Inaugural Workshop Amsterdam Research Centre for Corporate Governance Regulation (ARCGOR), Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, 17-18 December 2004

This Workshop was organised by the Amsterdam Research Centre for Corporate Governance Regulation (ARCGOR) located within the Department of Political Science of the Vrije Universiteit. The Centre was founded in May 2004 by Henk Overbeek, Andreas Nölke and Bastiaan van Apeldoorn (all from this department) as part of their NWO-funded research programme ‘Transnational Political Economy of Corporate Governance Regulation’. This inaugural workshop was intended to present the Centre for the first time to the wider academic community and the general public. The other main purpose was to create a forum of scholars with related research interests to generate intellectual input into our programme and stimulate cross-disciplinary and cross-border intellectual exchange and co-operation. On both accounts, this workshop has been very successful. As organisers we managed to invite to Amsterdam a number of leading scholars on the political economy of corporate governance, and have them present their latest work in three thematic sessions dealing respectively with the ‘Transformation of corporate governance regulation in the EU’; ‘the global regulation of corporate governance standards, in particular accounting standards, and ‘the effects of external factors on the development of corporate governance structures in Central and Eastern Europe’. These three empirical domains corresponded to the different research projects undertaken within the Centre.

The Workshop was opened by Jan Klaassen, Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the Vrije Universiteit. Keynote speaker was Peter Gourevtich, Professor of International Relations at the University of California at San Diego, presented a lecture – based on his forthcoming book – on the politics of different corporate governance systems. Henk Overbeek as programme leader of ARCCGOR, then presented together with our four PhD. students (Laura Horn, James Perry, Arjan Vliegenthart, and Angela Wigger) the research programme we are currently undertaking. The first day of the conference was concluded with a very stimulating Round Table Discussion with Peter Gourevitch, Bob Jessop (Lancaster University) and Tony Porter (McMaster). The second day was reserved for the closed workshop sessions in which the other guests presented their work in what proved to be a very coherent (both within and across) set of panels. The result was a full day of inspiring discussions, which made all of the participants, and certainly the organisers, rethink many of their ideas about corporate governance regulation, and thus provide a direct stimulus to further research. It is fair to say that all participants considered the workshop a great success, not only in terms of how it was organised, but in particular with regard to the level of discussions and the intellectual output it produced. As organisers, we were thus very happy with this first inaugural workshop and hope to be able to build upon this initial success in the further development of our Centre and our research programme.

Bastiaan van Apeldoorn

§ Peter Gourevitch, Professor of International Relations, University of California at San Diego
Explaining Corporate Governance Systems: Alternative Approaches

§ Susanne Lütz (Professor for Political Science, Fernuniversität Hagen) and Dagmar Eberle (Researcher, Fernuniversität Hagen)
From National Diversity Towards Transnational Homogenization? – Corporate Governance Regulation Between Market and Multi-Level Governance

§ Martin Hoepner (Max Planck Institute, Cologne) (co-authored with John W. Cioffi)
The Political Paradox of Finance Capitalism: Centre-Left Party Politics In Corporate Governance Reform

§ Antoine Reberioux (Département Travail Institutions et Politiques Sociales, Université Paris-10)
The end of history in corporate governance? A critical appraisal

§ Ian Dewing (School of Management, University of East Anglia) and Peter Russell (School of Management, University of East Anglia)
The Role of Private Actors in Global Governance and Regulation: US, European and International Convergence of Accounting and Auditing Standards in a Post Enron World

§ Sol Picciotto (Professor of Law, Lancaster University)
Public-Private Interactions in International Regulation for Corporate Social Responsibility

§ Tony Porter (Professor of Political Science, McMaster University)
Private Authority, Technical Authority and the Globalization of Accounting Standards

§ Wladimir Andreff (Professor of Economics, l'Université de Paris)
Corporate Governance Structures in Postsocialist Economies: Toward a Central Eastern European Model of Corporate Control?

§ József Böröcz (Associate Professor of Sociology, Rutgers University, and Institute for Political Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences)
Foreign Direct Legislation, Informality, and the Iron Fist of Liberal Capitalism After the End of European State Socialism

§ Stuart Shields (Lecturer in IPE, Manchester University)
Neoliberalisation through Depoliticisation: Transnational Governance and the Political Economy Implications of Eastwards Enlargement of the EU