IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tky/fseres/2003cf230.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Corporate Governance:The Limits of the Principal- Agent Approach in Light of the Family-Based Corporate Governance System in Asia

Author

Listed:
  • Haider A. Khan

    (GSIS, University of Denver)

Abstract

This paper develops a critique of the standard principal-agent approach to corporate governance by developing the idea of a family based corporate governance system (FBS). FBS is contrasted with the bank-led system (BLS) and equity market based system (EMS). Both BLS and EMS are closely associated with the dominant mode of corporate finance by banks and equity markets respectively. In the case of FBS, the financing can come from three different sources. Initially, family business is financed largely by internal funds. As the enterprise grows over time, the role of banks and outside equity becomes more prominent. However, the key difference between FBS as a governance system and BLS and EMS lies in the fact that neither the banks nor the equity markets ultimately control the family business groups. The control resides with the family groups in the final analysis. The key hypothesis verified is that in economies at a lower stage of development FBS economizes on transactions costs. This holds especially when the share of external finance in the family businesses is low with corresponding low levels of agency costs. These factors help explain the successful performance of FBS during the Asian Miracle when specific government policies encouraged rapid industrialization.Theoretically, the standard principal-agent model seems to be inadequate in explaining completely the successes and failures of the FBS type of governance. A theory of firms as socially embedded organizations that respond to the needs of multiple stakeholders may be a better framework for studying the persistence of different types of governance structures--- often in the same country. Normatively, the ability of the different governance structures to serve the needs of the different stakeholders must be assessed within such a framework. A nonutilitarian, common good approach may be more suitable for this purpose than the existing neoclassical utilitarian approach.This is also consistent with the "realist" approach to corporate governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Haider A. Khan, 2003. "Corporate Governance:The Limits of the Principal- Agent Approach in Light of the Family-Based Corporate Governance System in Asia," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-230, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    • Handle: RePEc:tky:fseres:2003cf230
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/research/dp/2003/2003cf230.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "The Modern Industrial Revolution, Exit, and the Failure of Internal Control Systems," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 43-58, January.
    2. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    3. Haider A. Khan, 2003. "Corporate Governance of Family-Based Businesses in Asia: Which Road to Take?," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-229, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    4. Jensen, Michael C, 1988. "Takeovers: Their Causes and Consequences," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 21-48, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wiparat Chuanrommanee & Fredric William Swierczek, 2007. "Corporate Governance in ASEAN Financial Corporations: reality or illusion?," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 272-283, March.
    2. Chousa, Juan Pineiro & Khan, Haider A. & Melikyan, Davit & Tamazian, Artur, 2005. "Assessing institutional efficiency, growth and integration," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 69-84, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aguilera, Ruth V. & Desender, Kurt A. & Kabbach de Castro, Luiz Ricardo, 2011. "A Configurational Approach to Comparative Corporate Governance," Working Papers 11-0103, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    2. Claus Dierksmeier, 2020. "From Jensen to Jensen: Mechanistic Management Education or Humanistic Management Learning?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 73-87, September.
    3. Börsch-Supan, Axel & Köke, Jens, 2000. "An applied econometricians' view of empirical corporate governance studies," ZEW Discussion Papers 00-17, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    4. Hoa Luong & Lien Duong & John Evans, 2022. "CEO pay disparity, takeover premiums and bidder performance in Australia: efficient contracting or managerial power?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 143-179, March.
    5. Martynova, M., 2006. "The market for corporate control and corporate governance regulation in Europe," Other publications TiSEM 8651e281-4914-41f2-ac14-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. An, Jiafu & Duan, Tinghua & Hou, Wenxuan & Liu, Xianda, 2020. "The legacy of wars around the world: Evidence from military directors," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    8. Dumitru-Nicusor CARAUSU, 2015. "Monitor And Control In Companies: An Agency Theory Approach," Journal of Public Administration, Finance and Law, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 0(Special i), pages 46-60, September.
    9. Hwang, Hyoseok (David) & Kim, Hyun-Dong & Kim, Taeyeon, 2020. "The blind power: Power-led CEO overconfidence and M&A decision making," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    10. Axel Börsch‐Supan & Jens Köke, 2002. "An Applied Econometricians' View of Empirical Corporate Governance Studies," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 3(3), pages 295-326, August.
    11. Erik Lehmann & Jürgen Weigand, 2000. "Does the Governed Corporation Perform Better? Governance Structures and Corporate Performance in Germany," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 4(2), pages 157-195.
    12. Achleitner, Ann-Kristin & Kaserer, Christoph & Ampenberger, Markus & Bitsch, Florian, 2009. "The German entrepreneurial index (GEX®): a primer on an ownership-based style index in Germany," CEFS Working Paper Series 2009-13, Technische Universität München (TUM), Center for Entrepreneurial and Financial Studies (CEFS).
    13. Sang Cheol Lee & Mooweon Rhee & Jongchul Yoon, 2018. "Foreign Monitoring and Audit Quality: Evidence from Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-22, September.
    14. Shaikh, Ibrahim A. & O'Brien, Jonathan Paul & Peters, Lois, 2018. "Inside directors and the underinvestment of financial slack towards R&D-intensity in high-technology firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 192-201.
    15. Marlin, Dan & Geiger, Scott W., 2015. "A reexamination of the organizational slack and innovation relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 2683-2690.
    16. Fu, Fangjian & Lin, Leming & Officer, Micah S., 2013. "Acquisitions driven by stock overvaluation: Are they good deals?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(1), pages 24-39.
    17. Tiantian Gu & Anand Venkateswaran, 2018. "Firm-supplier relations and managerial compensation," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 621-649, October.
    18. Chenini Hajer & Jarboui Anis, 2018. "Analysis of the Impact of Governance on Bank Performance: Case of Commercial Tunisian Banks," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 9(3), pages 871-895, September.
    19. Martin Kyere & Marcel Ausloos, 2021. "Corporate governance and firms financial performance in the United Kingdom," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 1871-1885, April.
    20. Goergen, Marc & Manjon, Miguel C. & Renneboog, Luc, 2008. "Recent developments in German corporate governance," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 175-193, September.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tky:fseres:2003cf230. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CIRJE administrative office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ritokjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.