Worldwide Diffusion of Corporate Governance (CG) Regulations and Practices: A Literature Review

Research objectives: The main objective of this paper was to understand the diffusion of CG codes around the world. More specifically this paper examined what types of CG codes have emerged around the world? What causes the diffusion of shareholder centric model of CG around the world? What areas are still unexplained to better understand the diffusion of CG?Findings: This paper presented that pure economics and legitimacy reasons alone or together are not sufficient to explain the dynamics of how corporate governance reforms emerged and developed in different contexts. This study assumes that it is important to move the debate beyond the efficiency/legitimacy and convergence/divergence dichotomy and pay more attention to the process of emergence and development of corporate governance reforms.Implications: Prior institutional research ignores countries' internal dynamics that can play an important role in shaping corporate governance reforms. The corporate governance model cannot exist in isolation; each country has its own unique institutional arrangements and can influence the process of diffusion. There is some consensus amidst corporate governance scholars that "the-one-size-fits-all" rule is flawed, and thus a wide diversity of approaches of corporate governance should be expected due to vast differences in national contexts where firms are embedded (Cuervo, 2002, Reaz and Hossain, 2007). Policy makers and researchers should consider broader institutional dynamics related to macro and micro institutional processes while developing and understanding CG diffusion around the world.