Corporate Governance: East Asian Style - A Literature Study on Typical Determinants of Corporate Governance in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan

Abstract

The basis of this paper is provided by the issue of Globerman, Peng, & Shapiro (2011). They have summarized and identified five common features for Asian corporate governance. Any good corporate governance system should work towards improving managerial performance while satisfying shareholders’ interest and increase firm value. Of course, many aspects of Asian corporate governance differ from American and western countries’ corporate governance.

Because of past historic events we believe that especially China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan share a common understanding of “doing business”. The goal of this paper, therefore, is to discuss and examine the distinguished features of Corporate Governance described by Globerman at al. (2011) in those four countries. Furthermore, we also add the role of banks with regard to monitoring and improved corporate governance.

All four countries reveal tendencies towards a concentrated ownership structure and a significant role of family ownership. All countries, except China (for which data is not sufficient), have a considerable level of cross- and pyramidal ownership structures. But there is no clear tendency and common ground concerning state ownership, limited use of professional managers and the role of banks in those four countries.

Keywords: Corporate Governance, Asia

JEL Classification: G34