Keeping Better Company: Corporate Governance Ten Years On - Hardcover

Charkham, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199243182 ISBN 13: 9780199243181

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2006

Synopsis

How should companies be organized? To whom should boards of directors be responsible-shareholders, or a wider group of stakeholders? In this fiercely competitive world we cannot judge our own system of corporate governance in isolation; it must bear comparison with the best. The second edition of this acclaimed and well-established book aims to do just that. Since publication of the first edition interest in corporate governance has greatly increased, codes have proliferated, and principles laid down nationally and internationally. In Keeping Good Company, the author describes developments in the system of corporate governance-both the business environment and the particular structures of company organization-in five major industrial countries: Germany, Japan, France, the USA and the UK. This second edition is fully revised, updated and expanded, and includes a new conclusion looking at a number of ongoing issues in corporate governance, and an appendix discussing the role of international organizations.

About this title

About the Author

Jonathan Charkham is an Honorary Fellow of the Cass Business School, City University, and a member of the Board of the Corporate Governance Network, and a former advisor to the Governor of the Bank of England. As well as the previous edition of Keeping Good Company (OUP, 1994) he has also co-authored Fair Shares: The Future of Shareholder Power and Responsibility (OUP, 1999) with Anne Simpson.

Review

'It is far from a dry and technical cataloguing of the subject. The book explains not only where we have got to in corporate governance, but how we got there.' Alistair Blair, Investors Chronicle

Review from previous edition `an important contribution to the current debate on corporate governance' Sir Adrian Cadbury

`superb overview of the leading industrialised countries' financial systems' Will Hutton, Guardian

`This book will become the definitive study on corporate governance. It should be required reading for directors and senior managers around the world.' Jay W. Lorsch, Harvard Business School

`indispensable...not least for its clear and dryly witty writing. It deserves the widest readership' Economic Affairs

`this book provides a valuable synopsis of the workings of companies in countries with which we may be less familiar but with which we must increasingly do business in the global village ... thoroughly researched ... Charkham has made a considerable contribution to their knowledge on how
corporate governance works in each of the five countries examined and I commend this work to all those trying to win business for their company in foreign lands'
RSA Journal

`the most comprehensive study to emerge to date. It will become an indispensable reference book for all future authors and report writers, not least for its clear and dryly witty writing ... his book is uniquely well informed ... This masterly book makes a particularly important contribution
to the debate about the economic future and hence political influence of Britain and America. It deserves the widest readership.'
Economic Affairs

`In this detailed study, based on discussion with experts in Germany, Japan, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom on the ways companies are directed and controlled in each country, Charkham discusses features of each society and its formal corporate governance system.'
Sloan Management Review

`In each of the five studies the author's analysis, insight and historical perspective makes it exceptionally readable ... Helped by the author's lively style, this is an important book on the corporate governance debate.'
The European

`he gives all students of the subject a dispassionate survey of the defining characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of the five national systems. By providing readers with a comprehensive and well illustrated analysis he largely leaves them to draw their own conclusions ... his book is
uniquely well informed ... This masterly book makes a particularly important contribution to the debate about the economic future and hence political influence of Britain and America. It deserves the widest readership.'
Economic Affairs

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0199243182
• ISBN 13: 9780199243181
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 464