Support Corporate Governance Research

Research on corporate governance, until recently, has been generated against experiences and events in the developed markets by using data relevant to these markets. The outcome of research as such has not always been appropriate or relevant as the basis for analysis of reform considerations for developing countries.

To support the corporate governance policy agenda in emerging markets and transition economies, the Forum has supported and endorsed a network of leading academics under the auspices of its Emerging Markets Corporate Governance Research Network to:

• Inform the Forum on the most recent literature on corporate governance and development,
• Identify priorities for future research in the Forum's areas of activity,
• Generate and publish discussion papers and research working papers, and
• Promote a research strategy that supports academic research capacity in developing countries on corporate governance.

The Network has evolved over the years since its’ inception in 2002 to include researchers from emerging, developing and transition countries. Currently, the Network is coordinated by Melsa Ararat, Director of Corporate Governance Forum of Turkey and professor at Sabanci University with the support of Burcin Yurtoglu, professor at Vienna University under the Chairmanship of Professor Stijn Claessens from University of Amsterdam.


History of the Research Network on Corporate Governance
Value of the Research Network in Corporate Governance

Networks like these often lead to the inception of several new research projects between nodes members, and can particularly favor the participation and mentoring of young, inexperienced researchers. Global networks can be especially useful as they foster international exchange among scholars in all regions, very important given the commonality of many of the issues across developing countries. Modalities of these networks involve conferences, seminars and workshops and the sharing of papers and data. Training of researchers is another area that networks have undertaken.

During recent years, a number of CG research centers have been set up around the world, most often associated with premier developing/emerging country universities. Much CG research in emerging markets is now conducted by researchers associated with these centers, even when they are not based there themselves. These research centers have been very successful in local fund raising as the importance of good CG is being recognized in many markets. Some of these centers have also expanded regionally and have started to serve as leading sub-networks. There is still much need, however, to assure that research continues to improve and that research on individual countries is better disseminated so as to share methodologies and, to the extent possible, generalize lessons. This can be efficiently done by building global links, encouraging research collaboration and facilitating outreach.

Structure of the Research Network
Research Network Activities

Conferences
The Network organizes biannual international academic conferences where the forthcoming issues in corporate governance are identified and broad lessons of corporate governance in developing countries are drawn. The conferences include policy makers and practitioners.

1. First International Conference on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets was held in at Sabanci University (CGFT), Istanbul November 15-17, 2007.

For downloading papers please click here.
For the video recordings please click here.
For conference report please click here.

2. Second International Conference on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets was held in Sao Paulo on July 2&3, 2009.
The conference aimed to facilitate dissemination of research on corporate governance in emerging markets, with the objective of supporting policy and practice development. The conference provided a forum to discuss the ongoing research on corporate governance in emerging markets and solicited ideas from both theory and policy perspectives as to how to further improve corporate governance research. The conference also created an opportunity to inquire how academic research findings relate to practice in emerging markets by having leading practitioners as discussants.

The conference particularly welcomed comparative research comprising clusters of developing countries sharing institutional or macroeconomic similarities. Clusters are comprised of countries that are geographically distant such as the BRIC or countries with similar corporate governance reform approaches. Topics of papers covered areas in the law, economics and finance fields. Both theoretical and empirical papers, as well as clinical studies, were accepted.

For more details please click here.


Workshops

Workshops are held in between the global conferences where a small number of senior, international researchers and practitioners interact with a small group of more junior researchers.

1. First workshop on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets was held in Yale University, Millstein Center of Corporate Governance and Performance.

For more details and downloading papers please click here.
For the workshop report, please click here.

Research Publications (divided by country)
Research Network Reports

Some useful links on Corporate Governance Research include:

• European Corporate Governance Institute
• ROSC - the World Bank