Compliance of Companies With Corporate Governance Codes
Case Study on Listed Belgian SMEs
Abstract
Listed and large companies become increasingly subject to internal and external pressure to comply with ethical and social standards. This article focuses on one aspect of this matter, namely the corporate governance issue. Within the framework of recent corporate scandals, this paper investigates whether and to which extent Belgian publicly listed SMEs comply with the Belgian Code on Corporate Governance after its first year of introduction, which has been constituted in the framework of the European Action Plan on Corporate Governance.
In a sample of 78 Belgian listed SMEs, the compliance with the Code is analysed. After its first year of introduction, companies comply with on average 70% of the Code’s provisions. The most problematic topics in terms of disclosure of information seem to relate to (individual) remuneration, private information and content of shareholders’ meetings.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).