Codes of governance

Consistent with the diffusion of governance codes globally, and the call for research on their antecedents and consequences, there has been a proliferation of studies on this topic. In this chapter, we present and discuss the concept of corporate governance codes and give a brief historical account of the key factors leading to their emergence and diffusion. We describe the codes of good governance that had a fundamental influence on the development of governance practices globally and identify the leading countries and issuers that have influenced the development of codes in other countries. Moreover, we review the literature investigating the adoption of corporate governance codes at country level and firm level. Finally, we conclude by providing recommendations for future research and policy by underlining some open issues mainly concerning both the formal or substantial impact of good governance codes on firms’ governance practices and the fit or misfit between universal best practices and firm-level contingencies.