The Cross-National Diversity of Corporate Governance: Dimensions and Determinants

Abstract

We develop a theoretical model to describe and explain variation in corporate governance among advanced capitalist economies, identifying the social relations and institutional arrangements that shape who controls corporations, what interests corporations serve, and the allocation of rights and responsibilities among corporate stakeholders. Our “actor-centered” institutional approach explains firm-level corporate governance practices in terms of institutional factors that shape how actors' interests are defined (“socially constructed”) and represented. Our model has strong implications for studying issues of international convergence.