Governance codes in the developing and emerging countries: Do they look for the international role model?

Abstract

Over the last decade, a growing number of developing and emerging countries have begun addressing corporate governance practice and issued a national governance code. This paper analyses and compares the code contents and approaches of the 11 developing and emerging countries after the latest revision of the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance to examine whether these countries follow the international best practice despite the national specifics differ from those of developed countries. Individual codes are subjected to content analysis to evaluate the level of compliance with the OECD Principles. This paper goes beyond the well-known particulars of developed markets and provides a rare insight into the development of corporate governance frameworks in the developing and emerging countries in a cross-country manner. We contribute to recognition and assessment of good corporate governance in developing and emerging countries and examine what impact the OECD Principles have had beyond its membership base of high-developed countries.