Corporate Governance: The Revival of an Academic, Professional and Policy Field

Abstract

This paper explores the basic concepts of corporate governance in relation to its intellectual foundations and historical development. The basic assumption relies on the fact that the reinforcement of corporate governance as an academic, professional, and policy field is a consequence of the many corporate failures that have occurred in recent years, mainly since 2002. Most theoretical developments for this new moment in history have been borrowed from the same academics and practitioners that reflected and worked on the field after the 1929 economic crash, with deep origin on general social scientific research. In addition, corporate governance is growing as a distinctive business function as well as a set of global prescriptions that impact business activities across industries and cultures. The role of the board of directors and the ideas on power and accountability remain critical issues in the new 21st century corporate governance debates.