Corporate Governance And Ownership With Diverse Shareholders

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Organisers

Prof. Jordi Canals, Professor of Strategic Management and Economics, Fundación IESE Chair in Corporate Governance at IESE; Prof. Gaizka Ormazábal, Associate Professor of Accounting and Control, Grupo Santander Chair of Financial Institutions and Corporate Governance at IESE and ECGI; Prof. Xavier Vives, Professor of Economics, Financial Management, Abertis Chair of Regulation, Competition and Public Policy at IESE and ECGI; Prof. Marco Becht, Professor of Finance and the Goldschmidt Professor of Corporate Governance, Solvay Brussels School for Economics and Management, Université libre de Bruxelles and ECGI.

About the Event:

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Many policy recommendations that emerge from the flourishing literature on corporate governance do not take into account the diversity of company owners and the different goals of heterogeneous’ shareholders in the 21^st century. Many of them make the assumption that dispersed shareholders is the representative form of corporate ownership. This hypothesis is still dominant in most theoretical studies and in many empirical studies.

The fact is that ownership around the world in the twentieth century changed in many large countries, has become more heterogeneous and diverse than what is assumed in many studies, and its evolution is shaped by a diversity of factors, such as domestic taxation and  regulation, capital markets and different management and  business practices.

Understanding that ownership is heterogeneous and diverse has implications on how companies are governed. It is also critical for the improvement of corporate governance at the corporate level and the government’s regulatory activity. In the end, it has an impact on companies’ survival –many firms that didn’t survive encountered problems with their own shareholders and their commitment- and their long-term development.

This Conference offered a context to reflect upon and better understand how the different nature of shareholders have an impacted on the way companies are governed and managed, and, eventually, on some key decisions – like board composition, board dynamics, CEO hiring and firing, strategy making and incentives design- that define corporate governance.

Supported by:

This event was supported by IESE Center for Corporate Governance, the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and the European Corporate Governance Research Foundation (ECGRF), and brought together senior academics and thought-leaders in business to discuss the above topics.