Winner of the Gunnar Myrdal Prize 2010. This prize is awarded annually for the best monograph, on a theme broadly in accord with the EAEPE (European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy) Theoretical Perspectives. There is much debate regarding which countries’ economies have the best economic systems to encourage economic growth and technological change. This book is a major contribution to this discussion, connecting the fields of corporate governance and finance with the field of innovation and technology and analysing the ways in which countries’ systems of corporate governance affect firms’ ability to meet the technological challenges of different sectors. Tylecote and Visintin combine incisive analysis with empirical studies systems of corporate governance in the US, Europe, East Asia and China, demonstrating how these systems vary and how the demands on those who control and finance industry are changing. The authors argue that while certain types of system have worked for particular sectors, the technological revolution through which we are passing demands innovation in corporate governance and finance. Indeed, this book goes some way in challenging accepted views of best practise in corporate governance and finance, showing how structures and rules intended to advance ‘shareholder value’ may undermine it by inhibiting technological change. This book will be very interesting reading for students and researchers engaged with corporate governance and national business systems, as well as those interested in systems of innovation.

Comparative Corporate Governance considers the effects of globalization on corporate governance issues and highlights how, despite these widespread consequences, predictions of legal convergence have not come true. By adopting a comparative legal approach, this book explores the disparity between convergence attempts and the persistence of local models of governance in the US, Europe and Asia.

This interdisciplinary book examines comparative business systems, institutions, and practices by looking at current developments between firms, nations, and markets in an increasingly globalized world and in the context of the recent financial crises.

The aim of this timely work, which appears in the wake of the worst global financial crisis since the late 1920s, is to bring together high quality research-based contributions from leading international scholars involved in constructing a geographical perspective on money. Topics covered include the crisis, the spatial circuits of finance, regulation, mainstream financial markets (banking, equity, etc), through to the various ‘alternative’ and ‘disruptive’ forms of money that have arisen in recent years. It will be of interest to geographers, political scientists, sociologists, economists, planners and all those interested in how money shapes and reshapes socio-economic space and conditions local and regional development.

China's economy continues to grow rapidly, with important consequences for its own society and environment, as well as for the wider world economy. This book provides much-needed insight, using the latest research findings, into China’s successful reform experience and its challenges over three decades.

Boards of directors are complex systems, and it is imperative to understand what the contextual forces are that shape the direction and make-up of boards. This Research Handbook provides inspiration for researchers and practitioners interested in the manifold dimensions and facets of context surrounding boards of directors.

This book brings together scholars from different disciplines to examine the evolving patterns of economic organisation across China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Singapore, against the backdrop of market liberalisation, political changes and periodic economic crises since the 1990s.

During the 1980s Britain became one of the world's most market-oriented economies, an approach which resulted in three severe recessions and a deepening degree of inequality. This book argues that a rebalancing of the economy will remain elusive until proactive policies are implemented at the corporate and industrial level.

The corporate objective, namely, in whose interests a company should be run, is the most important theoretical and practical issue confronting us today, as this core objective animates or should animate every decision a company makes. Despite decades of debate, however, there is no consensus regarding what the corporate objective is or ought to be, but clarity on this issue is necessary in order to explain and guide corporate behaviour, as different objectives could lead to different analyses and solutions to the same corporate governance problem. In addition to the study on the corporate objective in Anglo-American jurisdictions, the discussion of this topic in the context of China is also very important on the grounds that China has become the second largest economy in the world and is playing an increasingly significant role in global affairs. Though a socialist state, China has also been relying heavily on the corporate vehicle as the most important business organisational form to ensure its rapid economic development since its market reforms in 1978. Adolf Berle and Gardiner Means’s observation made over eight decades ago that large public companies dominate the world remains true today, not only in the West but also in China. The regulation and governance of such companies will have a material impact on the further development of the Chinese economy, which could in turn directly affect the world economy. Company law and corporate governance therefore receive much attention and have become a vital issue in China. Although the current focus is primarily on corporate performance, the fundamental question at the heart of corporate governance, namely the corporate objective, is still unresolved. Contrary to the widely held belief that the corporate objective should be maximising shareholder wealth, this book seeks to demonstrate that the shareholder wealth maximisation approach is both descriptively inaccurate and normatively unsuitable. As an antithesis to it, stakeholder theory generally develops to be a more suitable substitute. Justifications and responses to its main criticisms are offered from descriptive, normative and instrumental aspects, whilst new techniques of balancing competing interests and more workable guidance for directors’ behaviour are brought forward as essential modifications. Along with the unique characteristics of socialist states, the stakeholder model is expected to find solid ground in China and guide the future development of corporate governance. This book will be important and useful to researchers and students of corporate law, corporate governance, business and management studies.

Why are some countries better than others at science and technology? Written in accessible language, The Politics of Innovation provides readers from all backgrounds with a useful survey of the innovation debate. It presents extensive evidence to show that national institutions and policies do not determine innovation rates, but politics do.