Corporate Governance Disclosure Practices in the OECD

Abstract

This study investigates the determinants of the disclosure of corporate governance practices using a sample of 5200 companies from the OECD member countries. The OECD has thirty-four members but they differ, among other things, by their regulatory frameworks and cultures which impact of the companies’ decision of ‘what to and what not to’ disclose on corporate governance practices. Extant literature is very wealthy on corporate disclosure practices mainly in the area of accounting, but scant on disclosure of corporate governance practices by companies and peculiarly in the OECD countries whose governance practices play a crucial role in the global economy. This research addresses the following themes on corporate governance: (1) disclosure of corporate governance practices, (2) impact of regulatory framework, culture and regulatory focus on the disclosure practices at both companies’ level and country level. Based on (1) Hofstede cultural theory in its contemporary form the research argues that a high level of disclosure is likely to be associated with companies’ in countries with low Power Distance; (2) the strength of regulatory framework to argue that disclosure is higher in countries with strong regulatory framework and (3) regulatory focus theory (RFT) to argue that companies in countries which are promotion focus disclose more than companies in countries which are prevention focus. This research collects firm level data from RiskMetrics and country level data from the World Economic Forum Report and then uses optimal scaling technique (OS) and multivariate logistic regression (MLRA) to analyse the data. It adds to the literature by providing empirical and theoretical evidence on the determinants of disclosure of corporate governance practices in the OECD.