Description of Research Programme

The Transnational Political Economy of Corporate Governance Regulation

Since the 1990s, ‘corporate governance’ has gained tremendous popularity among the global business community, and corporate scandals like the Enron, Ahold and Parmalat debacles have ensured that it will remain so for some time to come. Although there is a growing literature on this topic, the bulk of it is either highly normative or focused on corporate governance practices at the level of the firm. In contrast, our aim is to explain the current transformation of corporate governance regulation. Whereas this regulation used to be a distinctly national affair, it is now increasingly an area subject to both public and private (self-)regulation in multiple arenas. The three most important arenas, outlined below, form the empirical focus of our programme and are each examined as a distinct PhD research project.

  • The transformation of corporate governance regulation in the European Union. Link to project.
  • The effects of external factors on the development of corporate governance structures in Central and Eastern Europe. Link to project.
  • The global regulation of corporate governance standards by private actors and in particular the latter’s role in setting accounting standards. Link to project.

By researching these arenas, we seek to answer the following central research question: what explains the transformation of corporate governance regulation at different levels, and through varying modes, of governance?

Our programme employs the transnational political economy approach as well as the institutionalist approach to transnational policy networks and multi-level governance. We hope to combine the latter’s strong empirical focus on institutional forms with the former’s strong explanatory potential in terms of structural forces and power relations.

Finally, given the timely social relevance of issues pertaining to corporate governance regulation, we strive to involve a wide range of social actors in our programme and disseminate our research results to a wider public through our website, newsletter and advisory board, which is currently being established.

This programme, which will run to May 2008 at the least, is funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research’s Shifts in Governance research programme.