Much has been said recently about the risky legal environment in which outside directors of public companies operate, especially in theUSA, but increasingly elsewhere as well. Our research on outside director liability suggests, however, that directors' fears are largely unjustified. We examine...

For diffuse ownership to become the norm in large business enterprises investors need to be sufficiently confident to buy shares. Will investors follow through if serious doubts exist concerning the competence of those managing companies? This paper addresses this question, primarily by...

We often hear that hardly anyone wants to sit on corporate boards these days, largely because they fear personal liability. Our investigation of seven representative countries (Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States) suggests that the liability concern is...

Market forces allegedly are serving to destabilise traditional business structures and cause some form of convergence along quot;Anglo-Americanquot; lines. While this trend has been the subject of much debate, it has not been widely commented on in Australia. Moreover, those analysing corporate...

The German system of corporate governance differs considerably from its counterparts in the United States and the United Kingdom. There is anecdotal evidence, however, that suggests market forces are serving to destabilize traditional structures in Germany and are causing some form of...

Share ownership in the United States is widely dispersed instead of being concentrated in the hands of families, banks or other firms. Most of the country's major companies have publicly traded shares and a minority of these have a shareholder that owns enough equity to have any sort of...

Events taking place in Britain deserve the attention of those interested in corporate governance. The topic has generated much public debate in the United Kingdom (UK) over the past few years. Moreover, the work done in Britain has spurred reviews of corporate governance in markets around the...

Private equity, characterized by firms operating as privately held partnerships organizing the acquisition and quot;taking privatequot; of public companies, has recently dominated the business news due to deals unprecedented in number and size. If this buyout boom continues unabated, the 1989...

Accepted views of a classic academic work can quite readily distort the original text. Michael Jensen and William Meckling's widely cited 1976 article “Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure” exemplifies the pattern. The article has been cited as a key...

Law and politics had a significant impact on stock market development in Germany between 1870 and the beginning of World War II. IPOs can be a bellwether for stock market development and nearly 1100 were carried out on the Berlin Stock Exchange during this period. Regulatory changes occurring in...