This study develops and tests empirically a model of the spread of audit committees. This model is based both on the factors from agency and signalling theories and on new ones, drawn from the embeddedness theory. Empirical tests of the spread of committees are performed using a Cox model over...

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that although audit committees as a mechanism of corporate governance have been created only recently in France, they are set up for the same reasons as in the United States. Directors' shortcomings in their duty of care may have favoured the awareness...