CHAPTER 1

Introduction

1.1 Foundations of Corporate Governance

As Bloomfield (2013) states, corporate governance has been the single most significant issue on the business agenda internationally and globally for the past 30 or more years. Both in the academia, the politics and the practitioner’s arena, new initiatives constantly arise in order to improve and strengthen how corporations are governed. One could invoke two types of reasons to explain the worldwide diffusion of this concern: The increasing importance of capital markets and the growing concern of political authorities, partially as a response to managerial excesses that led to the financial crisis.

According to the World Federation of Exchanges, in 1990 there were 21,033 quoted companies ...

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