driven by domestic stakeholders representing endogenous forces.

Furthermore, we contribute to limited research analysing evolution of corporate governance codes and we examine how compliance with the European Commission (EC) has changed over time. Our findings suggest a significant strengthening of codes’ quality across member states and convergence tendency to international best practices. However, we are not able to affirm that the European Commission recommendations were that certain exogenous force to shape national governance codes.

Received: December, 2015

1st Revision: March, 2016

Accepted: June, 2016

DOI: 10.14254/2071- 789X.2016/9-2/22

JEL Classification: G34

Keywords: Corporate Governance, Corporate Governance Codes, the European Union.