The compliance evolution of the corporate governance codes in emerging European countries – a content analysis perspective

Pompei Mititean

doi:10.24818/jamis.2021.03007

Abstract

Research Question: Does the corporate governance codes from 18 Emerging European countries respect the European Commission recommendations? Motivation: The corporate governance is a wildly debated topic in the literature but only few studies are addressed to the level of compliance between the corporate governance and the European Commission recommendations, especially in emerging countries. Idea: The objective of this study is to analyse the corporate governance codes form eighteen Emerging European Countries and examine if these countries comply with the recommendations of European Commission regarding corporate governance by using the content analysis technique. The main research proposition is to identify how many out of the 32 recommendations included in this analysis are fulfilled by the corporate governance codes from the Emerging European Countries and how these developed during time. Data: Data sample consists of 18 corporate governance codes from Emerging European Countries, which are examined in the context of the recommendations of European Commission COM-284, and the next years updates from 2004 (2004/913/EC), 2005 (2005/162/EC) and 2009 (2009/384 and 385/EC), divided into five group, covering 32 recommendations. Tools: The latest versions of corporate governance codes from each country, from 2004-2020, were downloaded, collecting the data manually from each corporate governance code using the content analysis technique. Findings: The results illustrate that Slovenia and Czech Republic are the countries with the highest compliance degree, while Poland and Estonia are the countries with the least fulfilled recommendations Contribution: This paper provides a general overview regarding the level of compliance of the corporate governance codes and European Commission recommendations, thus being a starting point for researchers who will further study this subject. Secondly, we have contribute to the limited studies that analysed the evolution of corporate governance codes following the best practices for the companies issued by European Commission.

Highlights

Over the past twenty years, the study of corporate governance in Emerging countries has becoming an important field of research (Ararat et al, 2020; Esqueda and O’Connor, 2019; Owusu, 2016; Yusof, 2016; Al-Malkawi et al, 2014; Peters et al, 2011, Siddiqui, 2009, Allen, 2005) increasing at international level
This paper analyses the content of the corporate governance codes form eighteen Emerging Eastern European Countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia Montenegro and Turkey) and the recommendation issued by European Commission using the content analysis technique
Regarding the Eastern European countries who adopted for the first time a corporate governance code, Romania was the first one who had the initiative to publish its first code in 2000, being followed by Czech Republic in 2001, Macedonia and Ukraine in 2003

Summary

Introduction

Over the past twenty years, the study of corporate governance in Emerging countries has becoming an important field of research (Ararat et al, 2020; Esqueda and O’Connor, 2019; Owusu, 2016; Yusof, 2016; Al-Malkawi et al, 2014; Peters et al, 2011, Siddiqui, 2009, Allen, 2005) increasing at international level. Based on these studies, the authors tried to provide an overview of the corporate governance in the emerging countries with the purpose to identify the mains gaps in literature. Does the corporate governance codes from eighteen Emerging European countries respect the European Commission recommendations?

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