European Integration and Corporate Governance in Central Europe: Trajectories of Institutional Change

Abstract

This chapter considers how the process of European integration is shaping various dimensions of corporate governance in Central Europe. The literature on corporate governance in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has so far made little connection with that on EU integration, and this chapter aims to open a research agenda on exploring how and where the accession process is influencing the development of corporate governance in the CEE region. In this chapter, corporate governance is construed very broadly, as both regulation of the activities of firms and also the relations between firms, the state, and trade unions. Systematic comparison of emerging corporate governance patterns in CEE has long been constrained by lack of consistent and comparable data across CEE countries, particularly at the micro level, and by the dynamic nature of institutional reform in post-communist transformation. Nevertheless, it is clear that a major external constraint on the development of corporate governance is the socioeconomic order created by EU integration, which is now starting to govern the CEE economies as well.