International Corporate Governance-A Comparison of the Corporate Governance Systems in Germany and Sweden
GermanyCorporate governanceSwedenContent analysisMediaManagement of enterprisesFöretagsledningManagementBusiness and Economics
The purpose of the study is to investigate how much interest media has shown selected topics in the corporate governance systems in Germany and Sweden. The four selected aspects are: ownership structure, employee representation on the boards, disclosure of board members? compensation and female directors on the boards. The reasons for and consequences of the similarities and differences will also be discussed. The German and Swedish corporate governance systems construct the key basis of the study, emphasised on the four chosen aspects. Theories and previous research within the subject are presented and the convergence issue is discussed. The quantitative content analysis method is applied when conducting the research of the newspaper articles from Die Welt (Germany) and Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden). Based on the empirical findings of the study could the four hypotheses be accepted, more or less. The topics debated within the aspects were different between the two countries. Cultural and societal differences were central reasons for these results. As the study of the German and Swedish media has been conducted, several interesting differences in the debates on the four aspects have been found. The conclusion drawn based on these results is that the German corporate governance system, compared to the Swedish system, is less flexible and has more problems to be competitive and keep up with the international competition.