Ausrichtung der Unternehmensführung auf nachhaltige Wertschöpfung nach dem Deutschen Corporate Governance Kodex?

Management's obligation to focus on the sustainable creation of value by the 2009 German Corporate Governance Code. The modifications of the preamble and of section 4.1.1 on the tasks and responsibilities of management boards in the 2009 German Corporate- Governance-Code got astonishingly few attention and critical acclaim considering their potential consequences. A discußion of the amendments' economic impact as well as a survey of the acceptance in literature and an examination of corporation's reactions towards these amendments through a qualitative analysis of financial statements and reports on sustainability of DAX-30- companies indicates a clear discrepancy between the amendments' conceptual relevance on the one hand and the reactions to these amendments on the other hand. This paper discußes causes of this considerable discrepancy.