International Comparison of Corporate Governance

我们从国际比较的角度考察了公司治理的几个重要因素。它们包括a)审计、信息披露和公司低制度，以及b)所有权、财务结构和董事会组成(我们分别将前者描述为公司治理的“制度面”，后者称为公司治理的“实践面”)。此外，我们还探讨了公司治理与绩效之间的关系。我们的最终目标是找出公司应该拥有什么样的治理结构才能实现最佳绩效。研究结果如下：1.没有唯一的公司治理结构可以为每个公司带来最佳绩效。上述说法的直接含义是，公司治理的“全球标准”不可能存在。每个国家的公司和财务制度、文化和历史路径都对当地公司治理的有效性有很大的影响。政府当局、企业高管和学术界有必要合作设计本国的公司治理平台，在这个平台上当地公司建立绩效最好的治理结构。仅靠治理平台是不足以让单个企业取得良好业绩的。它们的治理结构的有效性与这种结构如何运作以及由谁运作；谁在公司内部和周围拥有实权；它具有什么样的组织结构；它属于什么样的行业(技术/市场)密切相关。公司治理与绩效之间的关系不是静态的，而是动态的。换言之，一次最优治理结构可能会随着时间的推移而恶化。其中一个原因是环境变化，如日本金融市场和企业融资从间接融资转向主要银行监管失灵。

We investigated several important factors of corporate governance within an international comparison perspective. They include a) auditing, disclosure and corporate low systems and b) ownership and financial structures and board composition (we described the former as "system side" and the latter as "practice side" of corporate governance respectively). In addition, we explored the relationship between corporate governance and performance. Our ultimate goal was to find out what kind of governance structure corporations should have to realize best performance.The following findings were obtained:1. There is no unique solution of corporate governance structure which brings best performance to every corporation.2. The direct implication of the above statement is that "global standard" of corporate governance cannot exist. Corporate and financial systems, culture, and historical path of each country have great influence on the effectiveness of governance of local corporations. It is necessary for government authorities, corporate executives and academics to cooperate to device corporate governance platform in their country on which local corporations establish the best performing governance structure.3. Governance platform alone is not sufficient for individual firms to attain good performance. The effectiveness of their governance structure is closely related with how and by whom the structure is operated; who holds real power in and around the corporation; what kind of organizational structure it has; and what kind of industry (technology/market) it belongs to.4. The relationship between corporate governance and performance is not static but dynamic. In other words the optimal governance structure at one time can deteriorate as time passes. One of the reasons for this is environmental changes such as shift in Japanese financial market and corporate financing from indirect finance, causing main bank monitoring to dysfunction.