Corporate Governance: A Critical Comparison among International Theories, Codes of Best Practices, and Empirical Research
比较英美、德日与意大利的公司治理准则，分析其背后的代理、利益相关者等理论，并检验实证研究是否支持准则的有效性。
As strong role played by the financial globalized market, several countries have adopted rules and principles<br/>(best practice codes) to be shared among all companies, in order to provide tools to solve governance problems, regulate<br/>relations among managers and shareholders. This paper seeks to investigate American, English, German, Japanese and Italian<br/>codes of conduct. Literature agrees that corporate governance archetypes are those Anglo-Saxon and German-Japanese; on<br/>the other hand the Italian model represents an interesting case study. These three models are based on different international<br/>theories (Agency, Stakeholder, Resource Dependence, and Stewardship). Scholars maintain that the Agency theory is the<br/>most valid of the theories, with respect to the existence of international convergence processes. Thus, the objective of the<br/>paper is twofold. First of all, we want to understand which international theory has been adopted by Anglo-Saxon,<br/>German-Japanese, and Italian codes. Secondly, we wish to verify whether empirical research confirms principle efficacy<br/>contained in codes of corporate governance. From a comparative study among international theories and rules it would<br/>emerge that variables contained in the codes would be better explained and regulated under Agency approach. It should be<br/>noted, however, that each country – in spite of the convergence processes towards a single standard of rules – is affected by<br/>their social, and economic background. Finally, we could argue that empirical studies do not often explain critical success<br/>factors in the same way of codes although both are the result of best practices.