Research on the relationship among corporate governance environment, governance behavior and governance performance

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to focus on the relationship between the corporate governance (CG) environment, governance behavior and governance performance and place it into the research of the evolution and revolution of the Chinese telecommunication industry, a complex economic system. Design/methodology/approach - On the basis of information about the Chinese telecommunication industry from 1949 to 2009 and China Mobile from 1997 to 2007, the authors analyze the Chinese telecommunication industry from two levels, namely industry level and firm level, with the combination of a critical incident method and time series method. Findings - The results demonstrate that the evolution of the Chinese CG environment and governance behavior presents characteristics of punctuated equilibrium; governance behavior lags behind governance environment and it can cause the governance environment to evolve to benefit its development through exerting active effects; governance environment and governance performance strongly relate to and have an effect on each other; and the improvement of governance structure and mechanisms, together with the enhancement of strategic capability, can greatly contribute to the governance performance of firms. Originality/value - This paper has divided the development of the Chinese telecommunication industry into four stages, revealing the relationship between governance environment, governance behavior and governance performance with a case study of the Chinese telecommunication industry and China Mobile.