Normierungseffekte der Co-Regulierung von Standards guter Corporate Governance / Normative effects of co-regulatory regimes of corporate governance

The German Corporate Governance Code is a means of co-regulation to set standards of good and responsible management. Prior research has shown that overall the Code meets with great approval. However, the Code also contains some standards that are not applied by the vast majority of the German listed companies. In longitudinal studies three pathways are identified how the acceptance of a specific Code standard evolves over time. More specifically, the Code norm can obtain rather high degrees of acceptance from the outset, acquire increasing rates of acceptance over time, or remain to gain comparably low rates of approval. The present article describes these trajectories in more depth and provides a discussion of how the Code norms may contribute to an effective standardization of corporate governance in Germany. The analysis reveals that Code standards can be designed differently but will in general only succeed if the norm addressees utilize their inevitable discretion in a responsible manner.